This is Later with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews Podcast More What You Here Weekday Afternoon is on the Drive. Anthony se Ferrante is a well He made his feature writing and directing debut with the Atmospheric Ghost Story Boo, but he's been a lifelong horror fan and he's parleyed all of his fandom into the production of the Shark Nato franchise, which is out with its tenth anniversary edition, newly remastered, never before seen kills and Thrills, More Sharks, More Nato,
and I can't wait to see it. Anthony, thanks for joining us, Nah, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. So we have our share of tornadoes, we do not have our share of sharks. You should be you should be worried because everything that we did in the Sharknado movies
has come true. So I don't want to wish that on you. But you know, the weird thing is that there was a there was like a mini funnel in Los Angeles about three or four months ago, and I was picking up debris and I was we were looking at it and loving that actually looks like our cgi sharks. Because the Japore looked like it almost looked identical to a shot from a Sharknado movie. So again, be careful. We watch the watch the skies. It's not necessarily tornado. It's the sharks that
can can really do some damage. The tornadoes are scary enough, even though we're so used to them. When the sirens go off, everybody's grabbing their camera to go get a picture of it. So they don't do that in Sharknado, do they They don't go take a picture of it. Well, let me get let me maybe I can get the shark flying by. Yeah. And unfortunately, unfortunately, a chainsaw's not gonna help you against a regular tornado either. So that's true. I mean, maybe that's the danger and
what we've done for for the Oklahoma residence. It's like, hey, mom, Dad, I got the chainsaw. It's like no, no, no, no, and it's there's no sharks in it. Oh, so we
better go protect ourselves now. Sharknado, the tenth Anniversary edition is out and it'll be at AMC Quail Springs twenty four, Bricktown sixteen, and Regal Warren and more, Tulsa's AMC South Roads twenty with Imax and Dolby B and B, Tulsa, Star World twenty and Regal Warren and Broken Arrow, all the places where you can see it. How did you come up with the original concept? Did you just decide, hey, let's make a scary tornado we
even scarier. It was just we tried to come up with the most ridiculous idea. Jacob harre Wright, a guy who write a couple of scripts with we would come up with some stupid ideas and one of them was Sharknado, and and honestly, sci Fi was like no a couple of times, and then I wrote a reference to the Sharknado and another script for them, and they go, that's when we must make this movie. And that's that's what
we you know. It was just a title that that tickled us, and we thought it was kind of silly and fun, and we were trying to find a way to make it without Sci Fi, and then they decided to do it. And I was fortunate enough to come along for the ride and make six of these movies. So, you know, we always believed in the promise of the premise, and I wanted to deliver and over deliver,
you know, regardless of budget and time. You know, we had six months start to finish, no money, eighteen days and it just was lightning in a bottle. Something happened. But you know, I never gave up on the movie. If anything was like, well, you know, if it destroys my career, at least I went down in Flaming Sharks and and you know, and that's what you do. You got to put everything in
it. And you know, be damned when anybody thinks. We wrote the theme song to the film, The Ballad of Sharknado, and someone told me, don't put that out there. People are going to make fun of you. And I was like, no, we're putting it out and you know, it's a little Ramon's type ditty kind of thing, and it's, you know, uh, go go go, go go, run away from the Sharknado. It's your greatest puff of foe. Don't want to get eaten by Sharknado. And it just it just you know, it was fun and that's
what the whole movie was. It was just a celebration of fun. And now people can get see it in the theater. There there's a generation that grew up on it that know what it is. From TV. They see it every year and then now you're gonna get a whole new generation. They're gonna go to a theater and get that communal experience that people had on Twitter that first night. So and we remastered it for theatrical it's a different experience. It's the same ridiculous movie, but with you know, four K remix
sound new Sharks. We went back into the original cuts of the movie to see if there's stuff that we ran out of time to do, and we put some of that stuff back in the film, did a little bit of re editing. Basically, George Lucas this thing to make sure the Sharks shoot first. Anthony Ferranti is the director and writer of Shark Nado and this is the tenth anniversary which is playing in and around the area this week. As it opened, so audiences were at first wait, no, really, and
then hey, this is cool, but what about casting? Was it difficult to get people to be in the movie? No one, No one wanted to be in the movie. They put out a casting notice, you know, you sent out offered just the name talent, and every time they sent out something with Shark Nado was like no, no. And then they then they then they set out a casting, noticing, no, it's called Dark
