WEBVTT - A Very Terminator Christmas 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:15.796 Bushkin. 0:00:20.396 --> 0:00:24.236 Christmas is one week away, and how am I celebrating 0:00:25.076 --> 0:00:29.316 with restraint and circumspection. In the Glabew family, we do 0:00:29.396 --> 0:00:34.196 a mid century modern Christmas spare elegant, minimalist, lots of 0:00:34.196 --> 0:00:38.116 the Baby Jesus in a tasteful Scandinavian leather and rosewood manger. 0:00:38.556 --> 0:00:43.196 No Santa, no reindeer, no elves. Not so for my 0:00:43.316 --> 0:00:47.156 colleague Ben ad Alf Halfrey. The Globows impose a dollar 0:00:47.196 --> 0:00:50.596 limit on gifts, like price controls in some socialist state 0:00:50.916 --> 0:00:54.116 that at a half Halfreys spend months thinking of what 0:00:54.196 --> 0:00:57.116 to get one another. The Globows buy a tree at 0:00:57.156 --> 0:00:59.236 the last moment, and would be happier if we could 0:00:59.276 --> 0:01:02.556 just move the whole operation outside around the Douglas Pine. 0:01:02.556 --> 0:01:06.756 In the backyard, Ben's family has a tree, a little 0:01:06.796 --> 0:01:10.356 model village covered in snow and is fos vintage electric 0:01:10.436 --> 0:01:13.876 train set, plus a little metal tree with ornaments that's 0:01:13.996 --> 0:01:17.756 up year round. So when I told Ben that I 0:01:17.796 --> 0:01:21.436 had never watched It's a Wonderful Life, he was stunned. 0:01:22.036 --> 0:01:24.556 Then he reached out to me as the good smartan 0:01:24.596 --> 0:01:26.716 did to the traveler lying beref by the side of 0:01:26.716 --> 0:01:30.436 the road. How could this be, he asked me gently, because, 0:01:30.556 --> 0:01:33.116 as you can imagine, within the daph Haffreys, It's a 0:01:33.156 --> 0:01:37.276 wonderful life is a sacred text. Then Ben told me 0:01:37.836 --> 0:01:41.556 another story about what, in his mind is an even 0:01:41.596 --> 0:01:45.516 more important Christmas tale, a story that he regards as 0:01:45.596 --> 0:01:51.316 the apotheosis of all Christmas movies, a story not in 0:01:51.396 --> 0:01:58.196 a film, but of the making of a film. Welcome 0:01:58.356 --> 0:02:01.716 to revisionist history. I'm Malcolm Gladwell. Today in our show, 0:02:01.756 --> 0:02:04.396 Ben the alf Halfrey relays for the very first time 0:02:04.516 --> 0:02:09.756 in history, the truly spruy story of the making of 0:02:09.796 --> 0:02:12.676 the oddest Christmas film of all time. Trust me, you 0:02:12.756 --> 0:02:15.916 have never heard this story before ever, nor have you 0:02:15.996 --> 0:02:18.756 ever seen the movie in question, unless you're a member 0:02:18.756 --> 0:02:21.676 of the extended no Deaf Halfway Clan or were recently 0:02:21.716 --> 0:02:25.556 incarcerated in a state that limits prisoner's streaming access to 0:02:25.596 --> 0:02:27.796 obscure television movies in the nineteen nineties. 0:02:28.636 --> 0:02:29.716 But when you listen to. 0:02:29.716 --> 0:02:32.836 What follows, you're going to ask yourself the same question 0:02:33.036 --> 0:02:36.716 I ask myself when Ben first told me this story. 0:02:36.796 --> 0:02:46.756 How do I miss this? Unlike Malcolm, I am a 0:02:46.836 --> 0:02:49.756 great lover of Christmas movies. Every year as soon as 0:02:49.836 --> 0:02:52.836 Thanksgiving is over, I'm firing up the Bishop's Wife, Miracle 0:02:52.876 --> 0:02:55.836 on thirty fourth Street. Or It's a Wonderful Life. And 0:02:55.876 --> 0:02:59.196 then there's my favorite Christmas movie, a little less famous, 0:03:00.196 --> 0:03:05.516 the nineteen forty five romantic comedy Christmas in Connecticut. I've 0:03:05.556 --> 0:03:07.596 watched it pretty much every year since I was little. 