“People are alittleworried about telling their story,” says Miller, who cowrote the recentSonic the Hedgehogmovie.
“It started in high school,” he says.
“Total Recallis my favorite Schwarzenegger movie.
Henry Thomas as Elliott in ‘E.T.'.Credit: Everett Collection
When I saw it when it came out, it blew my mind.”
Then Scarlata read a piece in the magazineCinefantastiqueabout Cronenberg’s earlier involvement with the science fiction thriller.
“My mind was blown to think that there was aTotal Recallwithout Schwarzenegger and without Paul Verhoeven.
From that moment on, I was fascinated.
I needed to know whatever I could find on movies that weren’t made.”
“I loved the doc so much and we started to become friends,” says Miller.
I was like, ‘I feel you should do more.’
A podcast felt like a natural evolution."
And it was very heartbreaking."
Who would be the pair’s dream guest?
“It’s funny, weve now done two John Sayles scripts.
In that, the military forms an elite squad with raptors and gives them guns and stuff.
Its like a Schwarzenegger movie almost where they send them on missions to take out drug dealers and whatnot.
Wed love to get him.”
“I want to say Im stumped,” says Scarlata.
“Im overwhelmed by that question, because theresso many.”
Below, the pair talk about their favorite episodes of the podcast.
SCARLATA:E.T.came out on June 11, 1982 and just became this huge hit.
MILLER:It would have been a wild movie.
If this was made, it would have just destroyed kids.
But I dont know if I believe thats what happened.
FRIDAY THE 13TH: 3-D
MILLER:The screenplay by Nick Antosca, who did theChannel ZeroTV show.
Im definitely a lifelong diehard Jason fan.
SCARLATA:This movie should have been made.
The script is great.
Theres this sequence underwater that in 3D would have been amazing.
That sequence forever stuck in my mind.
Its so interesting thinking about how superhero moves were handled.
Then he looked at the outfit and was like, “Well, Spider-Man is a ninja.”
This as an era when Golan was making all these ninja movies.
Clearly, ninjas were on his brain.
They ended up making fun of it with that Adult Swim showThe Venture Brothers Bros.
It focused on this kid who acts like an adventurer.
It has a fun, sci-fi, fantasy element.
Fred Dekker is one of our favorite guests.
I think weve had him on four times.
Fred is kind of known as a horror guy but he really loves James Bond.
Fred is a real James Bon aficionado, his nerd-dom goes deep on that one.
I think he saw Johnny Quest as a chance to do his version of a James Bond.
This was going to be for Richard Donner to make.
Its one of the best scripts weve ever read, that just hasnt been made.
One of the scripts we talk about is this Bigfoot movie he did that would have been pretty expensive.
It has a ton of Bigfoot.
Its almost got a war movie feel to it.
The script was fun and we would have loved to see the movie.
ButJohnny Questis one of those movies where its like, theyshouldhave made this movie.
Richard Donnershouldhave directed this movie.
It would have been so much fun.
SCARLATA:It was through Turner Pictures.
Thats who Donner was working through at the time.
It just bottomed-up and all those pictures went away.
I think the one that lasted was that John Travolta-angel movie (Michael).
RETURN OF THE THING
MILLER:It was a two-part sequel to John CarpentersThe Thing.
It would have been a mini-series for Syfy.
It was right after theyd done thatDuneminiseries, which was high profile for the channel at the time.
It did well for them and they were looking to do more big-budget things.
This is another one that its painful it didnt happen.
The scripts are so good.
Its spreading through this little town.
I think it was ultimately too expensive for Syfy to do at the time.
SCARLATA:It would have been like whatAliensis toAlien.
Its the sequelThe Thingreally deserved and taking it from Antarctica to the desert was a really clever twist.
MILLER:You could still do it!
TheBest Moves Never Madepodcast is available to hear viathe Electric Now app.
