Podcasts about psycho iv

Anthony Perkins' last go around as Norman Bates in this 1990 prequel/sequel. We're back at the Bates motel to celebrate our 14th birthday. Plus, recently seen, Erik's joke of the week and so much more!

A Cossack is never afraid to kill his wife. Hipster & The Nerd & Larry returns to the radioactive remnants of Wasteland Video with a look at the Soviet horror film Viy and Psycho IV: The Beginning! Join Callie, Brian and Austin as they dive into the religious symbolism, bizarre pacing, and incredible creature design that make Viy, if nothing else, a remarkably interesting watch. Then stick around as they discuss all the ins and outs that make Psycho IV a terrible prequel and the worst installment in the franchise. It's the first episode of 2025 and the last one recorded in 2024, so start the year off right and give it a listen!

Not only was it Anthony Hopkins' favorite sequel (he died a few years later), child actor Henry Thomas scandalized the world with his fascinating portrayal of the young Norman. We've got incest, chain smoking radio hosts, lustful sexiness straight out of a 90's erotic thriller, and the screenwriter of the original all assembled together for a compelling (and occasionally silly) final entry in the saga of the Bates Hotel.

This week, we are remembering Olivia Hussey with a look at her iconic performance as Norma Bates in 1990's "Psycho IV: The Beginning." We get into the Showtime sequel's mix of goofy and dramatic moments and why we've been watching so many movies with mother issues lately.

Send us a textThree podcasting nobodies make the decision to crash the last major celebration at their pal's house before the end of the world. The night becomes even crazier than they could have ever dreamed when Stone Cold Sanders cashes in his money in the bank! On Episode 649 of Trick or Treat Radio we are joined by our pal, Anthony Landry of the Horror Nerds Comedy Podcast to discuss the film Y2K from director Kyle Mooney! We reminisce about the late 90s, the Y2K scare, pixelated videos, and AIM messages. So grab your JNCO jeans from the back of your closet, break out your glowsticks, and strap on for the world's most dangerous podcast!Stuff we talk about: Friday the 13th game, Jason Voorhees, Count Orcock, Cocksferatu, Anthony Landry, The Horror Nerds Comedy Podcast, Samantha Hale, Bonnie Marie Williams, Burden, Ice Nine Kills, James Nanney Jr., Richard D. James, Aphex Twin, Come to Daddy, Rubber Johnny, Chris Cunningham, RIP Olivia Hussey, Black Christmas, Bob Clark, Psycho IV, Henry Thomas, Batman Beyond, Ice Cream Man, The Corsican Brothers, Cheech and Chong, RIP Jimmy Carter, Stone Cold Sanders, Bernie 3:16, Y2K, Kyle Mooney, Jaeden Martell, Rachel Zegler, Fred Durst, Limp Bizkit, Signs, M. Night Shyamalan, Papa Ginos, late 90s culture and fashion, The Ramones, Northampton, MA, Words and Pictures Museum, The Lawnmower Man, Matrix, Hackers, Superbad, Maximum Overdrive, Can't Hardly Wait, Cock Clap, Harvey Danger, Sneaker Pimps, AIM, pixelated videos, the early days of the internet, The Mr. Zsasz of Masturbation, Starship Video, the Champagne Room, In-Da-Penis Day, Transformers, hive mind, Maximum Overdrive, Haley's Comet, Alicia Silverstone, Tim Heidecker, Clueless, The Crush, Aerosmith, I Saw the TV Glow, Time Cut, Timecop, Virus, Chopping Mall, Wargames, Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, Ally Sheedy, The Terminator, Westworld, Yul Brynner, West Hollywood Undead, Strange Days, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, Michael Wincott, The Monster Beneath Us, and Y2K is a bunch of bologna so come on in for a large pepperoni!Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/trickortreatradioJoin our Discord Community: discord.trickortreatradio.comSend Email/Voicemail: mailto:podcast@trickortreatradio.comVisit our website: http://trickortreatradio.comStart your own podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=386Use our Amazon link: http://amzn.to/2CTdZzKFB Group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/trickortreatradioTwitter: http://twitter.com/TrickTreatRadioFacebook: http://facebook.com/TrickOrTreatRadioYouTube: http://youtube.com/TrickOrTreatRadioInstagram: http://instagram.com/TrickorTreatRadioSupport the show

In this episode of Cult Film School, Adrian and Dion overstay their welcome in Fairvale to soak in the ambience of the three Psycho sequels: Richard Franklin's Psycho II (1983), Anthony Perkin's Psycho III (1986), & Mick Garris's Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990). They discuss the different attempts at returning to the 1960 film, and the different ways the sequels remake and reimagine it. They also consider the many incarnations of Norman Bates while attempting to answer the question, ‘How many film references can one sequel have?' Spoiler: Probably enough to fill a bathtub.   Chapters: 0:00:12 - Welcome to Cult Film School 0:03:00 - Personal Introductions to the Psycho Sequels 0:06:38 - Psycho II (1983): IMDb Plot Summary 0:07:38 - Contexts for Psycho II: The Hitchcock Five, Robert Bloch's Sequel Novel, & Production History 0:14:45 - Psycho II: “This film has no right being as good as it is.” 0:24:21 - The Ambiguous Psychology of Norman Bates 0:32:34 - Violence in Psycho II 0:36:43 - Psycho II (1983): Tagline 0:37:59 - Psycho III (1986): IMDb Plot Summary 0:39:28 - The Visual Style of Psycho III: “Blood Simple by Michael Mann” X Giallo 0:43:10 - Jeff Fahey Appreciation Society (& Crotch Lamp Sex Scene) 0:48:06 - Hysteria of Psycho III 0:52:19 - Confusion with Psycho III 0:55:34 - Psycho III (1986): Tagline 0:57:07 - Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990): IMDb Plot Summary 1:01:59 - “The Rob Zombie Halloween of Psycho films” 1:03:04 - The Confusing Loose Ends of Psycho IV: The Beginning 1:08:16 - Psycho IV: The Beginning: What If Norman Bates was an Unreliable Narrator? 1:13:22 - Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990): Tagline 1:15:18 - Psycho Sequels Wrap-Up 1:18:14 - Next Episode Preview   Connect with Adrian & Dion: Letterboxd ~ CultFilmSchool Instagram ~ @cultfilmschool  Threads ~ @cultfilmschool X ~ @cultfilmschool Facebook  ~ Follow Us! Send an Email ~ cultfilmschoolpodcast@gmail.com  Don't forget to leave a rating and review!

Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III Tomas hälsar på hos Emil Ryderup från filmpodcasten Titta dom snackar för att prata om skräckfilmsåret 1990. Emil blir genuint äcklad av ett bältdjurs brutala öde och förundras över Leatherfaces lilla elektroniska kniv och Tomas får feeling av det svettigt ödsliga Texas (spelat av Kalifornien) och Viggo Mortensens omisskännliga charm. Vi nämner bland annat också: Lida, Jacobs Inferno, IT, Tremors, The Exorcist III, Gremlins 2, Night of the Living Dead, Onda Dockan 2, Flatliners, Graveyard Shift, Nightbreed, Predator 2, Two Evil Eyes, Repossessed, Psycho IV, Slumber Party Massacre III, Troll 2, The Gate 2. Patrons får också höra ett uttömmande samtal om Maniac Cop 2, mittendelen av vad Tomas kallar en ovanligt välpackaterad skärckfilmstrilogi. Besök för all del gärna www.patreon.com/vargtimmenpodcast för mer information om hur du kan lyssna på det. Mycket nöje!  

Ryan and Nick G. call into a radio show to talk about Psycho IV: The Beginning!Support the Show.

PSYCHO IV marks the final time Anthony Perkins donned his mother's wig. Do we think it's a fitting farewell? Listen and find out! Also in our final segment we dream cast our own shot-for-shot remake in a new iteration of The Recastables! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/killstreakpod/message

This week we're discussing the truly bizarre made-for-TV movie BATES MOTEL starring Bud Cort and Lori Petty. I can't really understate how weird this one is. In our third segment we play put Mike on trial for Petty Larceny in Bud Court. Also, if you want to watch Psycho IV for next week, you can do so by following this link: https://ww4.fmovies.co/film/psycho-iv-the-beginning-18731/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/killstreakpod/message

New pantheon member Pockets had never seen any Psycho films and watched about half of this one. Find out if she enjoyed it. Henry Thomas was in this film, and if you'd like to explore a supposedly sad film starring him, check out the time McFly appeared on Bad For Me. Join us next time as we complete April Showers with Psycho (1998).

An introduction, movies and video stores, Stacy Keach, Dorothy Stratten and seeing Bruce Willis stoned, what more could you ask for?  Stuff mentioned:  Reality Bites (1994), Back to the Future (1985), Back to the Future Part II (1989), The Frighteners (1996), The Hard Way (1991), Faithfull: An Autobiography (1995), Mike Hammer, Private Eye (1997-1998), Road Games (1981), Psycho II (1983), Psycho (1960), Psycho III (1986), Psycho IV:  The Beginning (1990), Blow Out (1981), Body Bags (1993), An American Werewolf In London (1981), Running on Empty (1988), That Thing You Do (1996) but I meant to say The Thing Called Love (1993), Mission Impossible (1996), Ed Ruscha's 12 Sunsets (1965-2007), Star 80 (1983), All That Jazz (1979), Sister, Sister (1987), Altered States (1980), The Last Boy Scout (1991), The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996), and Bang the Drum Slowly (1973). 

This week, Bede and Marcey from The Super Network take over as Lance and Nez are missing in action somewhere in Texas. Last known location: Texas Frightmare. We continue our Psycho retrospective. Cool of the Week includes MLB The Show 2023, Renfield, and John Wick Chapter 4. Trailer is The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster. The podcast spotlight shines on Plug It Up. and we get feedback from Beyond the Void, Ernest Rivas, Cameron Sullivan, Xim Vader, David Day, Stephen Lowblad, Patrick Lear, and Brandon Starocci. Thanks for listening! The Horror Returns Website: https://thehorrorreturns.com THR YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/@thehorrorreturnspodcast3277 THR Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thehorrorreturns THR Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehorrorreturns/ Join THR Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1056143707851246 THR Twitter: https://twitter.com/horror_returns?s=21&t=XKcrrOBZ7mzjwJY0ZJWrGA THR Instagram: https://instagram.com/thehorrorreturns?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= THR TeePublic: https://www.teepublic.com/user/the-horror-returns SK8ER Nez Podcast Network: https://www.podbean.com/pu/pbblog-p3n57-c4166 E Society Spotify For Podcasters: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/esoc E Society YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UCliC6x_a7p3kTV_0LC4S10A Music By: Steve Carleton Of The Geekz  

Daily Horror Habit's Psycho series review has reached the end of the sequels with Mick Garris' Psycho IV: The Beginning. However, do not fret as there are two more weeks of Psycho coverage coming, that being Gus Van Zant's 1998 Psycho remake and the 1987 TV Movie Bates Motel. But before that, I was joined by my pal Ethan Paget to unpack Tony Perkins' last foray as the matricide maniac Norman Bates. Feel free to follow the show, me, and my guest on social media: DHH | Jay | Ethan

