NOT THAT FILONE: Turkish Star Wars (with Ed Glaser)

[00:00:00] Josh: Welcome to Trash Compactor. I'm Josh. And today I'm joined by Frey.

[00:00:06] Frey: Hello.

[00:00:06] Josh: And a special guest who I will introduce in a moment. today we're doing our first in an ongoing series of Star Wars rip-offs cultural impact and box office. The success of Star Wars spawned numerous imitations and homages from all over the world, which is only fitting since Star Wars itself was a pastiche of genres, stories and conventions from all over the world.

[00:00:27] And we have genuine affection for a lot of these movies and wanted to take this opportunity to discuss some of our favorites. The first film we're going to talk about is perhaps the most infamous, the man who saves the world better known online as, Turkish star wars. And appearances aside, this movie is much more than a mere rip off and to help explain why we are very excited to be joined by our special guests, award-winning filmmaker and film historian, author of How the World Remade Hollywood: Global Interpretations of 65 Iconic Films.

[00:00:59] And aside from the filmmakers themselves, arguably the foremost expert on the man who saves the world. I'm so pleased to welcome Ed Glaser to the podcast.

[00:01:08] Ed Glaser: Hello. Thank you so much for having me.

[00:01:10] Josh: Thank you so much for joining us. We've been looking forward to this episode for awhile. so ed you're a film historian and your primary focus is what you call cross cultural remixes. Is that correct?

[00:01:19] Ed Glaser: usually call them remixploitations because it's more fun. Cross-cultural remakes is probably something that is maybe more acceptable in academic spheres.

[00:01:30] Josh: Yeah, I think remixploitations a much more fun term for the phenomenon. Um, and if you wouldn't mind, just to start out for the benefit of our listeners who may not have any idea what we're talking about, how would you define remixed dictation as a phenomenon? Like what, what do you consider a remixploitation film?

[00:01:49] Ed Glaser: More often than not. It tends to be a film that capitalizes on the success of a previous film in one way or another. Um, by sort of doing a lot of the main things that, that original film did again, often doing sort of an unauthorized remake. So there's a lot of, sort of, uh, in quotes, rip off kind of material that tends to fall into the remix flotation, John rhe.

[00:02:17] Now I would contend that there's a lot of official remakes, um, that sort of do that, but all of these take place in, , other countries. So countries outside of, the movies initial production country .

[00:02:31] Josh: Yeah, I think generally speaking, we're talking about, Western films by and large from the U S that, um, have either made a lot of money or have a large cultural footprint. And what's so interesting about this specific phenomenon, that you talk about is that, is it like, it's not, it's not just, a Cashin to make a lot of money.

[00:02:52] I mean, obviously it's that, but it's also, the fascinating ones are the ones that manage to inject the culture. that's remaking it, into the work that it's remaking

[00:03:06] Ed Glaser: Yeah, it's,

[00:03:07] that's kind of the sort of secret implicit part of remain exploitation. The idea is sort of it's remake exploitation. So you're exploiting that original film. You're doing that in another country for another audience, um, with different pop culture, touchstones, different, social religious, et cetera backgrounds.

[00:03:28] Uh, so you are tailoring your remake or remix, to that new audience. And so it has to incorporate, it has to incorporate new ideas. Uh, sometimes, those are greater and sometimes those are less just depending on, uh, what the filmmaker is kind of trying to achieve. And, you know, you get some remakes that are kind of very the numbers Cassian's, but I think you also have a lot of remakes that are less slavish, remakes, and more an opportunity for artists to kind of express themselves through.

[00:04:05] Josh: No, absolutely. And I would argue that's the film, we're going to be discussing in, uh, few minutes is a really good example of that, uh, because it's not, it's not at all a remake of, of star wars. it's doing its own thing. its very own, very own thing. It's um, and it is interesting to this, phenomenon, because a lot of countries have their own film industries that are sort of shaped, by the economic and social and political situations, are unique to them and that, very often, comes out in. the films that they put out, I think our listeners are probably, you know, familiar with like the spaghetti Western for example, is like a whole sub genre of the Western that comes from Italy in the 1960s. And, what's really interesting is that like, there are a lot of trends, like, especially in the Italian, film industry, which is, the sort of example of remakes flotation as you term it, that I'm the most familiar with.

[00:05:01] but like there are trends that they would follow. So you get. Uh, Zaillian, you know, what they called like sword and sandal films, and then you get Western films and then the crime films

[00:05:14] and

[00:05:15] Ed Glaser: The, the Italians even have a particular name for that, phenomenon. Uh, they're called Filoni, which is the Italian word for thread. It's the idea that one particular film starts this whole thread of similar films.

[00:05:30] Josh: that's fascinating yet. I have to say, cause there's a star wars podcast, but, uh, Dave Filoni is the, sort of like head honcho over at, Disney star wars with all of the new, shows. he's like the major creative voice or one of the major creative voices.

[00:05:44] So I mean, that's what that word made me think

[00:05:46] of.

[00:05:47] So what's interesting is that, star wars happens and creates its own Filoni it seems very appropriate to me That a film that already has re mixing and its DNA would sort of spawn a whole sub genre of, people using it as a jumping off point to create their own work.

[00:06:10] Ed Glaser: Absolutely.

[00:06:11] Josh: What do you find so compelling about these remixed flotation films? Obviously, I mean, you wrote, a book about them. You, did a whole very awesome YouTube series called, deja view. That's on your neon harbored YouTube channel. what is it about them that, deserves so much.

[00:06:29] Ed Glaser: For me personally, I've just always had a particular fascination with remix in general. It just sort of tickles that part of my brain, um, where I want to connect dots and compare and, understand reasonings behind things. Um, one of my favorite films is a remake of a film. Uh, it's the John McKiernan remake of the Thomas crown affair.

[00:06:51] I thought the original is fine, but I loved McKiernan stomates it's fantastic. And then very shortly thereafter, McKiernan remade another film by the same director that was rollerball. And that movie is terrible. And I started like hunting down, like, why is this movie so bad? What, what changed? What, what is the reason behind this?

[00:07:12] I feel like there should be a pattern here for it, you know, good remake of a guy's film to another good remake of this guy's film. but I've always been interested in remix. I just think that they're generally. Interesting. And I think a number of artists also, uh, seem to think, so. I mean, you look at, for example, um, Mozart, who did the 12 variations on twinkle twinkle little star, just, you know, because it was just interesting.