0:03:08.076 --> 0:03:10.996 Barbara Stanwick Play is a magazine columnist who's famous for 0:03:11.116 --> 0:03:14.356 entertaining on her grand Connecticut farm. She's known as a 0:03:14.356 --> 0:03:17.156 great cook. It's the end of World War Two and 0:03:17.236 --> 0:03:20.356 her magazine's publisher has an idea for a great feature. 0:03:20.996 --> 0:03:24.636 Jill hosts a returning war hero for Christmas on her farm. 0:03:24.956 --> 0:03:28.996 There's just one problem. It's all a lie. She doesn't 0:03:28.996 --> 0:03:32.036 live in Connecticut. She lives in a tiny apartment in 0:03:32.076 --> 0:03:34.916 New York. And she has no clue how to cook. 0:03:36.436 --> 0:03:39.036 My fun? Oh yes, my fun? 0:03:40.356 --> 0:03:40.996 Oh my fine? 0:03:41.196 --> 0:03:42.996 And you want to see you right away to arrange it. 0:03:43.196 --> 0:03:43.636 Arrange it? 0:03:43.636 --> 0:03:44.356 Are you crazy? 0:03:44.356 --> 0:03:45.356 Where am I going to get a farm? 0:03:45.356 --> 0:03:47.356 I haven't even got a window. Boss, That's just it. 0:03:47.516 --> 0:03:48.876 We'll have to star him off, you know what, to 0:03:48.876 --> 0:03:51.436 stick to years for the truth. If he ever finds 0:03:51.436 --> 0:03:52.596 out we've been making all this up. 0:03:52.636 --> 0:03:54.156 You'll fire the both of us. 0:03:55.116 --> 0:03:59.156 Chaos ensues. It's a classic screwball comedy and a total delight. 0:03:59.836 --> 0:04:01.556 But the thing I really want to tell you about 0:04:01.596 --> 0:04:04.436 in this episode is what happened after I discovered, quite 0:04:04.436 --> 0:04:07.556 by accident, that there was a remake of this favorite 0:04:07.636 --> 0:04:12.516 Christmas movie of mine, an action packed, star studed, joke filled, 0:04:12.756 --> 0:04:16.556 really very different version of the original, made for TV 0:04:17.516 --> 0:04:24.036 and directed by none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger. A kind 0:04:24.036 --> 0:04:26.636 of shocking twist if you ask me, I mean, why 0:04:26.636 --> 0:04:30.436 would the Terminator take on Christmas in Connecticut? So I 0:04:30.476 --> 0:04:33.436 did what any good Christmas fiend would do. I talked 0:04:33.476 --> 0:04:36.196 to a dozen people about something that happened thirty years 0:04:36.236 --> 0:04:39.516 ago for way too many hours to get the real story, 0:04:40.196 --> 0:04:42.476 and I discovered in the process what I have come 0:04:42.476 --> 0:04:46.156 to regard as the greatest Christmas tale of all time. 0:04:48.236 --> 0:04:48.716 I've told this. 0:04:48.716 --> 0:04:50.596 Story many times, I've never told it all the record. 0:04:51.636 --> 0:04:53.756 It's a big story, So if you've got the time, 0:04:54.196 --> 0:04:54.996 I will tell it to you. 0:04:55.516 --> 0:04:58.796 That's Stan Brooks in the early nineteen nineties. He was 0:04:58.796 --> 0:05:01.156 an independent made for TV movie producer. 0:05:02.116 --> 0:05:04.836 So I'm developing movies and a friend of mine goes 0:05:04.836 --> 0:05:07.516 and gets the job at TNC and I make the 0:05:07.636 --> 0:05:08.756 very first movie for him. 0:05:09.476 --> 0:05:12.396 TNT launched in nineteen eighty eight, at the start of 0:05:12.396 --> 0:05:16.436 the cable television revolution. Then, as now, cable was expensive, 0:05:16.836 --> 0:05:19.276 but it was growing. The whole game was trying to 0:05:19.356 --> 0:05:22.156 raise awareness to get people to sign up, and with 0:05:22.316 --> 0:05:24.636 channels running twenty four to seven, there was a lot 0:05:24.636 --> 0:05:27.396 of space to fill, which led to a boom and 0:05:27.476 --> 0:05:31.156 made for TV movies. Stan's first film on TNT was 0:05:31.156 --> 0:05:33.676 a big success. So he got another bite at the 0:05:33.716 --> 0:05:35.076 Apple and he. 0:05:35.036 --> 0:05:36.556 Calls me, He