”Psycho”! Patrik och Fredrik är tillbaka med filmen som bevisar att det ibland kan vara det läskigaste i världen när en kille i peruk kommer med kniv. Följ med oss när vi tar en djupdykning i dessa klassiska skräckfilmer och försöker förstå vad som gör och gjorde Norman Bates så, ja, psykopatisk.Dagens filmer:Psycho III (1986)Några år har gått och Norman Bates driver fortfarande Bates Motel samtidigt som han försöker hålla sina våldsamma impulser under kontroll. En dag checkar en ung kvinna vid namn Maureen in på motellet, och Norman blir förälskad i henne eftersom hon liknar hans tidigare offer, Marion Crane. Samtidigt kommer en journalist vid namn Tracy till staden för att undersöka morden och lyckas då avslöja de mörka hemligheterna från Normans förflutna.Psycho IV: The BeginningEtt radioprogram som leds av Fran Ambrose pratar om barn som mördar sina föräldrar, då ringer Norman Bates för att prata om sitt liv och händelserna som ledde honom att bli en mördare. Som tonåring börjar Norman utveckla en ohälsosam besatthet av sin mor och blir svartsjuk på varje man som försöker komma mellan dem. När Norma börjar dejta en man vid namn Chet Rudolph, blir Norman arg och dödar honom. Han försöker sedan dölja mordet genom att iscensätta det som en olycka.Skaffa Acast+ för att lyssna reklamfritt: https://plus.acast.com/s/62fa3442223bf20012ed700dBesök hemsidan: www.skrackfilmcirkeln.seFacebook: /skrackfilmcirkelnInstagram: @skrackfilmcirkelnTwitter:  @SFC_podcastPatreon: www.patreon.com/skrackfilmcirkelnMerchendise: https://www.redbubble.com/people/SFCPodcast/ Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/skrackfilmcirkeln. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we talk about the 1980s Marvel Cinematic Universe that could have been, and eventually was. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it's The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today.   The Marvel Cinematic Universe is the undisputed king of intellectual property in the entertainment industry. As of February 9th, 2023, the day I record this episode, there have been thirty full length motion pictures part of the MCU in the past fifteen years, with a combined global ticket sales of $28 billion, as well as twenty television shows that have been seen by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. It is a entertainment juggernaut that does not appear to be going away anytime soon.   This comes as a total shock to many of us who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, who were witness of cheaply produced television shows featuring hokey special effects and a roster of has-beens and never weres in the cast. Superman was the king of superheroes at the movies, in large part because, believe it or not, there hadn't even been a movie based on a Marvel Comics character released into theatres until the summer of 1986. But not for lack of trying.   And that's what we're going to talk about today. A brief history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the 1980s.       But first, as always, some backstory.   Now, I am not approaching this as a comic fan. When I was growing up in the 80s, I collected comics, but my collection was limited to Marvel's Star Wars series, Marvel's ROM The SpaceKnight, and Marvel's two-issue Blade Runner comic adaptation in 1982. So I apologize to Marvel comics fans if I relay some of this information incorrectly. I have tried to do my due diligence when it comes to my research.   Marvel Comics got its start as Timely Comics back in 1939. On August 31, 1939, Timely would release its first comic, titled Marvel Comics, which would feature a number of short stories featuring versions of characters that would become long-running staples of the eventual publishing house that would bear the comic's name, including The Angel, a version of The Human Torch who was actually an android hero, and Namor the Submariner, who was originally created for a unpublished comic that was supposed to be given to kids when they attended their local movie theatre during a Saturday matinee.   That comic issue would quickly sell out its initial 80,000 print run, as well as its second run, which would put another 800,000 copies out to the marketplace. The Vision would be another character introduced on the pages of Marvel Comics, in November 1940.   In December 1940, Timely would introduce their next big character, Captain America, who would find instant success thanks to its front cover depicting Cap punching Adolph Hitler square in the jaw, proving that Americans have loved seeing Nazis get punched in the face even a year before our country entered the World War II conflict. But there would be other popular characters created during this timeframe, including Black Widow, The Falcon, and The Invisible Man.   In 1941, Timely Comics would lose two of its best collaborators, artists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, to rival company Detective Comics, and Timely owner Martin Goodman would promote one of his cousins, by marriage to his wife Jean no less, to become the interim editor of Timely Comics. A nineteen year old kid named Stanley Lieber, who would shorten his name to Stan Lee.   In 1951, Timely Comics would be rebranded at Atlas Comics, and would expand past superhero titles to include tales of crime, drama, espionage, horror, science fiction, war, western, and even romance comics.   Eventually, in 1961, Atlas Comics would rebrand once again as Marvel Comics, and would find great success by changing the focus of their stories from being aimed towards younger readers and towards a more sophisticated audience. It would be November 1961 when Marvel would introduce their first superhero team, The Fantastic Four, as well as a number of their most beloved characters including Black Panther, Carol Danvers, Iron Man, The Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man, and Thor, as well as Professor X and many of the X-Men.   And as would be expected, Hollywood would come knocking. Warner Brothers would be in the best position to make comic book movies, as both they and DC Comics were owned by the same company beginning in 1969. But for Marvel, they would not be able to enjoy that kind of symbiotic relationship. Regularly strapped for cash, Stan Lee would often sell movie and television rights to a variety of Marvel characters to whomever came calling. First, Marvel would team with a variety of producers to create a series of animated television shows, starting with The Marvel Super Heroes in 1966, two different series based on The Fantastic Four, and both Spider-Man and Spider-Woman series.   But movies were a different matter.   The rights to make a Spider-Man television show, for example, was sold off to a production company called Danchuck, who teamed with CBS-TV to start airing the show in September of 1977, but Danchuck was able to find a loophole in their contract  that allowed them to release the two-hour pilot episode as a movie outside of the United States, which complicated the movie rights Marvel had already sold to another company.   Because the “movie” was a success around the world, CBS and Danchuck would release two more Spider-Man “movies” in 1978 and 1981. Eventually, the company that owned the Spider-Man movie rights to sell them to another company in the early 1980s, the legendary independent B-movie production company and distributor, New World Pictures, founded and operated by the legendary independent B-movie producer and director Roger Corman. But shortly after Corman acquired the film rights to Spider-Man, he went and almost immediately sold them to another legendary independent B-movie production company and distributor, Cannon Films.   Side note: Shortly after Corman sold the movie rights to Spider-Man to Cannon, Marvel Entertainment was sold to the company that also owned New World Pictures, although Corman himself had nothing to do with the deal itself. The owners of New World were hoping to merge the Marvel comic book characters with the studio's television and motion picture department, to create a sort of shared universe. But since so many of the better known characters like Spider-Man and Captain America had their movie and television rights sold off to the competition, it didn't seem like that was going to happen anytime soon, but again, I'm getting ahead of myself.   So for now, we're going to settle on May 1st, 1985. Cannon Films, who loved to spend money to make money, made a big statement in the pages of the industry trade publication Variety, when they bought nine full pages of advertising in the Cannes Market preview issue to announce that buyers around the world needed to get ready, because he was coming.   Spider-Man.   A live-action motion picture event, to be directed by Tobe Hooper, whose last movie, Poltergeist, re-ignited his directing career, that would be arriving in theatres for Christmas 1986. Cannon had made a name for themselves making cheapie teen comedies in their native Israel in the 1970s, and then brought that formula to America with films like The Last American Virgin, a remake of the first Lemon Popsicle movie that made them a success back home. Cannon would swerve into cheapie action movies with fallen stars like Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson, and would prop up a new action star in Chuck Norris, as well as cheapie trend-chasing movies like Breakin' and Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo. They had seen enough success in America where they could start spending even bigger, and Spider-Man was supposed to be their first big splash into the superhero movie genre. With that, they would hire Leslie Stevens, the creator of the cult TV series The Outer Limits, to write the screenplay.   There was just one small problem.   Neither Stevens nor Cannon head honcho Menachem Golan understood the Spider-Man character.   Golan thought Spider-Man was a half-spider/half-man creature, not unlike The Wolf Man, and instructed Stevens to follow that concept. Stevens' script would not really borrow from any of the comics' twenty plus year history. Peter Parker, who in this story is a twenty-something ID photographer for a corporation that probably would have been Oscorp if it were written by anyone else who had at least some familiarity with the comics, who becomes intentionally bombarded with gamma radiation by one of the scientists in one of the laboratories, turning Bruce Banner… I mean, Peter Parker, into a hairy eight-armed… yes, eight armed… hybrid human/spider monster. At first suicidal, Bruce… I mean, Peter, refuses to join forces with the scientist's other master race of mutants, forcing Peter to battle these other mutants in a basement lab to the death.   To say Stan Lee hated it would be an understatement.   Lee schooled Golan and Golan's partner at Cannon, cousin Yoram Globus, on what Spider-Man was supposed to be, demanded a new screenplay. Wanting to keep the head of Marvel Comics happy, because they had big plans not only for Spider-Man but a number of other Marvel characters, they would hire the screenwriting team of Ted Newsom and John Brancato, who had written a screenplay adaptation for Lee of Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, to come up with a new script for Spider-Man.   Newsom and Brancato would write an origin story, featuring a teenage Peter Parker who must deal with his newfound powers while trying to maintain a regular high school existence, while going up against an evil scientist, Otto Octavius. But we'll come back to that later.   In that same May 1985 issue of Variety, amongst dozens of pages of ads for movies both completed and in development, including three other movies from Tobe Hooper, was a one-page ad for Captain America. No director or actor was attached to the project yet, but comic book writer James L. Silke, who had written the scripts for four other Cannon movies in the previous two years, was listed as the screenwriter.   By October 1985, Cannon was again trying to pre-sell foreign rights to make a Spider-Man movie, this time at the MIFED Film Market in Milan, Italy. Gone were Leslie Stevens and Tobe Hooper. Newsom and Brancato were the new credited writers, and Joseph Tito, the director of the Chuck Norris/Cannon movies Missing in Action and Invasion U.S.A., was the new director. In a two-page ad for Captain America, the film would acquire a new director in Michael Winner, the director of the first three Death Wish movies.   And the pattern would continue every few months, from Cannes to MIFED to the American Film Market, and back to Cannes. A new writer would be attached. A new director. A new release date. By October 1987, after the twin failures of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace and Masters of the Universe, Cannon had all but given up on a Captain America movie, and downshifted the budget on their proposed Spider-Man movie. Albert Pyun, whose ability to make any movie in any genre look far better than its budget should have allowed, was brought in to be the director of Spider-Man, from a new script written by Shepard Goldman.   Who?   Shepard Goldman, whose one and only credit on any motion picture was as one of three screenwriters on the 1988 Cannon movie Salsa.   Don't remember Salsa? That's okay. Neither does anyone else.   But we'll talk a lot more about Cannon Films down the road, because there's a lot to talk about when it comes to Cannon Films, although I will leave you with two related tidbits…   Do you remember the 1989 Jean-Claude Van Damme film Cyborg? Post-apocalyptic cyberpunk martial-arts action film where JCVD and everyone else in the movie have names like Gibson Rickenbacker, Fender Tremolo, Marshall Strat and Pearl Prophet for no damn good reason? Stupid movie, lots of fun. Anyway, Albert Pyun was supposed to shoot two movies back to back for Cannon Films in 1988, a sequel to Masters of the Universe, and Spider-Man. To save money, both movies would use many of the same sets and costumes, and Cannon had spent more than $2m building the sets and costumes at the old Dino DeLaurentiis Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina, where David Lynch had shot Blue Velvet. But then Cannon ran into some cash flow issues, and lost the rights to both the He-Man toy line from Mattel and the Spider-Man characters they had licensed from Marvel. But ever the astute businessman, Cannon Films chairman Menahem Golan offered Pyun $500,000 to shoot any movie he wanted using the costumes and sets already created and paid for, provided Pyun could come up with a movie idea in a week. Pyun wrote the script to Cyborg in five days, and outside of some on-set alterations, that first draft would be the shooting script. The film would open in theatres in April 1989, and gross more than $10m in the United States alone.   A few months later, Golan would gone from Cannon Films. As part of his severance package, he would take one of the company's acquisitions, 21st Century Films, with him, as well as several projects, including Captain America. Albert Pyun never got to make his Spider-Man movie, but he would go into production on his Captain America in August 1989. But since the movie didn't get released in any form until it came out direct to video and cable in 1992, I'll leave it to podcasts devoted to 90s movies to tell you more about it. I've seen it. It's super easy to find on YouTube. It really sucks, although not as much as that 1994 version of The Fantastic Four that still hasn't been officially released nearly thirty years later.   There would also be attempts throughout the decade to make movies from the aforementioned Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Daredevil, the Incredible Hulk, Silver Surfer and Iron Man, from companies like New Line, 20th Century-Fox and Universal, but none of those would ever come to fruition in the 1980s.   But the one that would stick?   Of the more than 1,000 characters that had been featured in the pages of Marvel Comics over the course of forty years?   The one that would become the star of the first ever theatrically released motion picture based on a Marvel character?   Howard the Duck.   Howard the Duck was not your average Marvel superhero.   Howard the Duck wasn't even a superhero.   He was just some wise crackin', ill-tempered, anthropomorphic water fowl that was abducted away from his home on Duckworld and forced against his will to live with humans on Earth. Or, more specifically, first with the dirty humans of the Florida Everglades, and then Cleveland, and finally New York City.    Howard the Duck was metafiction and existentialist when neither of these things were in the zeitgeist. He smoked cigars, wore a suit and tie, and enjoy drinking a variety of libations and getting it on with the women, mostly his sometimes girlfriend Beverly.   The perfect character to be the subject of the very first Marvel movie.   A PG-rated movie.   Enter George Lucas.   