[00:07:36] And, the thing is that we're very familiar with remix from our own culture, uh, to the point where we complain about them all the time. Um, but seeing our culture, our pop culture through a very different lens really kind of takes that interest for me to the next level, uh, to see what is it that resonates overseas?

[00:08:02] Um, what are the ways that our stories are adapted? Uh, that's just all really cool and neat, and I want to sink my teeth into it. So, uh, I don't know that there's really a concrete answer. I just think, uh, I feel like it tells us something about ourselves, about other cultures and if you're kind of a pop culture historian, as many of us kind of are these days, uh, it's just, it's just a really fun kind of playground to explore.

[00:08:38] Frey: Yeah. You mentioned in your book, cross-cultural remix are basically like perfect, examples of memes, which I thought was very true. you know, like he can't get a cleaner example of like a piece of cultural information kind of passing from one, and to be to another.

[00:08:52] Ed Glaser: Absolutely. And, uh, my, my friend and colleague, Ian Robert Smith wrote another book on the subject and more academic work on this subject called the Hollywood meme, which explores that idea and even greater detail.

[00:09:03] Josh: this is something as, Westerners or as far as Americans that, we forget that, the film industry such as it is, is, you know, because of, the amount of money involved in, you know, mounting of film and distributing a film, certainly, historically like Hollywood and American films have, have really sort of had this, hegemonic, grip on the world.

[00:09:28] So, so in a certain sense, it's like countries in the world had no choice, but to sort of, see American films and, you know, watch American films and it's only. it seems to me, it's only natural that they would, take those examples and adapt them to fit, their sensibilities and how they see the world.

[00:09:47] And, you know, they want to see a reflection of their values and, and faces that they recognize, I think in your chapter, on the man who saves the world, you say something about how that was the first time that children had seen, a Turkish, man in space.

[00:10:02] Frey: yeah, that alone makes its existence worthwhile

[00:10:05] Ed Glaser: and I, I should, , I should add for the, particularly pedantic out there that obviously it was not the first Turkish science fiction film. There have been other films with Turks in space. Um, but it was really sort of the first Turkish astronaut, you know, the idea that this is a character who isn't, um, sort of brought into space by happenstance.

[00:10:26] He isn't, um, a, an alternate version of a pop culture character from elsewhere that we're already aware of. For example, star Trek. Uh, there was a Turkish star

[00:10:36] Josh: I would say yes.

[00:10:37] Ed Glaser: uh, but you know, this, uh, this was, these were Turkish sort of astronauts or sort of, uh, space heroes in their own, right.

[00:10:47] Josh: I know. Absolutely. And, we welcome the pedantic in all its forms on this podcast. So, the man who saves the world, do you remember the first time you came across this.

[00:10:56] Ed Glaser: You bet I do

[00:10:57] It's not especially exciting, but it is sort of burned into my memory. It was, I had recently shown some friends in unsub pedaled copy of a Bollywood remake of silence of the lambs. Uh, so yes, uh, uh, silence of the lambs musical, and that was a great deal of fun. Uh, they enjoyed that a lot and I started thinking, you know, I wonder if there are other international remix, possibly unauthorized that are out there.

[00:11:32] Uh, so I should look, uh, I should look online and just see what I can find. And I think I just. The foreign remakes or something, foreign movie, remakes, foreign movie offs, you know, whatever my, uh, Google Fu sort of suggested to me at the time. And the first thing that came up was the Turkish star wars. And I think I was taken to somebody as a review of the film, some written review of the film.

[00:12:03] And I'm like, this looks amazing. I think there were some screenshots looked amazing. This was in the very earliest days of YouTube. So we're talking about an era where videos were 10, generally capped at five or 10 minutes. Um, but. The complete film was available on Google video back when that was a thing.

[00:12:30] Uh, so this was before Google even bought out YouTube. And so I remember telling my friends about this and we all gathered in the basement of one of my friend's houses and he got Google video up and running on his computer and then like ran the computer output to a CRT TV so that we could all watch it more comfortably.

[00:12:56] and like, then you know that when you do that, the film has the, the video is even blurrier because you're not talking about one-to-one sort of pixel aspect ratio. So it's kind of compensating and everything looks a little bit fuzzier than it should. So we all gathered around the TV, watching this very poorly subtitled, rather blurry, uh, wild.

[00:13:22] Turkish science fiction film with, uh, several boxes of pizza, uh, trying to figure out what was going on. And it was magic. And from then I like I had, I knew I had to find more of the stuff and I think perhaps more importantly, um, I kind of had to figure out and learn, where did this come from? I mean, yes, Turkey, but, but why this film, why does it look like this?

[00:13:53] Why does it sound like this? Uh, who are the people that made it? What was the context surrounding it? Um, because I think it's very easy to look at a weird film out of context. So we kind of don't understand and, uh, it's entertaining, but, um, you know, people made it. So, how did they make it? Why did they make it?

[00:14:17] Why did they make this, that sort of thing? So there you go.

[00:14:23] Josh: No totally. I think you hit the nail on the head. I have certainly found, I have a much greater appreciation for all kinds of films when I have at least some of the contexts, especially for, foreign films or, older films that may come from a culture, a tradition, a sensibility that I don't bring with me.

[00:14:43] So I always find I have a much richer viewing experience of a movie when I have some familiarity with the cultural context of, uh, from which it sprang. I don't know why I said it like that. Um, so that said, could you, talk a little about what you discovered about where the man who saves the world, AKA Turkish star wars came from,

[00:15:08] who made it and why

[00:15:09] Ed Glaser: yeah. the year was 1982 and there was a filmmaker named Çetin Inanç. Um, and his producing partner met and they'd been in business for a number of years and the. History of Turkish cinema is a wild one and would take too long to go into, but basically the idea is that they, it was a country with a ravenous appetite for films, no real infrastructure to make films, no sort of Hollywood or Cinecittà, uh, or, um, uh, you know, the Shaw brothers in Hong Kong.

[00:15:48] Like there's just nothing like that. Um, so it was all very fly by the seat of your pants. Uh, very, very low budget. And in 1982, they had a multi-payer deal with a very famous Turkish action star named Cüneyt Arkin. And they had done a number of sort of cops and robbers films. Um, but they were kind of looking for something different.

[00:16:21] The problem was that. This was just a couple of years after Turkey's third military coup in about 30 years. And so there was a very big issue with censorship. So one's options as an artist for creating art is very limited when you're under martial law. So you cannot do a film with a lot of political subject matter.

[00:16:55] Um, and even if you don't, there's still a possibility that you will be censored. Anyway, uh, there are filmmakers who complained that they had a scene on a beach, a romantic scene on the beach. And, uh, one of the two lovers says, uh, come on in the water shallow over here. And that was censored because it gave away strategic information about the coast of Turkey.