goes, what do you want to do next? 0:05:36.556 --> 0:05:38.316 So they said, like Nami years, would you ever let 0:05:38.356 --> 0:05:40.276 me do a remake from the MGM library because that's 0:05:40.276 --> 0:05:43.756 what Ted owned, And he said, yes, just pick one. 0:05:44.756 --> 0:05:47.996 Christmas movies always do well, and there is one Stan 0:05:48.116 --> 0:05:51.436 loved Christmas in Connecticut, and I. 0:05:51.476 --> 0:05:54.076 Know the Barber Stanlet movie, and so I said, well, 0:05:54.116 --> 0:05:55.836 this could be a good one. It was right as 0:05:55.956 --> 0:05:58.636 Martha Stewart was exploding. I thought, well, what if this 0:05:58.676 --> 0:06:00.996 is Martha Stewart. What if she's on TV and has 0:06:01.036 --> 0:06:04.436 an empire and it's all fake? And so they love 0:06:04.516 --> 0:06:07.836 that take, and so off we went to the races. 0:06:08.236 --> 0:06:11.676 He got a writer to work up the script in television. 0:06:11.836 --> 0:06:13.396 It was It was great because you can get your 0:06:13.396 --> 0:06:14.116 stuff made. 0:06:14.676 --> 0:06:17.236 This is Janet Brownew, one of the all time great 0:06:17.276 --> 0:06:20.436 Bards of TV movies, writer on Elouise at the Plaza, 0:06:20.516 --> 0:06:23.196 Twelve Dates of Christmas, Days of Our Lives and the 0:06:23.276 --> 0:06:27.316 uncredited rewrite of Tim Allens the Santa Claus all Brownew 0:06:28.036 --> 0:06:31.156 she loved the original Christmas in Connecticut. I mean it is. 0:06:31.836 --> 0:06:35.676 It's a charming and in fairst to me, the original 0:06:35.756 --> 0:06:37.116 draft was very close. 0:06:37.756 --> 0:06:40.436 Janet wrote the draft of the script for Stan's remake. 0:06:40.796 --> 0:06:42.996 And we turn it in and they go, this is 0:06:43.436 --> 0:06:44.836 this is do me in a Christmas movie. 0:06:44.916 --> 0:06:47.356 So now I have and I'm I have a nice 0:06:47.436 --> 0:06:50.356 little Christmas programmer and nothing more. 0:06:51.396 --> 0:06:54.956 It's the middle of nineteen ninety one in Hollywood. Janet 0:06:54.956 --> 0:06:57.916 and Stan's low budget television movie remake isn't really the 0:06:57.956 --> 0:07:00.996 sort of thing to get people talking, but they're making progress. 0:07:01.556 --> 0:07:04.076 He's got the old school movie star Diane Cannon cast 0:07:04.116 --> 0:07:06.476 in the lead as the Martha Stewart character, and an 0:07:06.516 --> 0:07:09.836 offer out to a director. And then one day his 0:07:09.916 --> 0:07:13.796 phone rings. His assistant says, it's a big Hollywood agent 0:07:14.596 --> 0:07:15.436 named Lou Pitt. 0:07:18.676 --> 0:07:21.196 Now I understand I'm in the television movie business. These 0:07:21.196 --> 0:07:24.156 guys are never calling me, so if they do call. 0:07:23.996 --> 0:07:26.156 Me, it's never good. 0:07:26.836 --> 0:07:31.196 And and he he gets on the phone and he says, 0:07:32.036 --> 0:07:35.196 the other director for your Christmas in Connecticut movie. 0:07:36.036 --> 0:07:38.716 And I said, uh, well. 0:07:38.796 --> 0:07:41.556 Almost yeah, we may have an offer out And he said, okay, 0:07:41.596 --> 0:07:45.196 Well if he doesn't say yes, I want you to consider 0:07:45.276 --> 0:07:48.036 my client. And I go okay, and wait to hear 0:07:48.036 --> 0:07:50.596 the name, and I go who He goes, Arl Schwarzenegger, 0:07:51.076 --> 0:07:52.316 and I burst out laughly. 0:07:52.956 --> 0:07:53.516 Oh he was. 0:07:53.596 --> 0:07:55.156 He was totally shocked. 0:07:55.516 --> 0:07:58.236 Lou Pitt, legendary agent Arnald Schwarzenegger. 