In 1973, George Lucas had hit it big with his second film as a director, American Graffiti. Lucas had written the screenplay, based in part on his life as an eighteen year old car enthusiast about to graduate high school, with the help of a friend from his days at USC Film School, Willard Huyck, and Huyck's wife, Gloria Katz. Lucas wanted to show his appreciation for their help by producing a movie for them. Although there are variations to the story of how this came about, most sources say it was Huyck who would tell Lucas about this new comic book character, Howard the Duck, who piqued his classmate's interest by describing the comic as having elements of film noir and absurdism.   Because Universal dragged their feet on American Graffiti, not promoting it as well as they could have upon its initial release and only embracing the film when the public embraced its retro soundtrack, Lucas was not too keen on working with Universal again on his next project, a sci-fi movie he was calling The Journal of the Whills. And while they saw some potential in what they considered to be some minor kiddie movie, they didn't think Lucas could pull it off the way he was describing it for the budget he was asking for.   “What else you got, kid?” they'd ask.   Lucas had Huyck and Katz, and an idea for a live-action comic book movie about a talking duck.   Surprisingly, Universal did not slam the door shut in Lucas's face. They actually went for the idea, and worked with Lucas, Stan Lee of Marvel Comics and Howard's creator, Steve Gerber, to put a deal together to make it happen.   Almost right away, Gerber and the screenwriters, Huyck and Katz, would butt heads on practically every aspect of the movie's storyline. Katz just thought it was some funny story about a duck from outer space and his wacky adventures on Earth, Gerber was adamant that Howard the Duck was an existential joke, that the difference between life's most serious moments and its most incredibly dumb moments were only distinguishable by a moment's point of view. Huyck wanted to make a big special effects movie, while Katz thought it would be fun to set the story in Hawaii so she and her husband could have some fun while shooting there. The writers would spend years on their script, removing most everything that made the Howard the Duck comic book so enjoyable to its readers. Howard and his story would be played completely straight in the movie, leaning on subtle gags not unlike a Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker movie, instead of embracing the surreal ridiculousness of the comics. They would write humongous effects-heavy set pieces, knowing they would have access to their producer's in-house special effects team, Industrial Light and Magic, instead of the comics' more cerebral endings. And they'd tone down the more risqué aspects of Howard's personality, figuring a more family-friendly movie would bring in more money at the box office.   It would take nearly twelve years for all the pieces to fall into place for Howard the Duck to begin filming. But in the spring of 1985, Universal finally gave the green light for Lucas and his tea to finally make the first live-action feature film based on a Marvel Comics character.   For Beverly, the filmmakers claimed to have looked at every young actress in Hollywood before deciding on twenty-four year old Lea Thompson, who after years of supporting roles in movies like Jaws 3-D, All the Right Moves and Red Dawn, had found success playing Michael J. Fox's mother in Back to the Future. Twenty-six year old Tim Robbins had only made two movies up to this point, at one of the frat boys in Fraternity Vacation and as one of the fighter pilots in Top Gun, and this was his first chance to play a leading role in a major motion picture. And Jeffrey Jones would be cast as the bad guy, the Dark Overlord, based upon his work in the 1984 Best Picture winner Amadeus, although he would be coming to the set of Howard the Duck straight off of working on a John Hughes movie, Ferris Bueller's Day Off.   Howard the Duck would begin shooting on the Universal Studios lot of November 11th, 1985, and on the very first day of production, the duck puppet being used to film would have a major mechanical failure, not unlike the mechanical failure of the shark in Jaws that would force Steven Spielberg to become more creative with how he shot that character. George Lucas, who would be a hands-on producer, would suggest that maybe they could shoot other scenes not involving the duck, while his crew at ILM created a fully functional, life-sized animatronic duck costume for a little actor to wear on set. At first, the lead actor in the duck suit was a twelve-year old boy, but within days of his start on the film, he would develop a severe case of claustrophobia inside the costume. Ed Gale, originally hired to be the stuntman in the duck costume, would quickly take over the role. Since Gale could work longer hours than the child, due to the very restrictive laws surrounding child actors on movie and television sets, this would help keep the movie on a good production schedule, and make shooting the questionable love scenes between Howard and Beverly easier for Ms. Thompson, who was creeped out at the thought of seducing a pre-teen for a scene.   To keep the shoot on schedule, not only would the filmmakers employ a second shooting unit to shoot the scenes not involving the main actors, which is standard operating procedure on most movies, Lucas would supervise a third shooting unit that would shoot Robbins and Gale in one of the film's more climactic moments, when Howard and Phil are trying to escape being captured by the authorities by flying off on an ultralight plane. Most of this sequence would be shot in the town of Petaluma, California, on the same streets where Lucas had shot American Graffiti's iconic cruising scenes thirteen years earlier.   After a month-long shoot of the film's climax at a naval station in San Francisco, the film would end production on March 26th, 1986, leaving the $36m film barely four months to be put together in order to make its already set in stone August 1st, 1986, release date.   Being used to quick turnaround times, the effects teams working on the film would get all their shots completed with time to spare, not only because they were good at their jobs but they had the ability to start work before the film went into production. For the end sequence, when Jones' character had fully transformed into the Dark Overlord, master stop motion animator Phil Tippett, who had left ILM in 1984 to start his own effects studio specializing in that style of animation, had nearly a year to put together what would ultimately be less than two minutes of actual screen time.   As Beverly was a musician, Lucas would hire English musician and composer Thomas Dolby, whose 1982 single She Blinded Me With Science became a global smash hit, to write the songs for Cherry Bomb, the all-girl rock group lead by Lea Thompson's Beverly. Playing KC, the keyboardist for Cherry Bomb, Holly Robinson would book her first major acting role. For the music, Dolby would collaborate with Allee Willis, the co-writer of Earth Wind and Fire's September and Boogie Wonderland, and funk legend George Clinton. But despite this powerhouse musical trio, the songs for the band were not very good, and, with all due respect to Lea Thompson, not very well sung.   By August 1986, Universal Studios needed a hit. Despite winning the Academy Award for Best Picture in March with Sydney Pollack's Out of Africa, the first six films they released for the year were all disappointments at the box office and/or with the critics.    The Best of Times, a comedy featuring Robin Williams and Kurt Russell as two friends who try to recreate a high school football game which changed the direction of both their lives. Despite a script written by Ron Shelton, who would be nominated for an Oscar for his next screenplay, Bull Durham, and Robin Williams, the $12m film would gross less than $8m.    The Money Pit, a comedy with Tom Hanks and Shelley Long, would end up grossing $37m against a $10m budget, but the movie was so bad, its first appearance on DVD wouldn't come until 2011, and only as part of a Tom Hanks Comedy Favorites Collection along with The ‘Burbs and Dragnet.   Legend, a dark fantasy film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Cruise, was supposed to be one of the biggest hits… of 1985. But Scott and the studio would fight over the film, with the director wanting them to release a two hour and five minute long version with a classical movie score by Jerry Goldsmith, while the studio eventually cut the film down an hour and twenty-nine minutes with a techno score by Tangerine Dream. Despite an amazing makeup job transforming Tim Curry into the Lord of Darkness as well as sumptuous costumes and cinematography, the $24.5m film would just miss recouping its production budget back in ticket sales.   Tom Cruise would become a superstar not three weeks later, when Paramount Pictures released Top Gun, directed by Ridley's little brother Tony Scott.   Sweet Liberty should have been a solid performer for the studio. Alan Alda, in his first movie since the end of MASH three years earlier, would write, direct and star in this comedy about a college history professor who must watch in disbelief as a Hollywood production comes to his small town to film the movie version of one of the books. The movie, which also starred Michael Caine, Bob Hoskins, Michelle Pfieffer and screen legend Lillian Gish, would get lost in the shuffle of other comedies that were already playing in theatres like Ferris Bueller and Short Circuit.   Legal Eagles was the movie to beat for the summer of 1986… at least on paper. Ivan Reitman's follow-up film to Ghostbusters would feature a cast that included Robert Redford, Debra Winger and Daryl Hannah, along with Brian Denny, Terence Stamp, and Brian Doyle-Murray, and was perhaps too much movie, being a legal romantic comedy mystery crime thriller.   Phew.   If I were to do an episode about agency packaging in the 1980s, the process when a talent agency like Creative Artists Agency, or CAA, put two or more of their clients together in a project not because it might be best for the movie but best for the agency that will collect a 10% commission from each client attached to the project, Legal Eagles would be the example of packaging gone too far. Ivan Reitman was a client of CAA. As were Redford,  and Winger, and Hannah. As was Bill Murray, who was originally cast in the Redford role. As were Jim Cash and Jack Epps, the screenwriters for the film. As was Tom Mankewicz, the co-writer of Superman and three Bond films, who was brought in to rewrite the script when Murray left and Redford came in. As was Frank Price, the chairman of Universal Pictures when the project was put together. All told, CAA would book more than $1.5m in commissions for themselves from all their clients working on the film.   And it sucked.   Despite the fact that it had almost no special effects, Legal Eagles would cost $40m to produce, one of the most expensive movies ever made to that point, nearly one and a half times the cost of Ghostbusters. The film would gross nearly $50m in the US, which would make it only the 14th highest grossing film of the year. Less than Stand By Me. Less than The Color of Money. Less than Down and Out in Beverly Hills.   And then there was Psycho III, the Anthony Perkins-directed slasher film that brought good old Norman Bates out of mothballs once again. An almost direct follow-up to Psycho II from 1983, the film neither embraced by horror film fans or critics, the film would only open in eighth place, despite the fact there hadn't been a horror movie in theatres for months, and its $14m gross would kill off any chance for a Psycho IV in theatres.   In late June, Universal would hold a series of test screenings for Howard the Duck. Depending on who you talk to, the test screenings either went really well, or went so bad that one of the writers would tear up negative response cards before they could be given to the score compilers, to goose the numbers up, pun only somewhat intended. I tend to believe the latter story, as it was fairly well reported at the time that the test screenings went so bad, Sid Sheinberg, the CEO of Universal, and Frank Price, the President of the studio, got into a fist fight in the lobby of one of the theatres running one of the test screenings, over who was to blame for this impending debacle.   And a debacle it was.   But just how bad?   So bad, copywriters from across the nation reveled in giddy glee over the chances to have a headline that read “‘Howard the Duck' Lays an Egg!”   And it did.   Well, sort of.   When it opened in 1554 theatres on August 1st, the film would gross $5.07m, the second best opener of the weekend, behind the sixth Friday the 13th entry, and above other new movies like the Tom Hanks/Jackie Gleason dramedy Nothing in Common and the cult film in the making Flight of the Navigator. And $5m in 1986 was a fairly decent if unspectacular opening weekend gross. The Fly was considered a massive success when it opened to $7m just two weeks later. Short Circuit, which had opened to $5.3m in May, was also lauded as being a hit right out of the gate.   And the reviews were pretty lousy. Gene Siskel gave the film only one star, calling it a stupid film with an unlikeable lead in the duck and special effects that were less impressive than a sparkler shoved into a birthday cake. Both Siskel and Ebert would give it the dreaded two thumbs down on their show. Leonard Maltin called the film hopeless. Today, the film only has a 14% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with 81 reviews.   But despite the shellacking the film took, it wouldn't be all bad for several of the people involved in the making of the film.   Lea Thompson was so worried her career might be over after the opening weekend of the film, she accepted a role in the John Hughes movie Some Kind of Wonderful that she had turned down multiple times before. As I stated in our March 2021 episode about that movie, it's my favorite of all John Hughes movies, and it would lead to a happy ending for Thompson as well. Although the film was not a massive success, Thompson and the film's director, Howard Deutch, would fall in love during the making of the film. They would marry in 1989, have two daughters together, and as of the writing of this episode, they are still happily married.   For Tim Robbins, it showed filmmakers that he could handle a leading role in a movie. Within two years, he would be starring alongside Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon in Bull Durham, and he career would soar for the next three decades.   And for Ed Gale, his being able to act while in a full-body duck suit would lead him to be cast to play Chucky in the first two Child's Play movies as well as Bride of Chucky.   Years later, Entertainment Weekly would name Howard the Duck as the biggest pop culture failure of all time, ahead of such turkeys as NBC's wonderfully ridiculous 1979 show Supertrain, the infamous 1980 Western Heaven's Gate, Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman's Ishtar, and the truly wretched 1978 Bee Gees movie Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.   But Howard the Duck, the character, not the movie, would enjoy a renaissance in 2014, when James Gunn included a CG-animated version of the character in the post-credit sequence for Guardians of the Galaxy. The character would show up again in the Disney animated Guardians television series, and in the 2021 Disney+ anthology series Marvel's What If…   There technically would be one other 1980s movie based on a Marvel character, Mark Goldblatt's version of The Punisher, featuring Dolph Lundgren as Frank Castle. Shot in Australia in 1988, the film was supposed to be released by New World Pictures in August of 1989. The company even sent out trailers to theatres that summer to help build awareness for the film, but New World's continued financial issues would put the film on hold until April 1991, when it was released directly to video by Live Entertainment.   It wouldn't be until the 1998 release of Blade, featuring Wesley Snipes as the titular vampire, that movies based on Marvel Comics characters would finally be accepted by movie-going audiences. That would soon be followed by Bryan Singer's X-Men in 2000, and Sam Raimi's Spider-Man in 2002, the success of both prompting Marvel to start putting together the team that would eventually give birth to the Marvel Cinematic Universe we all know and love today.   Thank you for joining us. We'll talk again soon, when Episode 102, the first of two episodes about the 1980s distribution company Vestron Pictures, is released.   Remember to visit this episode's page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about Howard the Duck, and the other movies, both existing and non-existent, we covered this episode.   The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment.   Thank you again.   Good night.

