Morons from Outer Space

Morons from Outer Space (1985)

They came, they saw, they did a little shopping...

The story begins on a small spaceship docking with a refueling station. On board are a group of four aliens, Bernard, Sandra, Desmond, and Julian. During a particularly tedious period of their stay at the station, the other three begin playing with the ship’s controls while Bernard is outside playing spaceball. They accidentally disconnect his part of the ship, leaving him stranded while they crash into a large blue planet close by...

Date of release
1985-03-29
TMDB
4.9 / 10 (47)
Runtime
1h 30m
Genres
Comedy, Science Fiction
Director
Mike Hodges

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Budget: £5M
  • Filmed in: Pinewood Studios

Morons from Outer Space is a 1985 British comedy-science fiction film directed by Mike Hodges and written by and starring Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith. It also stars Jimmy Nail and James B. Sikking.

Production

Barry Hanson was working on the project in August 1983. It was written by and starred Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones, who were known for the sketch shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones. Rhys Jones said the aliens in his film "don't threaten, they don't inform, they just come to earth to do a bit of shopping. I suppose the message is the rest of the universe is just as moronic as ourselves."

In November 1983 Thorn EMI announced it would make the film. It was part of the initial slate of four films from Thorn EMI's new chairman, Verity Lambert, the others being Slayground, Dreamchild and Comfort and Joy.

Lambert offered the film to director Mike Hodges, who agreed if EMI would make a script of his, Mid-Atlantic, and signed a two-picture deal. The movie was originally entitled Illegal Aliens.

In December 1984, Thorn EMI offered investors the chance to invest in several films by issuing £36 million worth of shares. The films were A Passage to India (1984), Illegal Aliens, Dreamchild, Wild Geese II and The Holcroft Covenant.

The release of the film caused Mel Brooks to retitle a film he was working on from Planet Moron to Spaceballs.

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

Recommended