0:07:59.156 --> 0:08:02.796 That's hilarious. No, seriously, is this a joke? Is this 0:08:02.836 --> 0:08:03.276 a joke? 0:08:04.036 --> 0:08:08.236 He goes, no, seriously, and he goes, I'm Schwartzeker's not 0:08:08.276 --> 0:08:10.436 going at Christmas movie for tat. 0:08:11.076 --> 0:08:14.356 To be clear. Arnold had just finished shooting James Cameron's 0:08:14.356 --> 0:08:19.956 epic Terminator two Asta La Vista Baby. Terminator two is 0:08:19.956 --> 0:08:22.956 the one where Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a killer cyborg sent 0:08:22.996 --> 0:08:25.596 from the future to protect young John Conner from a 0:08:25.596 --> 0:08:29.316 different killer cyborg also sent from the future to kill him. 0:08:29.516 --> 0:08:32.436 As you can imagine such a plot necessitates a lot 0:08:32.436 --> 0:08:35.596 of elaborate production work. He was movie making on a 0:08:35.636 --> 0:08:39.596 scale that was practically unheard of, especially in Los Angeles. 0:08:40.396 --> 0:08:43.156 The production actually changed the course of a river to 0:08:43.196 --> 0:08:46.716 shoot high speed chases in the extensive clood control channels 0:08:46.716 --> 0:08:47.636 of Los Angeles. 0:08:48.356 --> 0:08:51.356 Anyways, back to Stan and Lou the agent. 0:08:52.356 --> 0:08:55.876 I go, Lou, why on earth were Arnold Swartz there? 0:08:55.916 --> 0:08:57.276 He says, Well, here's why. 0:08:58.236 --> 0:09:02.036 Arnold Schwarzenegger was forty four years old, he had two kids. 0:09:02.556 --> 0:09:05.716 Nobody is an action hero forever. Maybe it was time 0:09:05.756 --> 0:09:07.036 to explore some alternatives. 0:09:07.956 --> 0:09:11.836 And so he was tired after tea two and he 0:09:11.876 --> 0:09:15.316 said to Blue I would like to direct a movie. 0:09:15.956 --> 0:09:18.196 The directing thing was kind of out of the box, 0:09:18.236 --> 0:09:19.796 at a left field, and. 0:09:19.716 --> 0:09:21.796 They said, well, okay, we'll put together a big feature act. 0:09:21.876 --> 0:09:25.276 He goes, no, no, no, I want low risk. If I 0:09:25.316 --> 0:09:28.276 do a terrible job, I don't want anyone to be upset. 0:09:28.316 --> 0:09:30.476 I don't want a big budget, and I want it 0:09:30.516 --> 0:09:33.156 to be family friendly because I don't want anything to 0:09:33.196 --> 0:09:34.356 be controversial nothing. 0:09:34.396 --> 0:09:37.596 I just want something very simple. And the only one that. 0:09:37.556 --> 0:09:40.956 Fit the bill was Christmas, Connecticut. So I said okay, 0:09:41.956 --> 0:09:44.996 I'll I'll call you if this guy passes. And I 0:09:45.036 --> 0:09:45.556 ham the phone. 0:09:45.636 --> 0:09:46.916 Of course, my parts. 0:09:46.716 --> 0:09:50.316 Jumping out of min I go what and and I said, yeah, 0:09:50.356 --> 0:09:50.956 I'm serious. 0:09:51.076 --> 0:09:51.636 I read it. 0:09:51.796 --> 0:09:54.436 I think he'd like it, so get me an offer. 0:09:55.156 --> 0:09:57.596 Stan gets the green light from the executives at TNT. 0:09:57.996 --> 0:10:01.956 There's some negotiating and they offer Schwartzenegger one hundred thousand bucks. 0:10:02.276 --> 0:10:05.076 And then one night stands phone rings. 0:10:05.996 --> 0:10:09.036 I pick it up and I hear Sam brooks, yes, 0:10:09.236 --> 0:10:11.796 please hold for Armschzenegger and now serious. 0:10:11.836 --> 0:10:14.916 I can see my heart beating, and he goes hello. 0:10:15.796 --> 0:10:20.436 I go Arnold, are you're the guy with this Christmas script? 0:10:20.516 --> 0:10:25.396 I said yes. He says it's fantastic. I'd love to direct. 0:10:26.036 --> 0:10:26.716 I go okay. 0:10:26.796 --> 0:10:28.556 He goes, but I have to shoot in Los Angeles, 0:10:28.636 --> 0:10:31.076 knight to do it in these days, and he goes 0:10:31.076 --> 0:10:32.436 a nice some notes of the script. 0:10:32.516 --> 0:10:34.276 I go, okay, can you be here in an hour? 0:10:35.276 --> 0:10:36.916 And I go, uh no. 0:10:37.556 --> 0:10:40.196 He goes, can you be on Wednesday? I go, yes, 0:10:40.236 --> 0:10:41.436 I could be there on Wednesday. 