[00:17:25] Josh: Wow.

[00:17:26] Ed Glaser: would have, um, this story is sort of, uh, is not strictly true, but there are stories like this that you would. Have a bad guy shooting at a car and it would shoot, uh, shoot out the left tire. And the sensor would say, why did he shoot the left tire? Are you a leftist? And so, I mean, they were kind of looking for reasons to just use their scissors.

[00:17:55] Um, but the point is that it was very difficult to make whatever kind of films you wanted to. You generally had to play it safe. Um, however was looking for something different. And around this time, the Empire Strikes Back was in cinemas and he thought, you know, the space adventure stuff, Cüneyt Arkin was hugely famous for a lot of swashbuckling.

[00:18:26] Uh, swordfight adventure films and the Errol Flynn mode, uh, in the seventies. What if we do something like that? But in space effectively kind of a flash Gordon sort of deal. Well, Cüneyt Arkin was down for it. Uh, so they went to partner, Mehmet Karahafiz to pitch their idea. And Karahafiz was I guess, in a very, uh, good mood because he was willing to give them twice the usual budget, uh, that, uh, he would normally give to a film, which I mean, to a certain extent is understandable because space adventure films are very expensive, much more expensive than say melodramas or cop movies or things like that. that's still only amounted to about $300,000, which is about 1 37. The cost of Star Wars. It's, uh, less than 2%, the cost of the Empire Strikes Back. So, uh, still they decided that they are, they want to go, go forward with this. And, uh, innocuous idea is to build a bunch of outdoor spaceship sets, uh, in this Sandy seaside resort town of And they do. They create these sort of cool spaceship sets for all of the outer space scenes. And, uh, I'm not sure exactly how they're planning on shooting it. Um, but unfortunately it doesn't really matter because just before they were going to shoot a storm hit and destroyed the sets. So now they were left with no spaceships for their space moving, uh, and had to figure out how to, I mean, at the very least how to get them onto this, uh, flash Gordon, Mongo style planet, where they have to fight the monsters and, uh, save the girl and defeat the bad guy. So in entre does the only thing he can do. He steals star wars, uh, he bribes a nightwatchman and, uh, overnight he. Steals the reels from star wars, episode four, um, overnight takes them to his, uh, editor, friend and colleague Kunt Tulgar's studio. They, uh, take the scenes that they want the space footage, the dog fight stuff.

[00:21:07] Mostly the trench sequence, um, make, uh, duplicates of those sequences and then get the rails back to, uh, the studio before the next day. And with that, they cobbled together this new space sequence that kicks off the film. Now. Uh, early accounts of the film, uh, suggest that the beginning of the movie was really intended to be sort of a planet of the apes kind of thing, where the heroes were really sort of scientific astronauts.

[00:21:43] And then they end up crashing on the planet, which if you watch the film and you see right after they do crash, uh, there's this sort of exploratory sequence that both looks and sounds thanks to lifted music, uh, very much like Planet of the Apes.

[00:21:57] Frey: Yes.

[00:21:57] Josh: to say, yes, it does.

[00:21:59] Ed Glaser: And so my guess I'm not a hundred percent sure about this, but my educated guess is that what happened was that star wars was the most sensible movie to. Space wooded from, there's only a certain kind of space footage in Star Wars. Uh, we'll put the wars in all. So they basically recrafted the opening sequence to be about a space battle and, uh, shot new material to, um, incorporate that.

[00:22:24] And so, uh, they're using sequences with, uh, the, the Death Star trench run, and then to show their heroes as pilots of some of these fighters. Uh, they sit them down in the dubbing studio, uh, project footage from star wars behind the down, uh, and give them motorcycle helmets and like, uh, I think headphones on top of the motorcycle helmet.

[00:22:55] Uh, and then haven't talked about, okay, I'm ascending. All right. Typhoon-2 let's go. And. Behind them is space footage from star wars, but with the cuts. So that suddenly they're like at one point there's like a, a, a, another Thai fighter behind them. And then suddenly they're careening backwards down the death star.

[00:23:15] It's like, it's absolutely bonkers. Um, so that ended up giving Turkish Star Wars its most famous scene. Um, but really the rest of the film is kind of, uh, uh, Flash Gordon style, adventure meets scatterbrained, religious allegory, uh, with footage from multiple movies and music from even more movies.

[00:23:42] Josh: Yeah, well, that actually makes a lot of sense. That the Star Wars sequence at the beginning was, created, out of necessity, to solve a, logistical problem,

[00:23:53] but there's like sort of a, charming quality to that opening sequence, the idea that they thought they could get away with this like the belief that they had in, what they were doing was so strong that, they just knew that you would go with it.

[00:24:09] Ed Glaser: Yeah. I mean, the thing is that, you know, it's not quite a case of sort of Ed Wood-ian optimism, uh, but you know, the fact that. It was a, it was a very kind of slapdash industry. And, uh, I think because of that, and I don't mean like it's bad. I just mean like, everything had to be kind of thrown together very quickly all the time to keep turning out these movies because, um, I mean, at its peak, uh, Turkey's film industry was the third, most prolific in the world.

[00:24:43] Uh, so you're doing that with no

[00:24:44] Josh: Oh, I didn't realize.

[00:24:44] Ed Glaser: So when you're doing that with no infrastructure, I mean, like, come on. Um, uh, and so audiences were, I think, very willing to, uh, go along with it. And the thing is that, you know, people will say people in America or generally in the west will look at something like Turkish Star Wars and say, um, like, I can't believe that they, you know, do they not like, know that it was from star wars?

[00:25:07] Did they not have star wars? It's like, no, of course they knew it was from star wars. The things that, that didn't matter, like you're, you're. You're doing you're, you're getting the idea across there's fun space battles. What's not to like, and you know, there really wasn't anything that was, uh, legally preventing them from doing what they were doing because Turkey's intellectual property laws were very nebulous when it came to, um, foreign intellectual property.

[00:25:39] Josh: Yeah. You know, film certainly now. but for, I think the last, few decades I feel like has been, has had a preoccupation with, realism by that, I mean, the audience assumes that what they are being shown is what literally is supposed to be

[00:25:55] Ed Glaser: Zero suspension of disbelief.

