The Ice Pirates

The Ice Pirates (1984)

A totally SPACED adventure! ...You have to be there to see it.

In the not too distant future, where by far the most precious commodity in the galaxy is water. The last surviving water planet was somehow removed to the unreachable centre of the galaxy at the end of the galactic trade wars. The galaxy is ruled by an evil emperor presiding over a trade oligarchy that controls all mining and sale of ice from asteroids and comets.

Date of release
1984-03-16
TMDB
5.6 / 10 (227)
Runtime
1h 34m
Genres
Science Fiction, Action, Adventure, Comedy
Director
Stewart Raffill

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Budget: $9M
  • Filmed in: Los Angeles and California

The Ice Pirates is a 1984 American comic space opera film directed by Stewart Raffill, from a screenplay co-written with Stanford Sherman. It stars Robert Urich, Mary Crosby and Michael D. Roberts; and features Anjelica Huston, Ron Perlman, Bruce Vilanch, John Carradine and former football player John Matuszak.

Production

The film was based on a script originally called The Water Planet by Stanford Sherman, writer of Krull. The project was set up at MGM, then under studio head David Begelman, with John Foreman attached as producer and a budget of $20 million. However, MGM was in financial difficulty at the time, and its bankers then put a budget limit of $8 million on all films.

MGM had a contract with Robert Urich to make a TV series and insisted on him being cast in the lead. John Foreman wanted Anjelica Huston, a personal friend, in the film. John Matuszak was cast because one of the financiers liked him. "It wasn’t my concept," Rafill added. "We just put everything we could in it to make a joke and funny and told the story."

Filming started March 1983 at MGM's studios in Culver City. "We got lots of high-tech parts from car engines and gearings and poured molds out of them," said Rafill. "We didn't want to be sleek and spaceship-like, but rather a kind of super-funky, steam engine high-tech, with pistons and gearing—a real hodgepodge.

Production was difficult due in part to MGM replacing Begelman with a new studio head, Frank Yablans. Raffill says the film "ended up being a fiasco... MGM went through a transition and they brought in a new guy, who was eventually found out to be stealing money from the company. He was a little problematic sort of a fellow. And he had a bad time with John Foreman so he tried to sabotage the film.

The film originally had a different, longer ending. Raffill says, "At the end of the film, they were meant to arrive at Earth and they fly over the beaches of Malibu with everyone swimming in the water and the studio head cut that out! He never told me and it was gone. I had to drink vodka to calm myself down."

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended