Part 4: The Gods Were Shining

Howard: Benveniste assured me he knew all about special effects and it would be a piece of cake. I didn't even know what a special effect was and in fact he knew even less. But the gods were shining on us in a strange way. A friend of Benveniste who was in film school at USC, a complete wierdo by the name of Mike Hyatt, knew a group of kids who had made an 8mm animation film and were looking for a chance to do something bigger. This group was headed by Mike Minor, Jim Danforth, Rick Baker, Greg Jein and Dennis Muren. Jim Danforth had done the annimation on When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth but the other guys had done nothing of note.

I will mention now so you have some idea of these people's talent that Mike Minor went on to be the production designer of the first Star Trek movie, Rick Baker has become Hollywood's premier make up artist, Greg Jein won an Academy Award for building the star ship in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Dennis Muren has won four Academy Awards for Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Terminator and The Abyss. His name doesn't appear on the film's credits because the whole group mutinied before final release. That Dennis worked on the film can be verified by a picture of him standing proudly behind Emporer Wang's castle in a photograph that appeared in a 12-page spread in the Feb. '72 issue of Penthouse.

We began production of Flesh Gordon in a sound stage located at Producers Studio located on Melrose Avenue directly across from Paramount. In a stage across from us was "Ronald McDonald Land." Minor's genius quickly changed the scope of the film. The man was a genius in his ability to make a lot with a little. The sets he constructed were so impressive that I instantly knew we were doing something bigger than we had initially planned. By the time the sets were completed we had gone through $75,000.

Of course there was a lot of attention paid to little sight gags in the properties. We had a fellow working full time to find neat little things. I might add, that there were members of the Academy that wanted to nominate Flesh Gordon for a Special Effects Award. Unfortunately they were too chicken-shit to carry through with it. From sources in the Academy, the decision was made to drop the special effects category and offer a secial achievment award instead. There were members that couldn't deal with an independently produced X rated film receiving a nomination.

Flesh Gordon Collector's Edition Unrated $29.99
Flesh Gordon (R) rated $29.99
Flesh Gordon 2: Flesh Gordon Meets The Cosmic Cheerleaders Unrated $14.99
Flesh Gordon 2: Flesh Gordon Meets The Cosmic Cheerleaders (R) rated $14.99

Flesh Gordon DVD Unrated $29.99
Flesh Gordon 2: Flesh Gordon Meets The Cosmic Cheerleaders Unrated DVD $14.99