ALL SCI-FI

[Pow]

Thanks Krel. Good to learn that the Landmaster was utilized for other productions.

Seems we often discover that some kind of nifty prop or vehicle from a film or TV show ends up being dumped someplace only to rot away.

[Pow]

"Damnation Alley" Trivia.

Filming began on June 21, 1976 and wrapped up on August 13, 1976.

Filming locales encompassed Borrego Springs, California where the U.S. missile base was constructed in Imperial Valley.

Mojave Desert, CA, Meteor Crater, AZ, Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada, Salt Lake City, Utah.

During filming 20th Century Fox chief Alan Ladd, Jr., reallocated approximately a quarter of the production budget of DA so that it could be used as completion funds on George Lucas's film "Star Wars: A New Hope."

DA director Jack Smight was not made aware of this redirection of his production's funds until he neared the end of shooting.

Oh, now that's a bit of a sticky wicket.

The lack of money would now compromise most of the remainder of visual effects.

Smight could not now film the Minuteman 3 missile launch scene, the base explosion, and the storm & tsunami. All were cut due to lack of money in the budget.

Fox would utilize stock footage from other films in order to convey these scenes.

The last-minute decision by the studio to add "radioactive skies" in DA would cause the movie to be unable to meet their original release date of December 1976.

The process of now having to superimpose optical effects on the sky in 300 shots which wasn't planned for during the filming would delay the movie.

First, DA was pushed back to March of 1977, then to June of that year.

The director's cut of the film came in at two-hours and fifteen minutes.

Fox would trim it back to ninety-minutes after the studio excised around forty-forty minutes from the production.

Scenes lost included actor Murray Hamilton who was originally featured prominently in several sequences as the general.

Also edited was a physical confrontation between Tanner (Jan-Michael Vincent) and Denton (George Peppard) after Tanner blames Denton for the death of Keegan.

Also cut was the love triangle subplot involving Tanner & Denton's attraction to Janice (Dominique Sanda).

The name of the film was altered a few times during production. "Salvation Road," then "Survival Run" were considered before reverting back to "Damnation Alley."

Fox focused more on the Landmaster scenes and visual effects once their "Star Wars: ANH" movie became a smash hit.

The Landmaster cost $350,000.

Robert Wise was first offered the director's chair for DA.

He declined feeling that the story would be unable to be filmed.

Steve McQueen was offered the film to star in, but his asking price of two million dollars was way out of the film's budget.

Jan-Michael Vincent performed many of the motorcycle stunts in the movie.

The Landmaster would appear in the 1994 movie "Apex."

While I am sorry that they slashed the budget on director Jack Smight, this film was never gonna be rescued by more visual effects scenes, or human subplots.

The script was poor.

A sf film (or TV series) with a mediocre or lousy scripting cannot & will not be saved by pouring more special/visual effects into it.

This seems to be an ongoing lesson that the studios and networks rarely get.

If the writing is bad then abandon hope all ye who enter here.

Jan-Michael Vincent passed away in 2019. I was saddened to read about his alcoholism and the ruinous affect it ultimately had on his too short life.

George Peppard also suffered form it but in his case he was able to get help with it.

[Bud Brewster]