This week, we talk about the 1980s Marvel Cinematic Universe that could have been, and eventually was. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it's The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today.   The Marvel Cinematic Universe is the undisputed king of intellectual property in the entertainment industry. As of February 9th, 2023, the day I record this episode, there have been thirty full length motion pictures part of the MCU in the past fifteen years, with a combined global ticket sales of $28 billion, as well as twenty television shows that have been seen by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. It is a entertainment juggernaut that does not appear to be going away anytime soon.   This comes as a total shock to many of us who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, who were witness of cheaply produced television shows featuring hokey special effects and a roster of has-beens and never weres in the cast. Superman was the king of superheroes at the movies, in large part because, believe it or not, there hadn't even been a movie based on a Marvel Comics character released into theatres until the summer of 1986. But not for lack of trying.   And that's what we're going to talk about today. A brief history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the 1980s.       But first, as always, some backstory.   Now, I am not approaching this as a comic fan. When I was growing up in the 80s, I collected comics, but my collection was limited to Marvel's Star Wars series, Marvel's ROM The SpaceKnight, and Marvel's two-issue Blade Runner comic adaptation in 1982. So I apologize to Marvel comics fans if I relay some of this information incorrectly. I have tried to do my due diligence when it comes to my research.   Marvel Comics got its start as Timely Comics back in 1939. On August 31, 1939, Timely would release its first comic, titled Marvel Comics, which would feature a number of short stories featuring versions of characters that would become long-running staples of the eventual publishing house that would bear the comic's name, including The Angel, a version of The Human Torch who was actually an android hero, and Namor the Submariner, who was originally created for a unpublished comic that was supposed to be given to kids when they attended their local movie theatre during a Saturday matinee.   That comic issue would quickly sell out its initial 80,000 print run, as well as its second run, which would put another 800,000 copies out to the marketplace. The Vision would be another character introduced on the pages of Marvel Comics, in November 1940.   In December 1940, Timely would introduce their next big character, Captain America, who would find instant success thanks to its front cover depicting Cap punching Adolph Hitler square in the jaw, proving that Americans have loved seeing Nazis get punched in the face even a year before our country entered the World War II conflict. But there would be other popular characters created during this timeframe, including Black Widow, The Falcon, and The Invisible Man.   In 1941, Timely Comics would lose two of its best collaborators, artists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, to rival company Detective Comics, and Timely owner Martin Goodman would promote one of his cousins, by marriage to his wife Jean no less, to become the interim editor of Timely Comics. A nineteen year old kid named Stanley Lieber, who would shorten his name to Stan Lee.   In 1951, Timely Comics would be rebranded at Atlas Comics, and would expand past superhero titles to include tales of crime, drama, espionage, horror, science fiction, war, western, and even romance comics.   Eventually, in 1961, Atlas Comics would rebrand once again as Marvel Comics, and would find great success by changing the focus of their stories from being aimed towards younger readers and towards a more sophisticated audience. It would be November 1961 when Marvel would introduce their first superhero team, The Fantastic Four, as well as a number of their most beloved characters including Black Panther, Carol Danvers, Iron Man, The Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man, and Thor, as well as Professor X and many of the X-Men.   And as would be expected, Hollywood would come knocking. Warner Brothers would be in the best position to make comic book movies, as both they and DC Comics were owned by the same company beginning in 1969. But for Marvel, they would not be able to enjoy that kind of symbiotic relationship. Regularly strapped for cash, Stan Lee would often sell movie and television rights to a variety of Marvel characters to whomever came calling. First, Marvel would team with a variety of producers to create a series of animated television shows, starting with The Marvel Super Heroes in 1966, two different series based on The Fantastic Four, and both Spider-Man and Spider-Woman series.   But movies were a different matter.   The rights to make a Spider-Man television show, for example, was sold off to a production company called Danchuck, who teamed with CBS-TV to start airing the show in September of 1977, but Danchuck was able to find a loophole in their contract  that allowed them to release the two-hour pilot episode as a movie outside of the United States, which complicated the movie rights Marvel had already sold to another company.   Because the “movie” was a success around the world, CBS and Danchuck would release two more Spider-Man “movies” in 1978 and 1981. Eventually, the company that owned the Spider-Man movie rights to sell them to another company in the early 1980s, the legendary independent B-movie production company and distributor, New World Pictures, founded and operated by the legendary independent B-movie producer and director Roger Corman. But shortly after Corman acquired the film rights to Spider-Man, he went and almost immediately sold them to another legendary independent B-movie production company and distributor, Cannon Films.   Side note: Shortly after Corman sold the movie rights to Spider-Man to Cannon, Marvel Entertainment was sold to the company that also owned New World Pictures, although Corman himself had nothing to do with the deal itself. The owners of New World were hoping to merge the Marvel comic book characters with the studio's television and motion picture department, to create a sort of shared universe. But since so many of the better known characters like Spider-Man and Captain America had their movie and television rights sold off to the competition, it didn't seem like that was going to happen anytime soon, but again, I'm getting ahead of myself.   So for now, we're going to settle on May 1st, 1985. Cannon Films, who loved to spend money to make money, made a big statement in the pages of the industry trade publication Variety, when they bought nine full pages of advertising in the Cannes Market preview issue to announce that buyers around the world needed to get ready, because he was coming.   Spider-Man.   A live-action motion picture event, to be directed by Tobe Hooper, whose last movie, Poltergeist, re-ignited his directing career, that would be arriving in theatres for Christmas 1986. Cannon had made a name for themselves making cheapie teen comedies in their native Israel in the 1970s, and then brought that formula to America with films like The Last American Virgin, a remake of the first Lemon Popsicle movie that made them a success back home. Cannon would swerve into cheapie action movies with fallen stars like Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson, and would prop up a new action star in Chuck Norris, as well as cheapie trend-chasing movies like Breakin' and Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo. They had seen enough success in America where they could start spending even bigger, and Spider-Man was supposed to be their first big splash into the superhero movie genre. With that, they would hire Leslie Stevens, the creator of the cult TV series The Outer Limits, to write the screenplay.   There was just one small problem.   Neither Stevens nor Cannon head honcho Menachem Golan understood the Spider-Man character.   Golan thought Spider-Man was a half-spider/half-man creature, not unlike The Wolf Man, and instructed Stevens to follow that concept. Stevens' script would not really borrow from any of the comics' twenty plus year history. Peter Parker, who in this story is a twenty-something ID photographer for a corporation that probably would have been Oscorp if it were written by anyone else who had at least some familiarity with the comics, who becomes intentionally bombarded with gamma radiation by one of the scientists in one of the laboratories, turning Bruce Banner… I mean, Peter Parker, into a hairy eight-armed… yes, eight armed… hybrid human/spider monster. At first suicidal, Bruce… I mean, Peter, refuses to join forces with the scientist's other master race of mutants, forcing Peter to battle these other mutants in a basement lab to the death.   To say Stan Lee hated it would be an understatement.   Lee schooled Golan and Golan's partner at Cannon, cousin Yoram Globus, on what Spider-Man was supposed to be, demanded a new screenplay. Wanting to keep the head of Marvel Comics happy, because they had big plans not only for Spider-Man but a number of other Marvel characters, they would hire the screenwriting team of Ted Newsom and John Brancato, who had written a screenplay adaptation for Lee of Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, to come up with a new script for Spider-Man.   Newsom and Brancato would write an origin story, featuring a teenage Peter Parker who must deal with his newfound powers while trying to maintain a regular high school existence, while going up against an evil scientist, Otto Octavius. But we'll come back to that later.   In that same May 1985 issue of Variety, amongst dozens of pages of ads for movies both completed and in development, including three other movies from Tobe Hooper, was a one-page ad for Captain America. No director or actor was attached to the project yet, but comic book writer James L. Silke, who had written the scripts for four other Cannon movies in the previous two years, was listed as the screenwriter.   By October 1985, Cannon was again trying to pre-sell foreign rights to make a Spider-Man movie, this time at the MIFED Film Market in Milan, Italy. Gone were Leslie Stevens and Tobe Hooper. Newsom and Brancato were the new credited writers, and Joseph Tito, the director of the Chuck Norris/Cannon movies Missing in Action and Invasion U.S.A., was the new director. In a two-page ad for Captain America, the film would acquire a new director in Michael Winner, the director of the first three Death Wish movies.   And the pattern would continue every few months, from Cannes to MIFED to the American Film Market, and back to Cannes. A new writer would be attached. A new director. A new release date. By October 1987, after the twin failures of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace and Masters of the Universe, Cannon had all but given up on a Captain America movie, and downshifted the budget on their proposed Spider-Man movie. Albert Pyun, whose ability to make any movie in any genre look far better than its budget should have allowed, was brought in to be the director of Spider-Man, from a new script written by Shepard Goldman.   Who?   Shepard Goldman, whose one and only credit on any motion picture was as one of three screenwriters on the 1988 Cannon movie Salsa.   Don't remember Salsa? That's okay. Neither does anyone else.   But we'll talk a lot more about Cannon Films down the road, because there's a lot to talk about when it comes to Cannon Films, although I will leave you with two related tidbits…   Do you remember the 1989 Jean-Claude Van Damme film Cyborg? Post-apocalyptic cyberpunk martial-arts action film where JCVD and everyone else in the movie have names like Gibson Rickenbacker, Fender Tremolo, Marshall Strat and Pearl Prophet for no damn good reason? Stupid movie, lots of fun. Anyway, Albert Pyun was supposed to shoot two movies back to back for Cannon Films in 1988, a sequel to Masters of the Universe, and Spider-Man. To save money, both movies would use many of the same sets and costumes, and Cannon had spent more than $2m building the sets and costumes at the old Dino DeLaurentiis Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina, where David Lynch had shot Blue Velvet. But then Cannon ran into some cash flow issues, and lost the rights to both the He-Man toy line from Mattel and the Spider-Man characters they had licensed from Marvel. But ever the astute businessman, Cannon Films chairman Menahem Golan offered Pyun $500,000 to shoot any movie he wanted using the costumes and sets already created and paid for, provided Pyun could come up with a movie idea in a week. Pyun wrote the script to Cyborg in five days, and outside of some on-set alterations, that first draft would be the shooting script. The film would open in theatres in April 1989, and gross more than $10m in the United States alone.   A few months later, Golan would gone from Cannon Films. As part of his severance package, he would take one of the company's acquisitions, 21st Century Films, with him, as well as several projects, including Captain America. Albert Pyun never got to make his Spider-Man movie, but he would go into production on his Captain America in August 1989. But since the movie didn't get released in any form until it came out direct to video and cable in 1992, I'll leave it to podcasts devoted to 90s movies to tell you more about it. I've seen it. It's super easy to find on YouTube. It really sucks, although not as much as that 1994 version of The Fantastic Four that still hasn't been officially released nearly thirty years later.   There would also be attempts throughout the decade to make movies from the aforementioned Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Daredevil, the Incredible Hulk, Silver Surfer and Iron Man, from companies like New Line, 20th Century-Fox and Universal, but none of those would ever come to fruition in the 1980s.   But the one that would stick?   Of the more than 1,000 characters that had been featured in the pages of Marvel Comics over the course of forty years?   The one that would become the star of the first ever theatrically released motion picture based on a Marvel character?   Howard the Duck.   Howard the Duck was not your average Marvel superhero.   Howard the Duck wasn't even a superhero.   He was just some wise crackin', ill-tempered, anthropomorphic water fowl that was abducted away from his home on Duckworld and forced against his will to live with humans on Earth. Or, more specifically, first with the dirty humans of the Florida Everglades, and then Cleveland, and finally New York City.    Howard the Duck was metafiction and existentialist when neither of these things were in the zeitgeist. He smoked cigars, wore a suit and tie, and enjoy drinking a variety of libations and getting it on with the women, mostly his sometimes girlfriend Beverly.   The perfect character to be the subject of the very first Marvel movie.   A PG-rated movie.   Enter George Lucas.   In 1973, George Lucas had hit it big with his second film as a director, American Graffiti. Lucas had written the screenplay, based in part on his life as an eighteen year old car enthusiast about to graduate high school, with the help of a friend from his days at USC Film School, Willard Huyck, and Huyck's wife, Gloria Katz. Lucas wanted to show his appreciation for their help by producing a movie for them. Although there are variations to the story of how this came about, most sources say it was Huyck who would tell Lucas about this new comic book character, Howard the Duck, who piqued his classmate's interest by describing the comic as having elements of film noir and absurdism.   