[00:25:56] Josh: Right, right. and I feel like that's not always the way films used to operate, with an audience. Like, I feel like there was sort of like this implicit understanding that films could also be more representational, like, you know, the images and the cinema of it all is like creating an impression. That's supposed to communicate an idea. And I think, the opening sequence of this film is an example where, I think you're right. I think like, to, contemporary Western eyes like they aren't seeing the representation, we sort of lost the ability to see what it's doing. which is creating an impression, a representation of what

[00:26:33] this is supposed to be. It's not, it's not literally, this is happening. You're supposed to believe this is real and exactly what it is, right. If that makes any

[00:26:41] Ed Glaser: Yep. Absolutely. And you know, again, it's worth remembering that this was not plan a, but they, but they did have to finish a film. So, you know,

[00:26:51] Frey: To just to go back to like the political climate is made in, like, um, I understand like a genie Arkin, like a pre-made actual, like overtly political, like a few over early political movies in the seventies, kind of right before the Marshall wall era.

[00:27:07] And I was wondering if you've ever sensed that, like, this is a secretly like political movie in any way in the sense that star wars is. Um,

[00:27:16] Ed Glaser: Yeah,

[00:27:17] Frey: even though that despite yeah. I mean, that's what they were, that's what they were trying to avoid that appearance at all costs. But I wonder if that kind of snuck in there and

[00:27:23] Ed Glaser: no. I mean, to be sure, uh, there were political filmmakers that were still doing their best around that time. I mean, in 1980, you had someone you had, directors like, Yılmaz Güney, um, the very famous left-wing Marxist filmmaker, uh, who in the year of, uh, or, you know, just after the coup, um, made the road, uh, yall from prison, uh, by proxy. So, you know, there were, there were still political filmmakers, but in the case of Turkish star wars, it really was made explicitly for children.

[00:28:00] Josh: There were some things in there that I couldn't help, but wonder if, you know, there was some maybe unconscious, political message, like some stuff in there about Turkish, pride, or maybe, the idea that their culture would survive into the future.

[00:28:15] Ed Glaser: Yeah, and that's absolutely fair. I mean, it's, it's worth keeping in mind that, Turkey is and has been a very nationalistic country. So there really is a lot of that, , throughout the sort of pop culture. , I worked on an English language translation of a Turkish version of Dracula from nine from the 1920s.

[00:28:37] And it was basically a pirated version of Dracula, the real Bram Stoker's novel. Didn't get into Turkey until the 1990s or 1990, something like that. And, uh, one of the things that it did besides, um, modernizing and then. In his 10 ball is really infusing it with that very familiar sense of Turkish nationalism that you would see in something like Turkey or star wars or many of the films of that era.

[00:29:07] So I would say sort of like you're saying, it's not uncommon for that audience, but coming at it from outside, it does look sort of peculiar. Um, and I should also say that a lot of the content of Turkish star wars, and I continue to call it Turkish Star Wars, because it is so much faster to say, then deny your Toronto Dom, or The Man Who Saves the World.

[00:29:29] Um, but, um, it was really created as sort of a mishmash of ideas out of, uh, Çetin Inanç and Cüneyt Arkins minds. So there's a lot of philosophy and religion. Bits and pieces, probably some political bits and pieces that are thrown into this soup.

[00:29:56] Josh: Um,

[00:29:57] Ed Glaser: Um, but if you're to say, well, it has this underlying sort of subversive political message.

[00:30:04] No. but to say it's devoid of philosophy or politics in any way. I mean, even, even by being devoid of politics, I suppose you could say that that, that is making a political statement. So, uh, I, I don't want to invalidate that reading of it, but I think when it comes to sort of artistic intent, um, it's just not there as, as prominently.

[00:30:27] Josh: No, that makes sense. what do you love about this movie?

[00:30:30] Ed Glaser: I don't think we have time. I mean, this is a movie that is relentlessly entertaining. from the first frame to the last, it is a fast paced kinetic, you know, loads of action, space battles, multiple alien races, monsters, robots, blasters, magic sword fights, what is not to love, not to mention the joy of, recognizing bits and pieces from other films.

[00:31:00] I mean, it's just so much fun. you know, if you're talking about particular scenes, I mean, none of my choices are going to surprise you. Uh, I love the opening dog fight sequence. I don't think I have ever seen, so much. Footage from another source repurposed in such an audacious way. not in terms of like brazen copyright infringement, because that really was not an issue, but, totally reworked.

[00:31:24] It's an, it's something that I wouldn't really see until maybe a few years later with, um, are you familiar with the space mutiny? It was a mystery science theater, 3000, uh, sort of

[00:31:35] classic.

[00:31:36] that uses a bunch of footage from Battlestar Galactica, but even so it's basically using it the same way that Battlestar Galactica use it, just changing the insert shots and calling the bad guy something else.

[00:31:46] And you know, it's pretty much the same thing, but here you're looking at a sequence where, uh, they've totally cut it apart. And so now the tie fighters are the good guys. The ex-felons are the bad guys. The millennium Falcon is maybe the villain ship. It's kind of unclear. Um, Uses that footage to tell a totally different story.

[00:32:07] So that's, that's loads of fun. Um, I love the training montage with Murat and Ali punching rocks and kicking them until they explode. And, uh, of course the big finale free for all with hundreds of alien monsters and Cüneyt Arkin punching and kicking them with his golden gauntlets and boots.

[00:32:28] Frey: like I was surprised this is the first time I've watched this movie, like all the way through.

[00:32:31] And it was surprised. Like I just loved it in ways that like, I wasn't expecting to, like, obviously there is, like, first of all, it's like a like gleefully, uh, creative and like a childlike way, but like it's, so it it's kind of an individual scenes. you're just kind of like, w like, this is insane what's going on here, but I was surprised like, in how well, like an over, like a broad sense, like how it's like, oh, this is like a satisfying story from like, being in the end.

[00:32:53] Like, it's kind of like, if, like, there was a written essay and all the paragraphs were solid. Like, these are all solid paragraphs, but like every, every sentence in them was just like an insane sentence, but like the whole structure worked. yeah, it was just the same, the creative movie.

[00:33:09] And I think the editing, the kind of rises to like a level of like true art at some points, uh,

[00:33:13] Ed Glaser: is, it is unorthodox.

[00:33:15] Frey: Yes, And there was a, the, the one towards the beginning. It was after the planet of the apes sequence. Um, when they're kind of discussing, like, do you think that's true and then. Jaren cut that like the skeleton army shows up and he's immediately on top of them, like fighting them, like I think, uh, you said this is like the original cut was two and a half hours.

