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Stargate origin; military withdrawal; model effects; Oscar-nominee game; Clinton screening; VHS campaign; improvisation; Loggia's Airplane mix-up
In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 01:05:24Read transcript
- The idea came while Emmerich promoted Stargate: asked about aliens, he imagined waking to a 15-mile-wide spaceship and told Devlin it was their next movie.
- The U.S. military was originally involved and bowed out, apparently over Area 51.
- There were 3,000-plus effects shots, with models such as a 10-by-5-foot White House blown up; the White House interior set was reused from The American President and Nixon.
- In a game naming the six Oscar nominees in the cast, Will Smith and Pullman are named first. — Shea Serrano
- Goldblum and then Judd Hirsch are named, winning the game; Loggia, Mary McDonnell and Randy Quaid are the others. — Chris Ryan
- A White House screening for Bill Clinton, who loved it, and an oral-history anecdote about Vivica Fox meeting him.
- A six-week, $30 million VHS campaign made it the best-selling live-action video ever.
- Most scenes with Goldblum and Judd Hirsch or Will Smith were improvised, and 70 mock news broadcasts were made.
- Robert Loggia was told to watch Airplane instead of Airport, thought they were secretly making a spoof and refused to leave his trailer.