Because Universal dragged their feet on American Graffiti, not promoting it as well as they could have upon its initial release and only embracing the film when the public embraced its retro soundtrack, Lucas was not too keen on working with Universal again on his next project, a sci-fi movie he was calling The Journal of the Whills. And while they saw some potential in what they considered to be some minor kiddie movie, they didn't think Lucas could pull it off the way he was describing it for the budget he was asking for.   “What else you got, kid?” they'd ask.   Lucas had Huyck and Katz, and an idea for a live-action comic book movie about a talking duck.   Surprisingly, Universal did not slam the door shut in Lucas's face. They actually went for the idea, and worked with Lucas, Stan Lee of Marvel Comics and Howard's creator, Steve Gerber, to put a deal together to make it happen.   Almost right away, Gerber and the screenwriters, Huyck and Katz, would butt heads on practically every aspect of the movie's storyline. Katz just thought it was some funny story about a duck from outer space and his wacky adventures on Earth, Gerber was adamant that Howard the Duck was an existential joke, that the difference between life's most serious moments and its most incredibly dumb moments were only distinguishable by a moment's point of view. Huyck wanted to make a big special effects movie, while Katz thought it would be fun to set the story in Hawaii so she and her husband could have some fun while shooting there. The writers would spend years on their script, removing most everything that made the Howard the Duck comic book so enjoyable to its readers. Howard and his story would be played completely straight in the movie, leaning on subtle gags not unlike a Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker movie, instead of embracing the surreal ridiculousness of the comics. They would write humongous effects-heavy set pieces, knowing they would have access to their producer's in-house special effects team, Industrial Light and Magic, instead of the comics' more cerebral endings. And they'd tone down the more risqué aspects of Howard's personality, figuring a more family-friendly movie would bring in more money at the box office.   It would take nearly twelve years for all the pieces to fall into place for Howard the Duck to begin filming. But in the spring of 1985, Universal finally gave the green light for Lucas and his tea to finally make the first live-action feature film based on a Marvel Comics character.   For Beverly, the filmmakers claimed to have looked at every young actress in Hollywood before deciding on twenty-four year old Lea Thompson, who after years of supporting roles in movies like Jaws 3-D, All the Right Moves and Red Dawn, had found success playing Michael J. Fox's mother in Back to the Future. Twenty-six year old Tim Robbins had only made two movies up to this point, at one of the frat boys in Fraternity Vacation and as one of the fighter pilots in Top Gun, and this was his first chance to play a leading role in a major motion picture. And Jeffrey Jones would be cast as the bad guy, the Dark Overlord, based upon his work in the 1984 Best Picture winner Amadeus, although he would be coming to the set of Howard the Duck straight off of working on a John Hughes movie, Ferris Bueller's Day Off.   Howard the Duck would begin shooting on the Universal Studios lot of November 11th, 1985, and on the very first day of production, the duck puppet being used to film would have a major mechanical failure, not unlike the mechanical failure of the shark in Jaws that would force Steven Spielberg to become more creative with how he shot that character. George Lucas, who would be a hands-on producer, would suggest that maybe they could shoot other scenes not involving the duck, while his crew at ILM created a fully functional, life-sized animatronic duck costume for a little actor to wear on set. At first, the lead actor in the duck suit was a twelve-year old boy, but within days of his start on the film, he would develop a severe case of claustrophobia inside the costume. Ed Gale, originally hired to be the stuntman in the duck costume, would quickly take over the role. Since Gale could work longer hours than the child, due to the very restrictive laws surrounding child actors on movie and television sets, this would help keep the movie on a good production schedule, and make shooting the questionable love scenes between Howard and Beverly easier for Ms. Thompson, who was creeped out at the thought of seducing a pre-teen for a scene.   To keep the shoot on schedule, not only would the filmmakers employ a second shooting unit to shoot the scenes not involving the main actors, which is standard operating procedure on most movies, Lucas would supervise a third shooting unit that would shoot Robbins and Gale in one of the film's more climactic moments, when Howard and Phil are trying to escape being captured by the authorities by flying off on an ultralight plane. Most of this sequence would be shot in the town of Petaluma, California, on the same streets where Lucas had shot American Graffiti's iconic cruising scenes thirteen years earlier.   After a month-long shoot of the film's climax at a naval station in San Francisco, the film would end production on March 26th, 1986, leaving the $36m film barely four months to be put together in order to make its already set in stone August 1st, 1986, release date.   Being used to quick turnaround times, the effects teams working on the film would get all their shots completed with time to spare, not only because they were good at their jobs but they had the ability to start work before the film went into production. For the end sequence, when Jones' character had fully transformed into the Dark Overlord, master stop motion animator Phil Tippett, who had left ILM in 1984 to start his own effects studio specializing in that style of animation, had nearly a year to put together what would ultimately be less than two minutes of actual screen time.   As Beverly was a musician, Lucas would hire English musician and composer Thomas Dolby, whose 1982 single She Blinded Me With Science became a global smash hit, to write the songs for Cherry Bomb, the all-girl rock group lead by Lea Thompson's Beverly. Playing KC, the keyboardist for Cherry Bomb, Holly Robinson would book her first major acting role. For the music, Dolby would collaborate with Allee Willis, the co-writer of Earth Wind and Fire's September and Boogie Wonderland, and funk legend George Clinton. But despite this powerhouse musical trio, the songs for the band were not very good, and, with all due respect to Lea Thompson, not very well sung.   By August 1986, Universal Studios needed a hit. Despite winning the Academy Award for Best Picture in March with Sydney Pollack's Out of Africa, the first six films they released for the year were all disappointments at the box office and/or with the critics.    The Best of Times, a comedy featuring Robin Williams and Kurt Russell as two friends who try to recreate a high school football game which changed the direction of both their lives. Despite a script written by Ron Shelton, who would be nominated for an Oscar for his next screenplay, Bull Durham, and Robin Williams, the $12m film would gross less than $8m.    The Money Pit, a comedy with Tom Hanks and Shelley Long, would end up grossing $37m against a $10m budget, but the movie was so bad, its first appearance on DVD wouldn't come until 2011, and only as part of a Tom Hanks Comedy Favorites Collection along with The ‘Burbs and Dragnet.   Legend, a dark fantasy film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Cruise, was supposed to be one of the biggest hits… of 1985. But Scott and the studio would fight over the film, with the director wanting them to release a two hour and five minute long version with a classical movie score by Jerry Goldsmith, while the studio eventually cut the film down an hour and twenty-nine minutes with a techno score by Tangerine Dream. Despite an amazing makeup job transforming Tim Curry into the Lord of Darkness as well as sumptuous costumes and cinematography, the $24.5m film would just miss recouping its production budget back in ticket sales.   Tom Cruise would become a superstar not three weeks later, when Paramount Pictures released Top Gun, directed by Ridley's little brother Tony Scott.   Sweet Liberty should have been a solid performer for the studio. Alan Alda, in his first movie since the end of MASH three years earlier, would write, direct and star in this comedy about a college history professor who must watch in disbelief as a Hollywood production comes to his small town to film the movie version of one of the books. The movie, which also starred Michael Caine, Bob Hoskins, Michelle Pfieffer and screen legend Lillian Gish, would get lost in the shuffle of other comedies that were already playing in theatres like Ferris Bueller and Short Circuit.   Legal Eagles was the movie to beat for the summer of 1986… at least on paper. Ivan Reitman's follow-up film to Ghostbusters would feature a cast that included Robert Redford, Debra Winger and Daryl Hannah, along with Brian Denny, Terence Stamp, and Brian Doyle-Murray, and was perhaps too much movie, being a legal romantic comedy mystery crime thriller.   Phew.   If I were to do an episode about agency packaging in the 1980s, the process when a talent agency like Creative Artists Agency, or CAA, put two or more of their clients together in a project not because it might be best for the movie but best for the agency that will collect a 10% commission from each client attached to the project, Legal Eagles would be the example of packaging gone too far. Ivan Reitman was a client of CAA. As were Redford,  and Winger, and Hannah. As was Bill Murray, who was originally cast in the Redford role. As were Jim Cash and Jack Epps, the screenwriters for the film. As was Tom Mankewicz, the co-writer of Superman and three Bond films, who was brought in to rewrite the script when Murray left and Redford came in. As was Frank Price, the chairman of Universal Pictures when the project was put together. All told, CAA would book more than $1.5m in commissions for themselves from all their clients working on the film.   And it sucked.   Despite the fact that it had almost no special effects, Legal Eagles would cost $40m to produce, one of the most expensive movies ever made to that point, nearly one and a half times the cost of Ghostbusters. The film would gross nearly $50m in the US, which would make it only the 14th highest grossing film of the year. Less than Stand By Me. Less than The Color of Money. Less than Down and Out in Beverly Hills.   And then there was Psycho III, the Anthony Perkins-directed slasher film that brought good old Norman Bates out of mothballs once again. An almost direct follow-up to Psycho II from 1983, the film neither embraced by horror film fans or critics, the film would only open in eighth place, despite the fact there hadn't been a horror movie in theatres for months, and its $14m gross would kill off any chance for a Psycho IV in theatres.   In late June, Universal would hold a series of test screenings for Howard the Duck. Depending on who you talk to, the test screenings either went really well, or went so bad that one of the writers would tear up negative response cards before they could be given to the score compilers, to goose the numbers up, pun only somewhat intended. I tend to believe the latter story, as it was fairly well reported at the time that the test screenings went so bad, Sid Sheinberg, the CEO of Universal, and Frank Price, the President of the studio, got into a fist fight in the lobby of one of the theatres running one of the test screenings, over who was to blame for this impending debacle.   And a debacle it was.   But just how bad?   So bad, copywriters from across the nation reveled in giddy glee over the chances to have a headline that read “‘Howard the Duck' Lays an Egg!”   And it did.   Well, sort of.   When it opened in 1554 theatres on August 1st, the film would gross $5.07m, the second best opener of the weekend, behind the sixth Friday the 13th entry, and above other new movies like the Tom Hanks/Jackie Gleason dramedy Nothing in Common and the cult film in the making Flight of the Navigator. And $5m in 1986 was a fairly decent if unspectacular opening weekend gross. The Fly was considered a massive success when it opened to $7m just two weeks later. Short Circuit, which had opened to $5.3m in May, was also lauded as being a hit right out of the gate.   And the reviews were pretty lousy. Gene Siskel gave the film only one star, calling it a stupid film with an unlikeable lead in the duck and special effects that were less impressive than a sparkler shoved into a birthday cake. Both Siskel and Ebert would give it the dreaded two thumbs down on their show. Leonard Maltin called the film hopeless. Today, the film only has a 14% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with 81 reviews.   But despite the shellacking the film took, it wouldn't be all bad for several of the people involved in the making of the film.   Lea Thompson was so worried her career might be over after the opening weekend of the film, she accepted a role in the John Hughes movie Some Kind of Wonderful that she had turned down multiple times before. As I stated in our March 2021 episode about that movie, it's my favorite of all John Hughes movies, and it would lead to a happy ending for Thompson as well. Although the film was not a massive success, Thompson and the film's director, Howard Deutch, would fall in love during the making of the film. They would marry in 1989, have two daughters together, and as of the writing of this episode, they are still happily married.   For Tim Robbins, it showed filmmakers that he could handle a leading role in a movie. Within two years, he would be starring alongside Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon in Bull Durham, and he career would soar for the next three decades.   And for Ed Gale, his being able to act while in a full-body duck suit would lead him to be cast to play Chucky in the first two Child's Play movies as well as Bride of Chucky.   Years later, Entertainment Weekly would name Howard the Duck as the biggest pop culture failure of all time, ahead of such turkeys as NBC's wonderfully ridiculous 1979 show Supertrain, the infamous 1980 Western Heaven's Gate, Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman's Ishtar, and the truly wretched 1978 Bee Gees movie Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.   But Howard the Duck, the character, not the movie, would enjoy a renaissance in 2014, when James Gunn included a CG-animated version of the character in the post-credit sequence for Guardians of the Galaxy. The character would show up again in the Disney animated Guardians television series, and in the 2021 Disney+ anthology series Marvel's What If…   There technically would be one other 1980s movie based on a Marvel character, Mark Goldblatt's version of The Punisher, featuring Dolph Lundgren as Frank Castle. Shot in Australia in 1988, the film was supposed to be released by New World Pictures in August of 1989. The company even sent out trailers to theatres that summer to help build awareness for the film, but New World's continued financial issues would put the film on hold until April 1991, when it was released directly to video by Live Entertainment.   It wouldn't be until the 1998 release of Blade, featuring Wesley Snipes as the titular vampire, that movies based on Marvel Comics characters would finally be accepted by movie-going audiences. That would soon be followed by Bryan Singer's X-Men in 2000, and Sam Raimi's Spider-Man in 2002, the success of both prompting Marvel to start putting together the team that would eventually give birth to the Marvel Cinematic Universe we all know and love today.   Thank you for joining us. We'll talk again soon, when Episode 102, the first of two episodes about the 1980s distribution company Vestron Pictures, is released.   Remember to visit this episode's page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about Howard the Duck, and the other movies, both existing and non-existent, we covered this episode.   The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment.   Thank you again.   Good night.