[00:33:34] Right. And they cut it. do you think that the way that it was the vinyl product was edited as result of like that in particular or

[00:33:42] Ed Glaser: I would say that that is likely part of it, but I would not be surprised if that is only a small part. and not just films, especially in the eighties were very wild and kinetic. Um, he and his director of photography who was also his brother-in-law Çetin Gürtop they just did wild things with the camera that you are not supposed to do. And, it's fantastic. Um, and, and there's a lot of, sort of wild discontinuity of action or of editing that can make for a very disorienting experience.

[00:34:15] But I will tell you having in a couple of cases really gone through this film frame by frame, certainly in the case of Turkish star wars and not just because I'm a weirdo, that you start to finally realize, oh, okay. So the action between these shots does have a logic behind it. It just doesn't come through because the shot shifted beyond 180 degrees, the angle rather.

[00:34:41] And, uh, and now we jumped further away and there was a weird cutaway, but like, if you, if you were to write it down on paper, you could probably map it out as long as you were going. Slow enough. Now I'm not saying that that is smart filmmaking, generally speaking, um, It is something, uh, that I observed and perhaps is maybe a treat.

[00:35:07] If you've seen this movie enough as you start to be able to piece some of it together. I mean, not to mention the fact that some of the shots last, just the tiniest fraction of a second.

[00:35:16] Frey: Yeah. but technically it's like, it's there though. It's like, I'm just not classical Hollywood editing, but like you can, it's there just kind of like collapsed, I guess,

[00:35:26] Ed Glaser: And I will, I will say that, you know, In many cases, this bed is the case. there are also elements of this movie that genuinely do not make sense and like acknowledged, like

[00:35:38] they, they don't make sense. So, uh, you know, I, I don't want to put this, on an artistic pedestal where I'm suggesting you guys just don't understand, man.

[00:35:50] Frey: Yeah.

[00:35:51] Josh: No, I understand what you're saying. Um, um, though, I will say though, if you subscribe to, the death of the author reading where, intention at a certain point doesn't really matter.

[00:36:00] And it sort of, it sort of is what it is. So, if you make those connections or you ascribe meaning to those things. I mean, that's certainly

[00:36:07] Ed Glaser: Sure. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:36:09] Frey: yeah, It's more like a collection of art forms. Like you were saying, like even the use of, like lifted footage, is the w the way that it's new is, is I think it kind of is its own form of found footage like that. It isn't just kind of slapped on there because they needed a shout of an explosion. I mean, it is that, but it also, they, you know, they implement it in a way that kind of makes it their own.

[00:36:31] I feel like.

[00:36:33] Ed Glaser: Yeah. I can absolutely say that.

[00:36:34] Josh: Am I correct in understanding that you're in position of the last known surviving 35 millimeter print of the man who saves

[00:36:43] Ed Glaser: Yes, I am

[00:36:44] Josh: Um, how. Obviously you don't have to get into

[00:36:51] Ed Glaser: giving away the secrets.

[00:36:54] Josh: me actually, go back a little bit. what started your search Or was it something that you stumbled

[00:36:59] Ed Glaser: no. Yeah. I think I I'll probably, I should probably answer your question at how, so the problem with a lot of Turkish films and their existence is that so many of them from that period, it's the Yasha traumas, the, the street in Istanbul where most Turkish production, uh, production companies had their offices.

[00:37:20] And it sort of became shorthand for, the film industry between the 1950s and eighties, sort of Turkish Hollywood, basically. And, many of those films were simply not preserved or they were preserved improperly and there was a disaster. And so, so many of them have been lost or destroyed entirely.

[00:37:39] Frey: That's great.

[00:37:40] Ed Glaser: often those that didn't survive like Turkish star wars only did so on videotape with the prints and negatives all gone.

[00:37:48] But in the fall of 2015, our brief ad appeared on an Istanbul cinema website for sale 35 millimeter distribution print of the man who saves the world. So it turns out that back in the eighties, a cinema projectionist had just kept it. Instead of sending it back to the studio, he claimed the print had been heavily damaged way too damaged, ever play again.

[00:38:16] So the company said fine, don't send it back, just throw it away. No problem, presumably with a great big wink, but, uh, in 2015, he sold the print to my colleague in

[00:38:31] Frey: yeah.

[00:38:32] Ed Glaser: and Ali Murat had hopes of preserving, scanning and restoring it. Unfortunately, no one in Turkey was interested in making that happen. I'd been following his efforts and I eventually bought the print from him, knowing that there's much more interest in the film abroad and that at least the scanning and preservation could be done here in the states.

[00:38:53] So I got the film and worked with the company to have it cleaned, scanned, and risk. And. Uh, because by the time Ali, Martin and I got ahold of it, this was not a pristine print. The color had faded and parts had simply been damaged over time and cut out sometimes just a few frames, but there were about half a dozen really significant chunks that were missing, including the very beginning and very end.

[00:39:21] so when we premiered it in London in 2018, I produced a sort of reconstructed version with color correction and the missing portions patched from videotape sources. So that's the story of, uh, my, involvement in the, the Turkish star wars print.

[00:39:39] Josh: Well on behalf of cinema files, everywhere and fans of this film and the internet. I want to extend my hearty. Thanks and gratitude for, your film preservation, work. And then, you did a very limited Blu-ray release of this restoration.

[00:39:59] Ed Glaser: so that was not me. That was, um,

[00:40:01] so yeah, that was a company called, uh, big boss for us out of, uh, somewhere in the Western us. and they did, yeah, a very, very limited, uh, Blu-ray release.

[00:40:12] Josh: I am one of the proud owners

[00:40:14] I have, I think it was what, one of a thousand.

[00:40:17] Ed Glaser: Yeah, there, there were not, there were not very many, it was, it was available for about a week.

[00:40:21] Josh: I just, I love that this exists and I'm so, I'm so glad that, you made it possible.

[00:40:26] Ed Glaser: Well, I, I can't, I can't claim to have any particular, philanthropic motives. I just wanted to see it. I mean,

[00:40:33] Josh: I get it. No, absolutely.

[00:40:36] Ed Glaser: that's not really true. I mean, obviously, like I love sharing these movies with people and, and, uh, frankly, you know, when I got it, the goal was to get it in front of as many eyes as possible.

[00:40:49] Uh, which as you can imagine is very difficult. I mean, my, you know, I reached out to lots of other labels, like, Hey, I've got this thing, are you interested? And they're like, oh, that sounds awesome. No, thanks. you know, um, I was really delighted that we were able to sh to screen it in London. Um, we're going to be doing it again, uh, next month in April, for, for a remix plantation, uh, festival that will feature that.

