CraveOnline: What is the status of the Cannon Films documentary?
Mark Hartley: We shoot in February.
Who have you got lined up?
The Cannon thing is something that we were all set to go about a year and a half ago and then our finance fell through. Subsequently, it has only just got back up again, so as soon as I get home from this festival, I’m launching myself back into the wonderful world of Cannon. A year and a half ago we had a lot of people lined up for it. We’ve got to go back now and re-approach all those people and go about getting all the rest. A lot of vey interesting people who were intrinsically a part of Cannon.
For me the real shame is that subsequent to us being ready to go, people like Michael Winner, Sylvia Kristel and Karen Black have died which is a real shame because we had those people lined up for the film as well. Let’s hope no one else passes on before we roll.
What would you have wanted to ask Karen Black and Sylvia Kristel if you’d gotten those interviews before they passed?
I think with Sylvia, she was one of the few surviving people left who’d worked on Mata Hari. It’s all about just being able to get to enough people who can cover enough films, particularly when you know there are certain sequences from films you want to show to illustrate Cannon’s output. Mata Hari was one of them so it’s a shame that she’s not around to talk about that. With Lady Chatterly’s Lover at least Shane Briant is still around, the other main actor in it. Michael Winner was a real shame because Michael Winner in his autobiography just has great stories about working with Cannon. He made so many films for them. He was there for the good times, he was there for the bad times and he was so honest and funny in his storytelling that it’s a real shame he can’t be part of it now.
Have you done a marathon of Cannon films from the first time you prepped it?
Oh yeah, I’ve certainly immersed myself in Cannon when I was researching the film, and I’m about to start doing it again.
One of the most interesting stories to me is the Superman IV debacle. They have the deleted scenes on the DVD of the first Nuclear Man that didn’t work, and where they hoped to use those scenes in Superman V. Do you have any more information and insight into that story?
I guess all will be revealed when we start talking to these people. Albert Pyun was going to direct Superman V back to back with Masters of the Universe II. And Spider-Man I think at the same time. It was Spider-Man and Masters of the Universe back to back, wasn’t it?
Didn’t Masters of the Universe used the sets that were built for Spider-Man?
No, no, I think Cyborg used the sets. What happened was when Masters of the Universe, which was all going to be slightly post-apocalyptic got cancelled, Albert wrote Cyborg to be able to use those sets. From what I understand, they did build Peter Parker’s apartment, which was on a rotating gimbal so he could walk around the room, and they did tests.
Oh man, if you could uncover any of that footage.
Yeah.
Albert unfortunately announced his retirement due to illness, but do you think you’ll interview him?
I hope so. There’s a big difference between going out on a set and making a film and sitting in a chair talking to someone. He was very keen and very enthusiastic and excited when we approached him a year ago, so let’s hope it hasn’t changed. As I say, I’ll find all this out in the coming weeks.
Is there anyone like Cannon today? Is Millennium picking up their legacy?
I think Millennium’s certainly like Cannon. When I saw Olympus Has Fallen, that reminded me very much of a Cannon film, right down to having Robert Forster in it. The Expendables wouldn’t exist [without Cannon]. The Expendables 2, practically everyone in that film had been in a Cannon film: Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Van Damme, Chuck Norris. It’s a Cannon stable.
All the people running Millennium, Avi Lerner, Danny Dimbort, all those people are Cannon proteges. They all worked at Cannon and they all trained under Golan and Globus. When you look at executive producers on Expendables 2, practically all those EPs have come out of the Cannon school of filmmaking. So yeah, certainly they’ve got a legacy in Hollywood. Cannon were the guys who wanted to make a Spider-Man movie. They didn’t get to, Spider-Man’s gigantic. Cannon were the guys who had faith behind Roman Polanski’s Pirates movie. No one thought a pirate movie would work. Now look at the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. You’ve just got to look at Unstoppable and realize that it’s basically Runaway Train. I think their legacy is still very much alive and well in Hollywood today. All that will be revealed in the documentary.
