An Oral History of Theodore Rex
August 26, 2015 1:25 PM   Subscribe

Previously, we were left with unanswered questions like: Why did Whoopi agree to make this movie? Why did she want out? Why wouldn't she want out? Who would think to make a buddy cop sci-fi comedy starring a dinosaur? And for the love of God, why? Finally, we get (some of) the answers.
posted by meese (24 comments total) 14 users marked this as a favorite
 
Unfortunately How Did This Get Made had some technical audio issues so the podcast is not up to their normal standards. It's an iPhone recording that has the feel of a bootleg but it is still listenable and entertaining.
posted by Fizz at 1:29 PM on August 26, 2015


I'm glad I read this instead of listening to it, because I could keep scrolling back to re-read quote like "Now, I can guess what you are thinking, but at this stage the script was a really a gritty sci-fi story. It was a dark, futuristic buddy cop movie, but where one of the buddies just happened to be a dinosaur."

It reminded me of something Jessica Ritchey saying on Twitter something about how great the oral history of the new Fantastic Four movie would be, someday.
posted by Gin and Broadband at 1:45 PM on August 26, 2015 [1 favorite]


Bud Cort is apparently involved with this movie.

I love Bud Cort, but not enough to watch this.
posted by pxe2000 at 1:54 PM on August 26, 2015 [2 favorites]


How did this get made??

Universal answer: cocaine and/or speed.
posted by aramaic at 2:08 PM on August 26, 2015


The whole movie is on YouTube if you want to experience it for yourself.
posted by Pyry at 2:12 PM on August 26, 2015 [1 favorite]


Jonathan: If you write, you have a responsibility to your material to direct.

I cannot think of a more wrong thing.
posted by mykescipark at 2:29 PM on August 26, 2015 [6 favorites]


another film about dinosaur cops
posted by curious nu at 2:42 PM on August 26, 2015


Seriously, mykescipark. What a crock.
posted by brundlefly at 2:44 PM on August 26, 2015


I'm just coming in here to name drop Triceracop.
posted by bashos_frog at 2:49 PM on August 26, 2015 [5 favorites]


Howard the Redux...
posted by jim in austin at 3:06 PM on August 26, 2015 [2 favorites]


This doesn't explain Jumping Jack Flash, which I recently learned was written for Shelley Long from Cheers.
posted by w0mbat at 3:07 PM on August 26, 2015


Man, if I had a nickel for every time my brain has thought Kurt Russell was great in that, but Whoopi Goldberg would have been a solid choice as well, I would have zero fucking nickels.
posted by Etrigan at 3:11 PM on August 26, 2015 [16 favorites]


Whoopi's fixed 'I hate you and literally everyone in the whole fucking world and I will make you pay for this' grin on the poster and the VHS cover art is amazing.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 3:11 PM on August 26, 2015 [3 favorites]


"You learn a lot of things when you make a movie. Any movie. And the number one thing I learned on this one was: you can’t sue your star."

You wouldn't think that was something you would have to learn by experience.....
posted by lumpenprole at 3:13 PM on August 26, 2015 [2 favorites]


So she hired a tape recording expert, a guy by the name of Anthony Pellicano. He was a private detective and fixer to the stars. So he was their expert witness, we had our expert witness and depositions were taken.
Why does that name sound familiar? Oh, right.
posted by psoas at 3:41 PM on August 26, 2015 [3 favorites]


I don't know, the suggestion seems to be that this is a MUCH worse and more embarrassing idea than a great many other movies. I'm not sure that I accept the premise.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 4:10 PM on August 26, 2015


Such as...?
posted by gottabefunky at 5:33 PM on August 26, 2015


Damn, I always wondered about the casting of Whoopi in Jumping Jack Flash. That explains a LOT.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:01 PM on August 26, 2015 [2 favorites]


This was great. I kept waiting for the part where the oft-referenced Italians show up to bust some kneecaps, but I think the best part is on the last page where the guy mentions the occasional royalties check. He mentions sometimes the royalties statement is negative which is such a hilarious concept and a perfect encapsulation of this movie's legacy, like somehow society is attempting to collect on this terrible debt.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 11:10 PM on August 26, 2015 [5 favorites]


so did Eric Garcia basically take the premise of this movie and decide to show how it could actually work when he wrote Anonymous Rex? I read that book when it first came out and remember liking it well enough. I had always just guessed, when I saw this film in the video store, that it was a bad adaptation, but the movie is several years before the novel.
posted by jkosmicki at 11:51 AM on August 27, 2015


T-Rex is different enough from Garcia's A-Rex that I'd be willing to believe he'd never seen or even heard of the movie.
posted by Etrigan at 12:20 PM on August 27, 2015


Pyry: The whole movie is on YouTube if you want to experience it for yourself.

You don't want to experience it for yourself. Really, you don't. I did, and it was a complete groaner. IMDb users gave this a 2.4 out of 10.

This is not "a little jewel box of a picture." As said on the third page of this, "the film was an actual piece of shit." Also "The bottom line is: I watched it once. Or tried. But the movie, in my view, is unwatchable…"

But this is the best: "Believe it or not, sometimes I still get, like, $1.27 for royalties on this movie. But then sometimes the royalty statement is negative and I feel like someone’s going to come to my house and take money away."

I'm sad they didn't go into more detail about how the dinosaur was made. I thought it was left over from the Dinosaurs TV show, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:09 PM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]


My partner and I really love watching terrible 80s And 90s movies. Voluntarily. For fun. We've seen an awful lot of them.

This remains possibly the worst one we've seen - not in a good-fun-bad way, just plain terrible. I think I personally would rank one other (Heartbeeps) even lower but it would be a tough call. So, so terrible.
posted by Stacey at 4:36 PM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]


I've recently become aware that Whoopi was in a little film called 'The Telephone'. Apparently she went all litigious over that one too. She seems to make questionable choices a little too late.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 10:30 AM on August 28, 2015


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