[00:41:16] And for other Turkish remakes, uh, in addition to a very excellent documentary by Jim Kaia called remake remix, rip-off that sort of documents the history of the phenomenal.

[00:41:27] Josh: Oh, yes. That is that from, is that from 2014?

[00:41:29] Ed Glaser: Uh, that sounds about right.

[00:41:31] Josh: Yeah. Yeah. Cause in preparation for this episode. I think that came up in my research. I didn't have an opportunity to, actually get ahold of it, but,

[00:41:38] Ed Glaser: It is, it is very difficult to, because of rights issues. So generally the best way to see it as at a film pass and so forth, which sucks, but he really, um, Jim Kyra, the, uh, the filmmaker, he really wanted to get it out there and, um, it just, it just didn't happen.

[00:41:54] Josh: Yeah, no, I mean, that makes sense. something that I wanted to say about. The man who saves the world. I actually really think a lot of the, location work is really good.

[00:42:04] Like the locations, where they shot a lot of

[00:42:07] stuff

[00:42:07] know, really adds a lot of, uh, production value.

[00:42:10] Ed Glaser: It does. It is gorgeous. So that was all shot in Kapadokya. And it's just one of the most beautiful places in the world. I want to go there. I'm not been myself, but, uh, I'm not one to make pilgrimages to where they film movies and things. Uh, you know, I don't need to see the house that, uh, Ferris Bueller, uh, lived in, you know, but, On its own capital.

[00:42:34] Kapadokya is, is just so cool. it's famous for those. I think they're called the fairy chimneys. Long sort of mushroom shaped, rock formations, uh, which you see when they land. in our company filmed a lot at, the grim, uh, open air museum, which is this complex of cave churches from the, uh, I want to say 10th, 11th and 12th centuries, built into the volcanic rock, painted with religious iconography.

[00:43:09] it is just the most amazing, uh, any, when they, when they go and get the, that crazy lightning sword, um, that's all filmed there. Several other sequences are filmed there. they did an, a bunch of shooting at, Very real underground cities. I think probably Derinkuyu is the one that they shot at.

[00:43:30] I'm not a hundred percent sure, but these were actually multilevel underground cities built in the, eighth and seventh centuries. BCE.

[00:43:41] And people lived in these like eight story, underground cities,

[00:43:45] when they go and they escape there, they first meet the wise old man, played by one of my favorite Turkish actors Hüseyin Peyda and then the monsters attack and they have to run away from them and they hide in this room and they rolled this stone door to block the passageway.

[00:44:03] So the monsters can get them. That's real. That was an entrance to one of these actual underground cities. Um, and in fact, some of the stuff that kind of sounds like. nonsense when. Ali, uh, Cüneyt Arkın's character and, um, the daughter of the wise old man go and get the sword and the magical brain.

[00:44:23] Um, and there's this narrator who talks about, these pilgrims from, you know, from a piece of earth and they build these cities, uh, multiple stories underground and, uh, to escape persecution and stuff like it's based. It's this is based on actual history that has just sort of been transplanted to this science fiction scenario.

[00:44:42] There really were, Christians who escaped into these underground cities to avoid persecution. I mean, it's super cool. And this like crazy volcanic rock, complex is just one of the neatest things in the world to see. you know, you can actually visit them. There are other cave structures from that area that you can go see, they built hotels in them that you can stay at and I want to go so badly.

[00:45:10] Um, yeah, I mean that whole area is absolutely gorgeous. And then there's a sequence that sort of comes out of nowhere, at this, Muslim, the Muslim of, uh, Haji Bektashi Belli, who is, I want to say either a Saint or Saint adjacent and, you know, the wise old man is there and sort of talks about how, Islam is really cool.

[00:45:34] And, there were these followers of Islam who, uh, came to this bronze mountain that they melted down into a sword. And they're talking about all of this stuff. Um, at this Muslim and you're like, why, why is, why is this here? And it's really because they were just near this actual mausoleum and mantras, like, well, when are we going to be here again?

[00:45:53] Let's shoot something here. And so they did.

[00:45:56] Josh: Yeah,

[00:45:56] Ed Glaser: And it's a, it's a gorgeous structure as well.

[00:45:59] Frey: we're the unused spaceship sets where that.

[00:46:02] would have been a completely different location,

[00:46:03] Ed Glaser: Different location.

[00:46:04] Frey: visually.

[00:46:05] Josh: and that actually reminds me of something, I believe you said in your Dasia

[00:46:09] view on Turkish star

[00:46:10] Trek, um, you made the point that, a lot of, Turkish productions had, you know, similar problems to a lot of American productions, which is a low budget and here in the U S like, we just had the backlot if it's not on the backlog, we would shoot things into soundstage.

[00:46:27] But, in Turkey, they had, you know, glorious locations and, ruins and relics they could just, take a drive and, all of a sudden you have this incredible production value from these like real world. Um, like you were saying, I believe one of the locations in the Turkish star Trek, production was shot at one of the

[00:46:49] Ed Glaser: Yeah. At emphasis, one of the yes. Side of, one of the seven wonders of the, of the ancient world. And that's the thing it's like, you know, Turkish star Trek, it's, you know, roughly a remake of the mantrap the first episode that aired and. on the one hand, you know, their version of the enterprise looks a little bit fancier than the one that you see on the classic TV show.

[00:47:10] But if you look at the episode and you look at the Turkish film and you try to tell me that, the planet that they land on, it looks better and star Trek than it does in a Turkish star Trek. Then you can go to hell because, uh, that, that is amazing.

[00:47:26] Josh: No, it's it's beautiful. It's it's I mean, yeah. The production value that they are able to get from that, like, I mean, the soundstage planet set, doesn't hold a candle to what they were able to get on

[00:47:37] screen for Turkey

[00:47:38] Ed Glaser: it's always the same, like, like 20 feet with the six rocks at the back and the

[00:47:42] colored Cyclorama right. Like, come on.

[00:47:44] Josh: they just swap out the gels and then it's a whole different atmosphere, whole new planet,

[00:47:48] Ed Glaser: and it's like, you kind of have to do that because you want that control over the set so that you can shoot quickly and you need to be able to get good sound and so forth. And in Turkey, they didn't like there was no infrastructure, they didn't have sound stages. And, uh, they didn't have to worry about sound because they weren't shooting sound.

[00:48:03] They, they were doing the same thing that they were doing in Hong Kong or Italy. They were shooting without sound and then doubling the whole thing in post.

[00:48:10] Frey: I was wondering if you know anything about, uh, Cüneyt's Arkins jacket that he wears and this cause it's a good one.

