Frank Price is said to have sold Columbia the Ghostbusters title for $500,000 plus one percent of profits. — Bill Simmons
The special-effects supervisor used part of the effects budget to establish Boss Film Studios. — Bill Simmons
Eighteen toxic foam marshmallow-man suits cost nearly $600,000 and required a separate air supply; shaving cream stood in for marshmallow debris. — Bill Simmons
The original library-ghost puppet was considered too frightening and reused in Fright Night. — Bill Simmons
A more extensive sexual encounter between Ray and a female ghost was deleted. — Bill Simmons
The rooftop set reportedly needed 50,000 amps, forcing Columbia to shut down its other stages. — Bill Simmons
A Vanity Fair account says Murray arrived late with a stadium horn, reviewed the rewritten script with Ramis and Reitman, offered no changes, and agreed to proceed. — Chris Ryan
Two Moon Junction is preferred for Richard Tyson; Penelope Miller’s apex is left uncertain. — Kyle Brandt
Miller’s work with Pacino, De Niro and Brando is praised and IMDb’s four highlighted films are listed; hybrid action/kids movies get a yes. — Bill Simmons
Ghostbusters is preferred for Reitman, Astoria gets yes, undercover-cop movies no, and tumors yes specifically in a comic catchphrase sense. — Bill Simmons
Brookstone is added enthusiastically, though the store in When Harry Met Sally is uncertain between Brookstone and Sharper Image. — Kyle Brandt
Expensive gadgets, grip toys, headphones and novelty office objects prompt nostalgic store memories. — Kyle Brandt
Filming at John Jacob Astor Elementary in Astoria, Schwarzenegger’s requested private gym and five cut Stephen Root scenes are reported; details beyond the deleted-scene anecdote are unknown. — Kyle Brandt
Criterion is said to have announced a prank disc release on April1,2012; a later4K release is mentioned. — Bill Simmons
The Goonies house is reported roughly1.6 miles from the school. — Bill Simmons
Reitman’s five rules are recited: listen, act naturally, know the character, avoid looking at the camera and be disciplined; camera awareness is thought hardest. — Bill Simmons
The flex selection praises the dinner scene’s real romantic chemistry and imagines Reitman being delighted by unexpectedly strong acting. — Kyle Brandt
The selection receives agreement and a proud reaction. — Kyle Brandt
Damon Wayans, met by chance, reportedly denied the research claim that he and Bruce Willis feuded on The Last Boy Scout, illustrating the unreliability of casting research. — Bill Simmons
Nicholson was reportedly the studio’s top Joker choice since 1980, and Willem Dafoe reportedly stated in 2009 he had been in talks. — Bill Simmons
Robin Williams was reportedly offered the Joker to pressure Nicholson, released once Nicholson agreed, and then refused Warner roles such as the Riddler without an apology; the apology detail is doubted. — Bill Simmons
Dead Poets Society was 1989’s third-biggest film; swapping Nicholson and Williams would make both films worse, and “he stole my balloons” is called a favorite line.
Nicholson’s reported conditions included top billing, a share of earnings including merchandise, capped work hours, and no work on Lakers home playoff games; his fee dropped from $11 million to $6 million, but he may have made $90 million. — Bill Simmons
Martin Landau reportedly turned down Carl Grissom for Crimes and Misdemeanors, and Jack Palance in that role is imagined as bad.
Sean Young was cast as Vicki Vale and replaced after a horse-riding injury; the Knox actor later claimed she sabotaged a read-through, which is doubted. Her Catwoman costume audition for Batman Returns is recalled.
The Knox actor also claimed Keaton blocked Peters’ choice of Michelle Pfeiffer because they had dated, which is doubted since she is in the sequel. — Bill Simmons
Adam West was publicly disappointed not to be asked to reprise Batman. — Bill Simmons
Harold Ramis is debated as a newly cool movie star here, while Groundhog Day and Ghostbusters brought larger later influence and wealth. — Brian Koppelman
Kevin Klaid (as transcribed) is the instant answer, with 'can't believe this is a podcast' and 'that was easy', followed by agreement and a shout-out to Ving Rhames.
A stealth case is made for Ivan Reitman, since this kind of movie is really hard to do with the right tone and could go wrong in so many ways; it may be his last great movie, after a resume of Stripes, Meatballs, Ghostbusters, Twins and Kindergarten Cop, with Junior in 94, Six Days and Seven Nights and Evolution less impressive, his style specific to a time period and this the last confluence of those events.