0:10:42.076 --> 0:10:44.396 He goes over for a meeting at Arnold's offices in 0:10:44.436 --> 0:10:45.236 Santa Monica. 0:10:46.996 --> 0:10:48.796 So now I'm going to see me on Wednesday, and 0:10:48.836 --> 0:10:52.396 you walk in and there's this giant lobby and and 0:10:52.636 --> 0:10:56.916 the first thing you see is the exoskeleton, the metal 0:10:56.956 --> 0:11:01.716 thing with the red eyes from Terminator. So there's no doubt. 0:11:01.756 --> 0:11:03.116 I mean, the posters are up on the wall, but 0:11:03.236 --> 0:11:05.236 there's no doubt. When you walk in and you see 0:11:05.316 --> 0:11:09.396 this seven foot thing, you go, oh, craft, I know 0:11:09.436 --> 0:11:11.396 where I am. My heart's beating and I go in 0:11:11.436 --> 0:11:14.836 and he's in his office, which is massive. It's like 0:11:15.076 --> 0:11:16.316 you know, signs. 0:11:15.996 --> 0:11:19.076 Of a football field, and he's on one. You walk 0:11:19.116 --> 0:11:21.316 in on this end and he's on the other ends. 0:11:21.356 --> 0:11:24.076 You go walk past all the you know, the props 0:11:24.076 --> 0:11:26.716 and stuff, and then he's at a big, huge desk 0:11:26.756 --> 0:11:31.036 with a big giant chair, and behind him is a 0:11:31.076 --> 0:11:36.796 bookshelf but with all of the Mister Universe awards, not 0:11:37.116 --> 0:11:38.236 film stuff. 0:11:37.916 --> 0:11:39.876 It's all his bodybuilding awards. 0:11:40.116 --> 0:11:42.156 And I remember we were going through the script and 0:11:42.156 --> 0:11:44.556 I said, hey, I want to use the restroom and 0:11:44.596 --> 0:11:49.476 he pointed to me by putting up this bicep and 0:11:49.556 --> 0:11:51.556 pointing it like this, and his bicep comes cleaning. 0:11:51.596 --> 0:11:54.996 He goes this, dot what And I go, was that 0:11:55.076 --> 0:11:56.676 just to show me your boy step? And he goes 0:11:56.836 --> 0:11:59.116 I have to show the you know, the guns whenever 0:11:59.156 --> 0:11:59.516 I can. 0:12:00.116 --> 0:12:03.036 And I realized, okay, so this guy definitely has a 0:12:03.076 --> 0:12:04.276 sense of heart by himself. 0:12:05.116 --> 0:12:08.756 They sit down, Arnold has notes on the script he 0:12:08.876 --> 0:12:09.796 will he wanted a. 0:12:10.636 --> 0:12:14.156 More humor and a little more jeopardy, and so we 0:12:14.596 --> 0:12:16.996 added in like this like sort of big action sequence 0:12:17.036 --> 0:12:18.516 at the beginning where he rescues. 0:12:18.196 --> 0:12:21.356 The kid, and all of a sudden, Janet Brownell, who 0:12:21.356 --> 0:12:24.316 wrote the original script for the remake, is looking at 0:12:24.316 --> 0:12:25.396 a very different movie. 0:12:27.476 --> 0:12:32.076 The whole thing took this like one hundred and eighty 0:12:32.076 --> 0:12:32.596 degree turn. 0:12:32.636 --> 0:12:36.196 At that point, it was just like what is and 0:12:36.236 --> 0:12:37.236 Stan just did not want. 0:12:37.156 --> 0:12:41.796 To lose him, And I'm like, okay, I truly don't 0:12:41.836 --> 0:12:42.396 see this. 0:12:42.596 --> 0:12:45.116 But if it gets a film green light, I don't 0:12:45.156 --> 0:12:45.636 give a shit. 0:12:46.676 --> 0:12:48.436 Arnold wants them to get someone else to come in 0:12:48.476 --> 0:12:49.436 and punch up the script. 0:12:50.036 --> 0:12:52.876 He wanted more humor, and as it happened, my best 0:12:52.876 --> 0:12:54.716 friend in the world had written. 0:12:54.396 --> 0:12:59.516 Commando Commando, the nineteen eighty five action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, 0:12:59.756 --> 0:13:01.916 which the critic from the La Times referred to as 0:13:01.916 --> 0:13:06.996 a quote gory crowd pleaser and a glorified fireworks display. 