[00:48:15] Ed Glaser: I know I want it so bad. Well, okay. Specifically, specifically, I want the black one, the sort of uniform one that,

[00:48:22] Frey: Oh yeah,

[00:48:23] that

[00:48:23] Ed Glaser: yeah.

[00:48:24] With the, with the logo on it, I want that one so bad, but, uh, I know some people have recreated the, the blue one that he wears, uh, for like, for like, um, uh, either conventions or, or midnight screenings or things like that.

[00:48:37] Frey: I was hoping it's his personal jacket.

[00:48:38] Ed Glaser: Yeah. I said, sadly, I do not think so. Um, and th they also, they recreated it for, um, the CQL to the man who saves the world. Uh, they recreated both of those costumes, I think. Um, but that movie is not.

[00:48:52] Frey: , uh, non-Chinese uh, idea per the, on like the unmade sequel. That sounded incredible.

[00:48:57] Ed Glaser: Oh, Yeah.

[00:48:58] Frey: that one was made.

[00:48:59] Ed Glaser: Yeah. So it was, um, yeah, it involved like the, the aliens coming in, kidnapping, the American and Turkish presidents, um, the heroes have to like go through a black hole and fight zombie ninja space warriors. And, you know, the, the whole thing was another sort of even grander religious allegory about, you know, a battle between good and evil and the devil.

[00:49:22] Josh: Well, you said he's he's, he's still around.

[00:49:24] Ed Glaser: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:49:25] Josh: do you think if we were able to crowdfund it, he'd be up for, getting back on the old director's

[00:49:30] Ed Glaser: I don't know. I know that there was some, uh, that some folks kind of wanted to do something, not exactly along those lines. there was a project called, uh, like didn't, you know, you could run it down 1.5 and I kind of don't know the specifics of that, but that was a very short-lived kind of, crowdfunding endeavor that was run by somebody else.

[00:49:51] It wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't him, but he was on board for it. Um, yeah, I don't know if, if he would be interested in jumping in the director's seat, uh, or if he is enjoying his, quiet life of retirement at the moment. Uh, it's a really good question. I mean, obviously everything's kind of, up in the air with, you know, the whole plague and everything, but,

[00:50:08] Josh: Yes, right? No, no, that's certainly

[00:50:10] Ed Glaser: I did, I did kind of want, I really wished I had a number of years ago when the Expendables came out, I was like, oh man, there really needs to be a Turkish Expendables, like, cause cause there, there, there are a handful of really, really famous, um, or not as famous, but perhaps also like iconic, Turkish action stars.

[00:50:27] That would be really fun to like, you know, uh, putting a movie and should it on digital video who cares and just like, you know, do it like the old days, because that's really the problem in Turkey right now is that a lot of the old school filmmakers stopped doing it because getting budgets was really difficult.

[00:50:40] And, only a few, I think really made the jump to the sort of TV era, the, the shoot on video kind of, kind of era. And I'm not sure enough of them were, able to embrace. And I don't mean this in terms of like they were reticent, but I think that there were, there were barriers that, meant that they just kind of couldn't embrace that, uh, that new DIY, um, uh, sort of video, boom.

[00:51:06] Josh: Yeah, the way a production works from the technical side, it's a completely, it's a completely different thing. It's like, you know, you have to, have whole other expertise

[00:51:13] Ed Glaser: And yet, and yet you still need, you still need some kind of infrastructure. You still, you know, you're, you're still, if, if it's very, very, very difficult to get the budgets, then, you know, yes, you don't have to, worry about paying for film and film development and so forth. But, uh, you know, you're still, otherwise using similar resources, um, actors, crew,

[00:51:34] Josh: it's still, it's still hard to Mount a

[00:51:35] Ed Glaser: yeah.

[00:51:35] Locations are probably more expensive than they ever were. So, you know, this.

[00:51:39] Josh: Yeah. do you have any idea or are you aware, what knock thinks of the sort of resurgence in, the interest around this.

[00:51:48] Ed Glaser: He's very positive on it. I got the opportunity to sit down with him for quite a while when I visited Istanbul a few years ago, um, he is the sweetest guy in the world. And, um, he's, you know, he's really positive on that, this new appreciation for the film, you know, I think, uh, he, he gets his hackles up a little bit when if you, if you're really harp on the fact that, you know, oh, they were stealing this footage whenever and it's like, like, like.

[00:52:19] Yeah, but no, like, one, there were no copyright laws that were really saying, no, you absolutely cannot do this. he, and all of his, colleagues were working under really just terrible, miserable, insufficient conditions. and these films were transformations of Hollywood film ideas, but they were not, you know, it's, it's not, it's not just crude theft.

[00:52:42] And I think, I think, that can kind of get to them, but otherwise, no, he's, he gets a kick out of.

[00:52:48] Frey: I think didn't you say that he jokes that, another, was it, did he do a Superman

[00:52:52] Ed Glaser: Yeah, no, it was,

[00:52:53] Frey: any jokes

[00:52:53] Ed Glaser: it was, uh, uh, couldn't tell Gar who was the, well, I would say maybe sort of supervising editor for Turkish star wars, but also, um, he ran the editing and dubbing studio where they, um, uh, process the film and he was sort of the visual effects guy, for it. And he was a filmmaker in his own right.

[00:53:13] Um, Kentucky, he passed away just, uh, a week or so ago. Um, which is extremely tragic. Yeah. Um, I talked to him to what he was just a hoot to hang out with and talk about and talk with, just so wonderful and funny. and he did joke about, you know, that Turkish star wars has the reputation for being the worst film ever made.

[00:53:36] And he's like, like, no, it's not, it should be my film, the Turkish Superman, it's the worst shot.

[00:53:43] Josh: I'm very sorry to hear that he just passed away. I didn't, I didn't realize that, um, I believe you quote him, in the book, um, he has that lovely quote.

[00:53:52] Ed Glaser: If you can, if you can do it, do it. If you can't do it, steal it.

[00:53:55] Josh: exactly, exactly. Uh, I just love, I think that's great. Where would you direct somebody who was interested in watching Turkish star wars?

[00:54:04] Ed Glaser: So, unfortunately the Blu-ray was very short lived. and if you go to YouTube, you're probably only going to get. Poor quality on subtitled version, uh, from the current rights holders, because they kind of have an iron grip on, the stuff and to be real clear, the company that owns the rights fanatic film, they were not responsible for the film.