Skies. Yeah, that's the ticket. And then of course, uh, you know, we got our when we got our cast, and then they found out it was gonna be called Shark Nado, and then they were gonna come after me with their their pitchforks and fire and like, you must change this title. Our careers are ruined. It's like, no, it'll be good. It's called Shark Nado. It's so much better than Dark Skies. Please don't kill me. And and so that I mean, I think that's
what it is. It's just like I mean, there was I think Steve Gutenberg was offered and he passed. I think honestly, the closest we came to somebody that would was actually legitimate was Crispin Glover, who I had like a thirty minute conversation with on on the phone, and and Chrispin was like, I don't understand why you want me to be in this movie. I'm
like, because they are offering it too. It's like, you know, I want to play finn as if you know, you know, he's He's like I got a brain injury or something, and I'm like, oh,
okay, Chrispin, and it was the weirdest thirty minute conversation. Love the actor, love him to death, but it was like, I don't I don't know if it would have been the movie it was with him in it, but it was really kind of cool as if you can imagine, you know, Sharknado starring Crispin Glover, it probably still would have been, you know, just as crazy. But but but I think he's right. It's
like, you know, why why would we want him in this? It's like, because no one else wants to do it, so I want to come along for the ride and let's have some fun. But it didn't, it didn't work out. And then and finally Ian Zering's name came up, and it's like the moment they said Ian Zering, it's like, of course that's Finn Shepherd. I mean everybody else was like that would be cool. I mean Steve Gutenberg, who was in the fourth movie. I love Steve.
Steve would have been great. But I think what Finn, what Ian brought to it is he just brought a legitimacy to that care grounded it in this, in this thing. I think Steve would it would have been more humorous like it was with Lavalanchila, which I think would have been great too, But iron just there was a different kind of gravitas to it, and I think people didn't expect him in a movie like this, and he just sold it. So it took it from you have the comedy with the title,
you don't want to make it a comedy with everything else. Of course, we did lean in heavily into the cheekiness and as it went along, but the goal was always the characters are not in on the joke. The joke is the title, in the in the in the movie itself. So as long as you ground it, that's what makes it the special movie. It is shark Nado, the tenth anniversary edition Newly were Master to end it out never before seens kills and thrills, more sharks, more Nato. Did
you Anthony Farantius with us? Did you have to immerse yourself in any meteorology to produce this? I actually I went to Vegas right before we were shooting, and they had this shark exposition exposition, and so my family and I went to that, and so I was, you know, not not that it was gonna enlighten me on anything. But there there is one moment in the script where you know, we were trying to figure out how I think in the original script, you know, how how can you destroy these tornadoes
and stuff? And I went and researched a little bit about cold air and hot air and could could bombs actually destroy it? And so there's a little there's a little truth to this, even though it's still you know, bs science. But but but I think I think the one thing is people go, well, did they know that what they were making was ridiculous or were
they just completely oblivious? And I think there's a moment where Baths played by Jason Simmons, shows up and I go, we're gonna throw bombs into tornadoes? That's impossible. And he shows up literally steps behind an out of well actually cold and warm air. Blah. It's like basil exposition and literally it's
like a Monty Pie movie. And it's like, if you didn't understand we were in on the joke, that should have been the moment where a character stands out it's like, yes, this is possible because X Y Z and and I. That's again there's a there's a lot of money python in this movie, the guy getting his arm ripped off by the shark and he's you know, you know, crawling on the ground, and then the shark comes and the smashes the top of his head. Uh. There's a lot of
silliness that I still can't believe they let me make this movie. He Finn gets eaten by a shark and then chainsaws his way out and then pulls this other character out of the shark. How is it that we got to do this movie and then did it for six movies. It's it's it's a gift and the fans came along with it. And that unhingedness, that energy of desperation, I think is what made the movie what it was. Shark Nado the tenth Anniversary Edition. It is out now at a theater near you,
Oklahoma City and in Tulsa. Anthony C. Ferranti is the director and writer. And we thank you for bringing Shark Nado into our lives and joining us today. Thank you so much, Lee, Go Go Go. Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeart Media Presentation,