Reitman's two interesting movies this decade, No Strings Attached and Draft Day, would probably have been huge hits in 1986 or 1988; No Strings Attached, written by Liz Merriweather (as transcribed) of New Girl under a cruder original script title, is judged better than Friends with Benefits, features Kevin Kline, and the hosts admit they all like it; you're in safe hands with Ivan Reitman, who has never made a bad movie.
Kevin Kline is debated: apex is meant to be objective, when he had the most power or success, so A Fish Called Wanda is possible but he arguably has more power coming off this; another host puts it at Grand Canyon, five years after the Oscar and not so far removed from it; one host votes yes for Kline and tells the other two they vote no.
Grand Canyon tangent: a movie about somebody who made a wrong turn leaving a Laker game, which is a host's life every day driving home on the 101 and plays on every fear of a detour leaving the Staples Center.
Frank Langella, one host's actorly god, has been a lot of different guys: a hit Dracula in the 70s, the star of Mel Brooks' first movie The Twelve Chairs, really good on the Showtime show Kidding, and his falling for Whoopi Goldberg is in the running for weirdest celebrity couple of the last 30 years, with Eddie called a great movie.
A host goes yes for Langella as his signature performance because he dials it up, having asked Ivan Reitman whether to scale back and been told to go for it, bulging his eyes at the window like a maniac while Dave balances the budget; another agrees it's his most fun performance but doubts it's his apex, and the group settles that Dracula was probably his apex.
Nobody else in the movie qualifies: Sigourney had peaked, and Kevin Dunn is a maybe who is coming up next.
The Oval Office set was reused more than 25 times; Bill Clinton gave Gary Ross an autographed script and a photo with a Dave mug; Barack Obama told Kevin Kline he loves Dave; a musical opened in 2018; Nelson Rockefeller's 1979 death with his assistant; Woodrow Wilson's 1919 stroke and his wife running the presidency; the impersonator scene was added late in the shoot; Ivan Reitman's wife and son Jason play Vice President Nance's family
The film's Oval Office set was reused more than 25 times, including for The Pelican Brief, Hot Shots Part Deux and Absolute Power in the 90s, which makes sense since everyone has seen a million pictures of the Oval Office; a nerdy aside notes the residence here is like no other White House residence on film, with a president's bedroom totally different from the identical Sorkin bedroom in The American President and The West Wing, this one quite large and full of red velvet with the bed really far from the other furniture; Hot Shots Part Deux will never get a Rewatchables.
Bill Clinton surely approved of a film that gives hope and optimism to the presidency: he gave Ross a framed autographed script calling it a funny, often accurate lampooning of politics, plus a picture of himself holding a Dave mug, though a host adds you can't really trust Clinton saying he likes something.
Barack Obama once told Kline he loves Dave and watches it when depressed because it makes the job look fun and easy; the hosts debate whether the line about the current president rooting for Mitchell was Obama's or Kline's, a punctuation issue, and find it weird for Obama, who did that job for eight years, to care what a movie says about it.
A musical based on the movie opened in 2018, and President Mitchell's stroke apparently really happened: Nelson Rockefeller, the former vice president and New York governor, died in 1979 at 70 during an encounter with his 22-year-old assistant, though the hosts think he probably wasn't in office at the time and nobody found a Rockefeller lookalike to bring out in front of the people of New York.
Woodrow Wilson, two years into his second term in 1919, had a stroke that left him semi-paralyzed, partially blind and mentally incapacitated, and since the 25th Amendment had not been ratified his wife took the presidency for the last two years; a century later it is still not known how bad it was, and a host feels like being in history class with Dr. Bill.
The Wilson story is pitched as the greatest hundred-years-ago Hulu series, the First Lady in 1919 taking things over, with a joke about ending the pod to open Final Draft.
The scene where Dave and the First Lady are presidential impersonators was added late in the shoot because Reitman didn't buy that those two would click and felt they needed something leading to that scene; the hosts agree you can't go from 'I hate you' to 'you're a stranger' to 'hey'.
Ivan Reitman's wife and son play the wife and son of Vice President Nance as he is sworn in at the end; the son is Jason Reitman, who became a famous director, so look for him in the Nance scene.