[00:54:25] This is run by a fellow who in the, I want to say mid to late two thousands was just basically gobbling up film rights, wherever he could get them, sometimes getting them for a song. and then sort of ruling over them, like, uh, like smug from the Hobbit. Uh, so, uh, I've, I've seen other people try to put up different versions of the film and they all get taken down.

[00:54:47] Um, but I have heard that there are websites like archive.org and rare lust, where one might be able to procure such films.

[00:54:59] Josh: He's heard. He doesn't

[00:55:01] Ed Glaser: Yeah, I don't, I don't know, but, but I, but I've, I've heard tell.

[00:55:04] Frey: and now you heard.

[00:55:07] Josh: where can people find you and your work? If they're interested in reading more about, uh, what you

[00:55:13] Ed Glaser: Sure. Um, so the easiest place to go is my website, neon harbor.com. And, uh, that'll show you all of my projects, uh, including my films and web series that have nothing to do with remakes. But, you can find Dasia view there. And, uh, if you're interested in my book, how the world remained Hollywood, I would say the easiest thing is probably just to go to your favorite online bookseller, because at least in the states, most of them have it.

[00:55:41] Um, Amazon and target and Walmart and Barnes and noble and everybody, or you can go directly to McFarland's website that publisher and that's McFarland books.com and you can get it directly from them there. I understand that. They're pretty quick about shipping this out.

[00:55:56] Josh: Fantastic. and I will be sure to link to all that stuff in our show

[00:56:01] notes for this episode. I really genuinely want to thank you for being so generous with your time and sitting down with us to talk about, this film

[00:56:10] Ed Glaser: Let me, let me tell you, let me, let me tell you a secret, uh,

[00:56:14] one of the reasons that I do this ridiculous stuff like. Uh, reconstruct the 35 millimeter print of Turkish star wars and write weird books about crazy remakes is, uh, to have the opportunity to talk about films like this, uh, with other people that like them.

[00:56:30] So, this is, uh, this is why I do it. Uh, just to, just to chat about these movies. It's a, it's a great way to meet people, make friends and talk about movies.

[00:56:39] Josh: Well,

[00:56:40] Ed Glaser: so it is my pleasure.

[00:56:41] Josh: well that is fantastic. makes me so happy to hear.

[00:56:43] Frey: I just, I just want to personally recommend his book cause I'm like, it's like my current happy place right now. It's like a

[00:56:49] treasure trove for

[00:56:50] anybody that like likes to learn new things about movies. really I can't recommend

[00:56:53] enough.

[00:56:54] Josh: I had actually, I had pre-ordered it and I guess,

[00:56:57] um, my hard copy hasn't arrived yet. And so I was. I was talking with Frye yesterday and he was like, he was like, I have it it's out digital version, so I went online, and I bought, the digital version I was mad because I wanted to read as much of it as I could in preparation for this recording.

[00:57:14] But at the same time I was enjoying it so much that I kind of wanted to take my time with it a little bit more. So. that is to say Hardy Hardy recommendation, two thumbs up from, from this guy. and as well, we were saying off air, your, deja view series on your neon Harbor, YouTube channel is really fantastic.

[00:57:33] It's really great. It's a lot of fun. it's very educational. It's very fascinating, very well made and well put together. It's just, I can't recommend it highly

[00:57:43] Frey: and you have other great.

[00:57:44] series on there too. I kind of, I like to binge on the mission

[00:57:48] Ed Glaser: Oh, my goodness. Thank you very much. That was, that was a lot of fun. You're very sort of a spoof of the, the eighties, Godfrey honed, ninja movies, and other silliness where we stick ninjas into

[00:57:58] Frey: Oh, you know what I want to ask you. You, you directed an animated feature.

[00:58:02] Ed Glaser: I did, um, it's called space ninja. And it was based on a comic that a friend of mine started drawing a web comic and sort of before he could get anywhere with it, I was like, this needs to be animated. And actually in, in truth, it was, um, we did it as an animated series, a web series of short segments.

[00:58:22] And, uh, it only sort of only got a season. And when we wanted to do a DVD of it, where like, since these are so short, um, it just doesn't make sense to put them is like individual episodes, because you're just going to like, watch them, then see, you know, a few seconds of credits and then have to watch the next one.

[00:58:41] It's like, why don't we just edit them together in a feature. And since we're doing that, Why don't we add some interstitual material and, uh, sort of enhance the finale and add some new stuff to the end, to do some stuff that we might've done in future seasons, but to kind of wrap up the story, uh, and so do it as a feature.

[00:58:57] And, uh, and so we did, and that was, uh, that was a lot of fun, but, you know, if the pacing, if, if you happen to watch it and you're like, this pacing is weird, it's like, yeah, because it wasn't really designed to be a feature film, but,

[00:59:08] Josh: Oh, that's very cool. And is that available on your YouTube channel as well? Or?

[00:59:12] Ed Glaser: uh, it is

[00:59:13] it's on to B. And if you go to neon Harbor, like there's, there's a link to it.

[00:59:16] Frey: Yeah, your website's very easy to navigate. I will say.

[00:59:19] Ed Glaser: I just recently redesigned it to kind of be exactly that. And I'm really glad that that, that it worked because I think yours is maybe the first feedback that I got on that. So thank you.

[00:59:29] Josh: so knowing, your enthusiasm for these kinds of discussions, we are planning to do a whole series of these. we definitely want to cover star crash

[00:59:36] and,

[00:59:37] message from space.

[00:59:38] Ed Glaser: I got to tell you you should reach out to Steven Romano about star crash, because he's the guy and like everything I learned from about star crash, I learned from, from his stuff. So, uh, he's he's the real source. he literally wrote a book on star crash that he was unable to get published. So.

[00:59:59] Josh: maybe we can, have both of you on, but, I think we're also going to do at some point, message from

[01:00:04] space, which is another movie that I'm very fond of.

[01:00:06] so hope to have you back considerate, uh, a standing open invitation.

[01:00:09] Ed Glaser: I do recommend if you're just, you know, investigating other sort of star wars, ask, remakes plantation films, uh, the Italian film, the humanoid

[01:00:18] Josh: Oh yes. I haven't seen that one. It's on my list though, of, of ones to

[01:00:23] Ed Glaser: it's so cool. It's like they took all of the production design from S from star wars and threw it in a blender. It's it's really uncanny,

[01:00:30] highly.

[01:00:31] Josh: well, well, that's a must watch.

[01:00:34] Once again, ed, thank you so much. This was a ton of fun. If you enjoyed any of what you heard, please visit trashcan pod.com and trashcan pod on all social media, and we will see you on the next one.