0:13:08.316 --> 0:13:10.316 And Arnold love them and said, if you think you 0:13:10.636 --> 0:13:12.956 get him to do a comedy. 0:13:12.556 --> 0:13:15.956 Past, Jeff Low, the friend who wrote Commando, gets hired 0:13:15.956 --> 0:13:17.636 to do the rewrite with his writing partner. 0:13:18.636 --> 0:13:19.316 We walk in. 0:13:19.636 --> 0:13:25.356 He's sitting on a white couch maybe it's literally the 0:13:25.476 --> 0:13:27.996 length of the biggest limousine you've ever seen in your life, 0:13:28.556 --> 0:13:32.316 and he has his feed up on this white porcelain 0:13:32.596 --> 0:13:35.556 marble table. He's got a big cigar in his mouth 0:13:35.636 --> 0:13:40.476 and scripts all around him, and he doesn't say hello, 0:13:40.916 --> 0:13:44.156 He doesn't introduce himself, he doesn't do anything. He just 0:13:44.996 --> 0:13:47.596 the first thing out of his mouth is, so, what 0:13:47.756 --> 0:13:50.876 of you guys been doing since Commando? 0:13:51.636 --> 0:13:53.996 Clearly not going to the gym. 0:13:54.396 --> 0:13:56.516 I just have to say, everyone in this episode is 0:13:56.556 --> 0:13:59.156 going to do their own Schwartzenegger impression, which is good 0:13:59.196 --> 0:14:01.436 because even though we couldn't land an interview with him, 0:14:01.596 --> 0:14:04.396 I feel like he's here with us in spirit. Anyway. 0:14:04.756 --> 0:14:07.756 They settle in and start rewriting the film Commando style. 0:14:08.716 --> 0:14:11.116 So that's where things kind of went off the rails 0:14:11.156 --> 0:14:14.436 for me personally, because it's like, Okay, this is becoming 0:14:14.476 --> 0:14:18.996 a completely different thing. It just Schwarzenegger eyed into like 0:14:19.396 --> 0:14:21.356 this thing that was bigger than life. 0:14:21.756 --> 0:14:24.876 I mean, she just did an amazing job. We didn't 0:14:24.876 --> 0:14:27.756 make any real big structural changes. 0:14:27.876 --> 0:14:34.276 That's all hers, but a dialogue pass and goes through 0:14:34.316 --> 0:14:38.356 it and try to find more Old's vision. 0:14:39.396 --> 0:14:42.116 They start burning through the script. A big job for 0:14:42.156 --> 0:14:45.956 any director is giving notes on the rewrites. Schwarzenegger was 0:14:45.996 --> 0:14:49.596 calling in help from his director friends, including legendary comedy 0:14:49.596 --> 0:14:54.116 director Ivan Reitman, the guy who did Ghostbusters. Everyone was 0:14:54.156 --> 0:14:56.316 working to realize Arnold's vision. 0:14:57.156 --> 0:15:01.196 Now you have to understand that on Commando he would 0:15:01.236 --> 0:15:03.436 do this all the time. He would go, I have 0:15:03.556 --> 0:15:05.556 a great idea. Listen, this is what I want to do. 0:15:05.796 --> 0:15:06.916 When the guy comes at me. 0:15:06.956 --> 0:15:09.556 I want to throw a buzzsaw at him and it 0:15:09.716 --> 0:15:11.796 chops off his arm, and then I'm going to pick 0:15:11.876 --> 0:15:14.476 up his arm and punch me in his face with. 0:15:14.516 --> 0:15:16.396 His old arm. 0:15:16.636 --> 0:15:19.996 And we would go, well, we like the bus off part. 0:15:20.276 --> 0:15:23.196 Can we just do the bus off art? So like, 0:15:23.276 --> 0:15:26.156 our job is not to go I maybe that's not 0:15:26.196 --> 0:15:28.276 gonna work. Our job is to make it work. And 0:15:28.316 --> 0:15:34.316 it doesn't help that the next day he would say, Okay. 0:15:34.076 --> 0:15:36.236 We're doing really well, We're really getting there. 0:15:36.396 --> 0:15:38.636 It's really coming to where I wanted to be. So 0:15:38.716 --> 0:15:39.716 I gave it to Steve It. 0:15:39.796 --> 0:15:42.236 And Stephen talked to me last night and he says, 0:15:42.356 --> 0:15:44.396 I have to really be careful that and this is 0:15:44.436 --> 0:15:48.156 what I want you to do. And again I'm like, 0:15:48.716 --> 0:15:51.476 is Stephen the guy at the jim is Stephen? 