The second part of our Psycho retrospective begins with a dive into Psycho III and Psycho IV, and you won't believe what comes after that! Was Jason Bateman in a Psycho movie? What was Gus Van Sant thinking with that remake? And Norman Bates in....a sitcom? Join us on THE HYPER SPACE as we grab our butcher knives and start peeling this Psycho onion! You won't believe what we find!  

It's origin story time! Daniel and Cris are joining by Matt Bledsoe (The Film Feast Podcast) to close out Anthony Perkins' time with the franchise, and the original continuity, with Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990). This movie is unhinged, and fortunately so is this episode. Email the show at cobwebspodcast@gmail.com to let us know what you think of the movie and/or the show! The Film Feast Podcast   Inside the Sequel Podcast   Cobwebs on Twitter: @cobwebspod Daniel on Twitter: @eplerdaniel    Cris on Twitter: @HurTastic_Cris   Matt on Twitter: @mattbled87 Daniel on Letterboxd: @Dan_Epler Film Feast on Twitter: @filmfeastpod   Matt on Instagram: @filmfeast www.cobwebspodcast.com

Welcome back to the Bates Motel. On tonight's episode our Psycho series comes to a close as we travel back to when it all began with abusive Mothers, split personalities, incestuous playing, cross dressing, and of course murder, in Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990). We also master the art of cooking noodles in the first […]

Psycho IV: The Beginning is the fourth and final film in Universal's Psycho franchise, and the last to portray Anthony Perkins in his most famous of roles.  It's the first of the series not to be released theatrically, debuting on the premium cable channel Showtime in 1990.  This film is a sequel in theory, as it does take a step forward in showing Norman Bates trying to live the semblance of a normal life today, finally in a relationship with a woman, with a baby on the way.  Trouble is, Norman does not want a baby, thinking that being a homicidal maniac is a genetic trait that passes on from generation to generation, and he wants his mother's psychopathic tendencies to end with him. On this night, Norman is listening to a late-night radio program about why sons kill their mothers, and after hearing what the doctors have to say about it, Norman ends up calling the show to tell how it really went down for him.  Under the pseudonym of 'Ed', Norman relates the tale of his adolescence, and how his mother Norma's severe mood swings, psychological abuse, and sexual repression drove him to commit murder, including his own mother. Although much talked about in the previous films, Psycho IV: The Beginning is the first to show a living Norma Bates (Olivia Hussey), and to give is a first-hand viewing of how bizarre an upbringing a young Norman (Henry Thomas) would have, resulting in an overwhelming feeling of guilt in his actions that he didn't have the maturity or mental balance to keep a grip on. In addition to Norma's stamping out of her son's masculinity and sexuality, there is also an element of Norman becoming a bit of a surrogate for male companionship in her life in between finding a suitable partner, though never physically consummated between mother and son. Mick Garris directs from a screenplay from Psycho screenwriter Joseph Stefano.

The wraps up the Psycho series

Welcome back to another episode of ClassHorrorCast, I'm your host Aran and on this week's show, I am joined by one of the masters of horror, Mr.Mick Garris.From a young age, Mick was engrossed in the film world and the filmmaking process, which led him to work as a freelance critic for a number of different publications. In 1977, Mick was hired as a receptionist for the newly formed Star Wars Corporation which led to him making many industry contacts and saw him host his own interview program, chatting with the likes of Steven Speilberg, Christopher Lee, and many more.Through hard work and relationships he had formed, he was hired by Speilberg as a writer/story editor for 'Amazing Stories' which would change his life and see him contribute to many projects such as The Fly II, Psycho IV, Sleepwalkers, and The Mummy remake. Mick also played a huge role in creating the most iconic Halloween film of all time with 1993's 'Hocus Pocus' and in 2005 he was the driving force behind the 'Masters Of Horror' series.Someone who many may consider the godfather of podcasting, especially within the genre - Mick hosts his uber-successful show 'Post Mortem With Mick Garris'. He is both extremely passionate and knowledgeable about film and its processes.We chat about his unfortunate health scare and how it affected him, his lifelong passion and drive for his craft, the exciting future he has planned, and some other unique and wonderful stories. Join me as I dive inside the mind of one of the masters of horror, Mr.Mick Garris.Make sure to follow Mick's podcast here - https://plnk.to/postmortem?to=pageCheck out some of his incredible interviews here - https://www.mickgarrisinterviews.com/Mick's social media - https://www.instagram.com/mickgarrispm/ https://twitter.com/MickGarrisPM https://www.facebook.com/mickgarrisinterviewsFollow more of my content here - https://linktr.ee/FirstClassHorrorIf you enjoyed this episode please follow and leave a review as it helps the show greatly!

Leeroy discusses Psycho IV: The Beginning, the highly underrated sequel to the granddaddy of slasher movies...Psycho.Follow Slashic Horror on Instagram: @slashichorror and Twitter: @slashichorror

Welcome to another episode of ClassHorrorCast, I'm your host Aran and on this week's episode, I'm joined by Ryan Finnegan.You may remember him as young Norman Bates in the beloved Psycho IV: The Beginning, he starred in many more commercials and much more over the years. He details his struggles in life and overcoming them, his passion for horror and comedy, and plans for a documentary detailing his life and journeys and also shed some light on his exciting plans for the future.Don't miss this fantastic episode!Follow me here - https://linktr.ee/FirstClassHorrorOnce Ryan has some announcements to make we will do another episode and make sure to let you know all the details!If you enjoyed this episode please consider subscribing and reviewing the podcast as it helps greatly!

Here's the full movie of the 1990 horror & thriller movie, Psycho IV: The Beginning, based on a real-life serial killer, Ed Gein! Plot: Released from a mental institution once again, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) calls in to tell his life story to a radio host (CCH Pounder). Norman recalls his days as a young boy living with his schizophrenic mother (Olivia Hussey) and the jealous rage that inspired her murder. In the present, Norman lives with his pregnant wife, Connie (Donna Mitchell), fearing that his child will inherit his split personality disorder, and "Mother" will return to kill again. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

For the final installment of our journey through the mind of Norman Bates, we are joined by Gav Chuckie Steele for Psycho IV: The Beginning. We delve into the made-for-TV shenanigans, including jerk boyfriends, the root of Norman’s psychosis, and how comfortable you might be married to a killer. It’s terrific fun and I think you’re going to dig it! You can find more of Gav at The Podcast on Haunted Hill and check out his IMDB page! You can join the discussion live on Sundays at 5pm CST at YouTube.com/LegionPodcasts and you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here, Stitcher, Spotify, Amazon Music and Audible, iHeartRadio, Podchaser, Google Podcasts, and anywhere fine podcasts are found! You can find all the episodes right here and say hello on Facebook or Twitter! The post The Dark Parade #4: Psycho IV: The Beginning first appeared on Legion.

For the final installment of our journey through the mind of Norman Bates, we are joined by Gav Chuckie Steele for Psycho IV: The Beginning. We delve into the made-for-TV shenanigans, including jerk boyfriends, the root of Norman's psychosis, and how comfortable you might be married to a killer. It's terrific fun and I think you're going to dig it! You can find more of Gav at The Podcast on Haunted Hill and check out his IMDB page! You can join the discussion live on Sundays at 5pm CST at YouTube.com/LegionPodcasts and you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here, Stitcher, Spotify, Amazon Music and Audible, iHeartRadio, Podchaser, Google Podcasts, and anywhere fine podcasts are found! You can find all the episodes right here and say hello on Facebook or Twitter! The post The Dark Parade #4: Psycho IV: The Beginning first appeared on Legion.

For the final installment of our journey through the mind of Norman Bates, we are joined by Gav Chuckie Steele for Psycho IV: The Beginning. We delve into the made-for-TV shenanigans, including jerk boyfriends, the root of Norman's psychosis, and how comfortable you might be married to a killer. It's terrific fun and I think you're going to dig it! You can find more of Gav at The Podcast on Haunted Hill and check out his IMDB page! You can join the discussion live on Sundays at 5pm CST at YouTube.com/LegionPodcasts and you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here, Stitcher, Spotify, Amazon Music and Audible, iHeartRadio, Podchaser, Google Podcasts, and anywhere fine podcasts are found! You can find all the episodes right here and say hello on Facebook or Twitter! The post The Dark Parade #4: Psycho IV: The Beginning first appeared on Legion.

Join us for the last of the original Psycho movies. Psycho 4 is a 1990 made for cable movie. This is Anthony Perkins last turn as Norman Bates. Is this a fitting end? Norman Bates recalls his childhood with his abusive mother while fearing his unborn child will inherit his split personality disorder. Before the terror can end, see how it all began... You've met Norman... now meet Mother.

NEW bonus content! FUN SIZE Post Mortem: Ask Mick Anything —  Your friendly Producer Joe Russo asks Mick Garris any and all of your fan questions! This week they discuss Mick's favorite genre film festivals, what it was like working with Anthony Perkins on Psycho IV, the objective quality of monster and slasher films from a bygone era, She-Wolf of London behind-the-scenes and more!  POST MORTEM WITH MICK GARRIS  NICE GUY PRODUCTIONS 2021

We take a journey down memory lane with the Bates family as we talk the made-for-television Showtime film: Psycho IV: The Beginning, from 1990. Check out the Post Mortem podcast by director Mick Garris: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/post-mortem-with-mick-garris/id1204949508   The Making of Psycho documentary: https://youtu.be/bTusPxB76AM   Music Credits: "Haunted Davenport Theme" by Chris Howcroft "Mother" by The Police  

Episode 16! Host, Gratton Conwill and special guest, Matt Fields discuss Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990). From the creators of Giant Monster BS: Gratton Conwill and Matt Fields bring you Only In Psycho! Only In Psycho is a limited series podcast event happening exclusively during October of 2020! Starting October 1st, we will review one movie every other day. Each movie will be a horror movie based on Psycho. Some movies have nothing to do with the original tale of America's most haunted house, but if "Psycho" is in the title, we're reviewing it! 16 episodes in total! The series finale takes place on Halloween with two reviews. Fans of Giant Monster BS and/or Hilariously bad Horror films will be right at home with this podcast. Vulgar, brutally honest, scary as hell, oh yeah... it's Only In Psycho time Baby! Only In Psycho is an ad-free, self funded podcast hosted by Gratton Conwill and Matthew Fields. If you would like to support the show, you can donate to us at: https://anchor.fm/giant-monster-bs or buy our merch at: https://www.teepublic.com/user/cheesemouse2/albums/39997-giant-monster-bs-merch Follow us on twitter at: https://twitter.com/GiantMonsterBS

Spooky season deep dive continues into all things PSYCHO where we cover Psycho IV, Bates Motel the 1987 failed TV pilot, and the A&E 5 season Bates Motel cable series. Also Part 7 of our exclusive Thea Flaum interview.

Listen as Mike and Tom discuss the 1990 sequel Psycho IV: The Beginning. They talk about how this movie wants to be two different movies, the wisdom of having your main character talk on the phone for over an hour, how in the world Mrs. Bates became a sexpot and how much the filmmakers wanted to end this series... or did they?

Mick Garris is a director, screenwriter, author, and sci-fi and horror icon. He’s s best known for working on Sleepwalkers, The Fly II, *batteries not included, Hocus Pocus, Riding the Bullet, Psycho IV, Critters 2, The Mummy, Nightmare Cinema, Tales from the Crypt, Amazing Stories, Freddy’s Nightmares, The Stand, Masters of Horror and so many more. His new book, THESE EVIL THINGS WE DO is out now! He’s a frequent with Stephen King, has directed more Stephen projects than anyone else, and created The Master of Horror series, as well as creating and hosting his cult-favorite interview series, Post Mortem. https://www.amazon.com/These-Evil-Things-We-Collection-ebook/dp/B088YRC47C https://twitter.com/MickGarrisPM

23:07 Psycho III commentary 37:00 Psycho IV

We haven’t taken a shower in weeks in anticipation for this week’s thriller; the final sequel to one of cinema’s greatest films: Psycho 4.They Made a Sequel is a podcast about the sequels you never knew existed to the movies you love. Watch Psycho IV on StarzIG: @theymadeasequelTwitter: @TMASequelemail: theymadeasequelpodcast@gmail.comPhone#: 575-SEQUEL2 (575-737-8352) Hosted by Chris Traister and Tanar DialEdited and Produced by Tanar Dial free sound effects from https://www.fesliyanstudios.com

Silverado, Riddick movies, Taxi Driver, Spies Like Us, Jon Landis in Psycho IV, Conan Needs a Friend, You're Wrong About..., The Mandelorian, For The Love of Spock

In this episode of the horror podcast 'Screams After Midnight,' we discuss the final sequel to the classic Hitchcock film; Psycho 4.The film is Directed by Mick Garris and stars Anthony Perkins, Henry Thomas, Olivia Hussey, CCH Pounder & Warren Frost.Happy Octoberthon 2019!patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mildfuzztv twitter: https://twitter.com/ScreamsMidnight facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mildfuzznetwork email: mftvquestions@gmail.com THE CRYPT: https://mildfuzztv.weebly.com/the-crypt.html Audio version: https://screams-after-midnight.pinecast.co/UK Merch store: https://shop.spreadshirt.co.uk/mild-fuzz-tv/ US Merch store: https://shop.spreadshirt.com/mild-fuzz-tv-us Horror #HorrorMovies #OCTOBERTHON #Halloween2019

We made it to the fourth instalment of the Psycho franchise, and it was quite the bookend. Exploring the origin as well as the ultimate fate of our beloved Norman, this combination sequel-prequel was a fun way to transition us back to the original film. The guys had their differences on this one, but were able to agree that Psycho IV gives the audience an appropriate conclusion. With a “stream” and of course a continued “buy” from Ryan, one thing is for sure: Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates means it’s worth checking out. Where we watched: Amazon Rental RecommenDEADtions: Joker / The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014) Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990) Directed by Mick Garris Written by Joseph Stefano

Wenige Stunden vor der Aufzeichnung von Episode #313 erfuhren wir vom Tode Rutger Hauers (1944-2019). Da wir den Verlust eines unserer liebsten Kinohelden nicht ohne eine entsprechende Würdigung verknuspern können, nehmen wir sein Spätwerk Hobo with a Shotgun (2011) als Anlass, um die Karriere des nimmermüden und hochtalentierten Holländers Revue passieren zu lassen. Da spielt es kaum noch eine Rolle, dass der kanadische Retro-Exploitationer um einen schießwütigen Obdachlosen ziemlich ranziger Quark ist. Etwas besser schneidet Psycho IV (1990) ab, mit dem sich Anthony Perkins von seiner Rolle als Norman Bates verabschiedet. Große Bühne oder kleines Schmierentheater? Unsere Meinungen gehen diesbezüglich etwas auseinander. Aber Hauptsache, wir haben unseren Spaß. Oder?