0:15:51.836 --> 0:15:52.916 Who is Steve It? 0:15:53.316 --> 0:15:55.916 And then suddenly as you go, you know, as he 0:15:55.996 --> 0:15:58.716 starts to sort of talk more, you go, he's talking 0:15:58.716 --> 0:15:59.956 about Steven Spielberg. 0:16:00.996 --> 0:16:03.276 This is beginning to look like a train nobody would 0:16:03.276 --> 0:16:05.756 step in front of. Back at T and T, the 0:16:05.796 --> 0:16:07.996 executives had a dim sense of what was going on. 0:16:08.836 --> 0:16:11.076 It's not it's not has done. 0:16:10.956 --> 0:16:15.956 Now Lori Posmantier, one of the TNT executives. 0:16:15.476 --> 0:16:19.196 Whether you're famous or not, as a director, that doesn't happen. 0:16:19.236 --> 0:16:21.876 To let somebody go and change things as much as 0:16:21.876 --> 0:16:22.516 we're change. 0:16:23.636 --> 0:16:26.436 Meanwhile, they've cast the rest of the film. Joining Diane 0:16:26.436 --> 0:16:29.996 Cannon would be Hollywood screwball legend Tony Curtis, probably best 0:16:29.996 --> 0:16:32.916 known for playing opposite Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot. 0:16:33.116 --> 0:16:36.676 Along with him would be ex country music star Chris Christofferson. 0:16:37.316 --> 0:16:40.196 Here's TNT's senior vice president of production at the time, 0:16:40.476 --> 0:16:41.276 Nick Lombardo. 0:16:41.836 --> 0:16:43.796 Even when they cast it, I thought, well, that is 0:16:43.836 --> 0:16:46.196 the weirdest cast I ever heard of. I mean, the 0:16:46.276 --> 0:16:49.236 idea that these people fit together made no sense at all. 0:16:49.276 --> 0:16:52.236 I mean, Diane Cannon and Chriscus Dobinson in the same frame. 0:16:52.476 --> 0:16:55.356 It makes the star is Born when he's holding Barbara 0:16:55.356 --> 0:16:56.796 streissad look organic. 0:16:58.236 --> 0:17:00.716 So armed with one of the all time weirdest, most 0:17:00.756 --> 0:17:04.156 stacked casts in the history of film, a comparatively small 0:17:04.156 --> 0:17:07.196 budget of three million dollars, a slot on an upstart 0:17:07.196 --> 0:17:10.356 cable network, and a script based on nineteen forty screwball 0:17:10.356 --> 0:17:12.436 comedy that's been punched up by two of the writers 0:17:12.476 --> 0:17:16.916 behind a big eighties blockbuster, An Austrian former bodybuilder, fresh 0:17:16.996 --> 0:17:20.476 off his repeat performance as a time traveling cyborg, prepared 0:17:20.476 --> 0:17:22.476 to direct his first Christmas film. 0:17:23.156 --> 0:17:25.876 You don't, as a TV movie producer ever get near 0:17:26.196 --> 0:17:28.836 anything this hot, y, You just don't. 0:17:29.476 --> 0:17:32.076 I mean, we're we're all a little nervous about the 0:17:32.076 --> 0:17:34.956 whole thing, you know, because it's like you're playing with 0:17:35.036 --> 0:17:38.676 matches and you know, oh yeah, that's that Arnold direct this. 0:17:39.076 --> 0:17:42.396 You know, it's like for US three million dollars was 0:17:42.436 --> 0:17:43.396 a lot of money. 0:17:44.196 --> 0:17:45.796 I don't know, I don't know whatever. 0:17:45.876 --> 0:17:46.956 It was like, Oh yeah. 0:17:47.116 --> 0:17:50.036 He wanted to prove that he could be a director. 0:17:50.876 --> 0:17:53.556 And everyone was about to find out whether or not 0:17:53.676 --> 0:18:05.916 he could. Christmas in Connecticut the remake began filming about 0:18:05.956 --> 0:18:10.276 two months before Christmas in Los Angeles. Because Arnold Schwarzenegger 0:18:10.316 --> 0:18:12.756 had never before directed a future film, though let the 0:18:12.796 --> 0:18:15.196 record show he had directed an episode of the TV 0:18:15.276 --> 0:18:18.436 show Tales from the Crypt, the production arranged for things 0:18:18.476 --> 0:18:20.316 to film more or less in the order they happen 0:18:20.356 --> 0:18:22.316 in the film. There's a lot less to keep track 0:18:22.356 --> 0:18:26.276 of continuity wise that way, but this also posed a problem. 0:18:26.836 --> 0:18:28.956 One of the anxieties of adapting a great work of 0:18:29.076 --> 0:18:30.956 art is figuring out how to make it your own. 0:18:31.636 --> 0:18:34.316 The nineteen ninety two made for TV remake of Christmas 0:18:34.356 --> 0:18:37.796 in Connecticut does this immediately by introducing its male lead, 0:18:37.996 --> 0:18:41.516 a park ranger named Jefferson Jones, mid workout routine in 0:18:41.596 --> 0:18:44.956 his mountain cabin. If you're looking for signs that this 0:18:45.036 --> 0:18:47.836 is not your grandmother's Christmas in Connecticut, the site of 0:18:47.916 --> 0:18:51.196 Chris Christofferson as Jefferson Jones, sweating after busting out some 0:18:51.316 --> 0:18:53.716 chin ups on a beam in his cabin is your 0:18:53.756 --> 0:18:57.476 first warning. A man on the television offers some brisk 0:18:57.556 --> 0:18:59.236 exposition while he cools down. 0:19:00.076 --> 0:19:03.076 In the last hour, experts predict this shouldn't be the 0:19:03.116 --> 0:19:05.556 biggest storm to hit the Rockies in the last decade. 0:19:05.916 --> 0:19:08.396 More than four feet of snow has anticipated to blanket 0:19:08.436 --> 0:19:09.956 the area in the next twenty eight hours. 0:19:09.956 --> 0:19:13.756 The phone rings. Another ranger is calling to tell Jones 0:19:13.756 --> 0:19:16.476 a kid has gotten lost in the blizzard. He has 0:19:16.516 --> 0:19:19.316 to go out and find him. This is the fabled 0:19:19.356 --> 0:19:23.116 action sequence Schwarzenegger had requested. They shot the blizzard on 0:19:23.156 --> 0:19:26.356 a sound stage. It's the moment Jefferson Jones becomes a hero, 0:19:26.756 --> 0:19:28.516 which is why he gets invited to be a guest 0:19:28.516 --> 0:19:31.716 of Elizabeth Blaine's for a Christmas special in Connecticut. It's 0:19:31.716 --> 0:19:34.596 gotta look epic. It's got to have that Arnold Schwarzenegger 0:19:34.636 --> 0:19:40.596 feeling unfortunately terminator. This is not Here's Jim Wilberger, director 0:19:40.636 --> 0:19:41.156 of production. 0:19:41.796 --> 0:19:45.756 Yeah, there's a scene where Christofferson, you know, suddenly has 0:19:45.836 --> 0:19:47.796 rescued the kid and you see him roll down this 0:19:48.636 --> 0:19:53.756 little hill of snow which was shot on stage and 0:19:54.556 --> 0:19:57.996 trying to make more of more of it because there 0:19:58.036 --> 0:20:01.276 wasn't that much set for that little hill, and you know, 0:20:01.356 --> 0:20:03.996 and then suddenly you see all the people rush in 0:20:04.156 --> 0:20:07.436 to rescue you know. I mean, this was just not 0:20:07.556 --> 0:20:13.116 good blocking, okay, and that's just an experience. 0:20:14.356 --> 0:20:17.356 Schwarzenegger wanted Jeopardy, but this kind of looks like a 0:20:17.396 --> 0:20:21.076 snowball fight gone awry. Jones stumbles over a very small 0:20:21.196 --> 0:20:23.316 hill holding a child that looks like it might be 0:20:23.356 --> 0:20:26.916 a mannequin. He's groaning and yelling, but his lips aren't moving, 0:20:27.676 --> 0:20:31.076 so tough start. Luckily, though, a lot of the film 0:20:31.236 --> 0:20:34.796 is set inside Elizabeth Blaine's fake Connecticut house where she's 0:20:34.796 --> 0:20:38.316 shooting a Christmas special in celebration of Jones. The bulk 0:20:38.396 --> 0:20:41.236 production happened there, so the whole crew set up at 0:20:41.236 --> 0:20:44.556 a house in South Pasadena for the real work. This 0:20:44.636 --> 0:20:48.196 introduced Arnold to the second problem of directing actor ego 0:20:48.276 --> 0:20:50.476