Is this a necessary sequel? No. Is it particularly gripping? Not especially. But what it does have is the one and only Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates…so really, what else is required? On this week's episode of the podcast, Psycho IV: The Beginning, director Mick Garris' exploration into the myth, the man, the matricidal legend … Continue reading Really Awful Movies: Ep 276 – Psycho IV: The Beginning →

"You've met Norman... now meet Mother. " With Special Guest: Josh James of the "R - Rated Horror Commentary" podcast Itunes: https://www.horrorphilia.com/category/the-r-rated-horror-commentary-podcast/feed/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsyA-nnhSTGQtMs2l1ADesg Email: rratedhorror@gmail.com Facebook: Facebook.com/rratedhorror Facebook.com/joshjamescreative _______ Please help spread the word and leave us ratings and reviews on itunes, Google Play, Stitcher, and YouTube! Also, follow the Official Revival House feed for all of our shows in one place. _______ LEAVE US A MESSAGE ON THE REVIVAL HOTLINE!! 1-602-399-7280 Links Official - https://www.revival-house.net Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/revivalhouse Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/revivalhousenetwork Twitter - https://twitter.com/TheRevHouse Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/TheRevHouse/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/revivalhousenetwork/ RSS Feed (Revival House) - http://feeds.feedburner.com/revivalhouse Itunes (Revival House) - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/revival-house/id1316864493?mt=2 Google Play (Revival House) - https://play.google.com/music/m/I76z5v443fw742cqv2kfl66qiru?t=Revival_House Stitcher (Revival House) - https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/revival-house-2 Spotify (Revival House) - https://open.spotify.com/show/3Djss5ACcF4lkYH0lK5iKW?si=uSwnEoSjRAK5p8wYa-CjdQ RSS Feed (BTM) - http://feeds.feedburner.com/RH/BTM/DpKV Itunes (BTM) - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/behind-the-mask/id491945301?mt=2 Google Play (BTM) - https://play.google.com/music/m/Iqyfwppliyxfglyd6yehsm5ibzi?t=Behind_The_Mask Stitcher (BTM) - https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/revival-house/behind-the-mask Spotify (BTM) - https://open.spotify.com/show/1TIvUqb6AG1iB7Y1tW3Tbb?si=9IaVGMuzRayHHTWXYMKUwg

"You've met Norman... now meet Mother. " With Special Guest: Josh James of the "R - Rated Horror Commentary" podcast Itunes: https://www.horrorphilia.com/category/the-r-rated-horror-commentary-podcast/feed/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsyA-nnhSTGQtMs2l1ADesg Email: rratedhorror@gmail.com Facebook: Facebook.com/rratedhorror Facebook.com/joshjamescreative _______ Please help spread the word and leave us ratings and reviews on itunes, Google Play, Stitcher, and YouTube! Also, follow the Official Revival House feed for all of our shows in one place. _______ LEAVE US A MESSAGE ON THE REVIVAL HOTLINE!! 1-602-399-7280 Links Official - https://www.revival-house.net Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/revivalhouse Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/revivalhousenetwork Twitter - https://twitter.com/TheRevHouse Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/TheRevHouse/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/revivalhousenetwork/ RSS Feed (Revival House) - http://feeds.feedburner.com/revivalhouse Itunes (Revival House) - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/revival-house/id1316864493?mt=2 Google Play (Revival House) - https://play.google.com/music/m/I76z5v443fw742cqv2kfl66qiru?t=Revival_House Stitcher (Revival House) - https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/revival-house-2 Spotify (Revival House) - https://open.spotify.com/show/3Djss5ACcF4lkYH0lK5iKW?si=uSwnEoSjRAK5p8wYa-CjdQ RSS Feed (BTM) - http://feeds.feedburner.com/RH/BTM/DpKV Itunes (BTM) - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/behind-the-mask/id491945301?mt=2 Google Play (BTM) - https://play.google.com/music/m/Iqyfwppliyxfglyd6yehsm5ibzi?t=Behind_The_Mask Stitcher (BTM) - https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/revival-house/behind-the-mask Spotify (BTM) - https://open.spotify.com/show/1TIvUqb6AG1iB7Y1tW3Tbb?si=9IaVGMuzRayHHTWXYMKUwg

From working with Steven Spielberg in E.T. to playing the patriarch in Netflix’s hottest new show, THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, Henry Thomas Jr. has had a an incredible career. Join us as we dig into his best performances, and recall the days of our collaborations on PSYCHO IV, MASTERS OF HORROR and MORE!

Here we are. At the end of all things. It's time to check into the motel one... last... time. SURPRISE! Enjoy this bonus special episode where we watch Psycho IV: The Beginning. We just had to know. Will Psycho IV be any good at all... whatsoever? Listen and find out!

Garrett and Dan reach the end of the original PSYCHO series with THE BEGINNING. The boys make their usual predictions and then dive deep into the strange structure and premise of this sequel, which like all the previous entries, is somehow better than you'd ever expect it to be. twitter | Facebook | tumblr | iTunes

0.00-18.15 Intro and News 18.15-29.00 Netflix Reviews 29.00-1.07.15 Psycho 1.07.15-1.37.30 Psycho II 1.37.30-2.02.00 Psycho III 2.02.00-2.28.00 Psycho IV 2.28.00-2.30.25 Conclusions Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1493771247363136/ Contact: grovershroyer13@yahoo.com Youtube [...]

This marks our first History Of Rabbit In Red Episode! The only surviving episode from our run of Sunday night shows with Alex and Michael J goes inside PSYCHO 1-4. We attempt to go deep inside each film and examine the many different aspects and theories along the way. As an added bonus between segments you'll hear Alfred Hitchcock discuss PSYCHO. Anthony Perkins giving his thoughts on PSYCHO II & III as well as Mick Garris giving you a glimpse behind the scenes of PSYCHO IV. So sit back, relax, and enjoy The History Of Rabbit In Red!   For More Rabbit In Red Visit: https://www.facebook.com/groups/rabbitinredradio/ Email Us: rirradio2017@gmail.com Leave Us A Voicemail: 215-240-7839 (You will be able to call and talk to us LIVE starting in a few weeks.) Follow Us On Twitter:@RIRShowOfficial

This week on the podcast we end our unexpectedly enjoyable deep dive in the Psycho series with Psycho IV: The Beginning. Norman Bates is out of the mental ward yet again and wouldn’t you know the ol’ psycho ended up getting married, to his psychiatrist of all people. Well just like before, Norman is starting to crack but it isn’t Mother this go around as there is something else driving him to one more murder. And when you’re a murderer on the verge of killing, what better to do than call into a radio show discussing “Mother Killers” and spill the beans on your life growing up. Who knew Norma Bates was so hot? --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bmoviebreakdown/support

Writer, director and producer Mick Garris ("The Stand," "Psycho IV," "Stephen King's The Shining") joins Gilbert and Frank to weigh in on a host of horror-related topics, including the cordiality of Vincent Price, the bravado of Christopher Lee, the generosity of Forrest J. Ackerman and the "ampleness" of Lon Chaney Jr.  Also, Stanley Kubrick ditches the script, Martin Scorsese clears the set, Gilbert hangs with Tobe Hooper and Mick remembers the late, great William Schallert. PLUS: "Rod Serling's Night Gallery"! "Exorcist II: The Heretic"! Bea Arthur meets R2-D2! Mick wins over Norman Bates! And the golden age of horror anthologies! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

00.00.00-00.39.19: Psycho III (1986) (Non-spoilers) 00.39.19-01.09.14: Psycho III (1986) (SPOILERS) 01.09.14-01.18.15: Psycho IV (1990) (Non-Spoilers) 01.18.15-01.39.38: Psycho IV (1990) (SPOILERS) 01.39.38-01.49.02: Bates Motel (1987) (SPOILERS) 01.49.02- Einde: Psycho (1998) (SPOILERS)

The only thing better than one sequel that didn't need to made, is a second and third sequel that also didn't need to be made - and this week, we watch two of the didn't-need-to-be-made-iest sequels of them all, Psycho 3 and Psycho IV: The Beginning. Norman Bates returns again and dresses up like his mum again and kills again and then they end. Kohl's mum fears for her life after sitting through Psycho IV with her son, Callan waxes lyrical about the demise of the local video store, and Jack drops some hot wordplay.

In continuing our tradition of watching the Psycho sequels during the Bates Motel hiatus, we came across this little gem. This is the final and some might say most spectacular of the Psycho sequels. It also is perhaps the most relevant, since it is actually Psycho IV: The Beginning, meaning it tries to tell the…Continue reading →

In continuing our tradition of watching the Psycho sequels during the Bates Motel hiatus, we came across this little gem. This is the final and some might say most spectacular of the Psycho sequels. It also is perhaps the most relevant, since it is actually Psycho IV: The Beginning, meaning it tries to tell the…Continue reading →

The same year that Psycho IV premiered on Showtime, original Psycho author Robert Bloch also returned to the Bates Motel with his third and final book in that series -- Psycho House! With the Bates Motel turned into a tourist attraction it seems Norman's crimes have been commercialized...until another girl is murdered. With Norman out of the picture, who is the killer now? Listen as Stuart takes you inside the House in his final review of Bloch's Psycho book trilogy!! Take a listen, then go to Now Playing Podcast before October 31, 2013 to donate to our shows and hear the movie reviews!

Norman Bates recalls his childhood with his abusive mother while fearing his unborn child will inherit his split personality disorder.DirectorMick GarrisWritersJoseph StefanoRobert Bloch(based on characters created by)StarsAnthony PerkinsCCH PounderHenry Thomas