Jurassic Park Eats Cortes
The great Gregory Conley of the Your Video Store Shelf just did a podcast with genre auteur Brian Trenchard-Smith, he the helmer of such notable B-movies as Stunt Rock, Turkey Shoot, BMX Bandits, Leprechaun 4: In Space, and a personal favorite of mine, Megiddo: Omega Code 2, about his current project entitled Tyrannosaurus Azteca. Trenchard-Smith views the film that he’s lovingly nicknamed “Jurassic Park Eats Cortes” as his homage to Ray Harryhausen’s classic Valley of Gwangi but with Spanish conquistadors, Aztecs, and a Tyrannosaurus Rex or two.
The film will document the (fictionalized, duh!) untold story of Cortes’ first scouting party to the region two years before his famed expedition that set about the historical events of 1500’s Mexico we all learned about in school. Cortes and his small band of men will encounter a small tribe of Aztecs that speak Spanish, having been taught by a shipwrecked priest who must not have converted them to Christianity seeing as how they continue to worship a pair of male/female T-Rex’s, the last of their kind. Much mayhem ensues and despite Trenchard-Smith’s humorous retitling, it’s safe to say that the infamous Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortes will not get eaten by the end of this film since history still requires him to go on to claim what we now call Mexico for Spain and bring about the destruction of the Aztec empire.
This Rigel Entertainment production – no doubt headed for the Sci-Fi Channel – was scripted by David Kemper of “Farscape” fame. What little I’d previously heard about Tyrannosaurus Azteca listed fellow “Farscape” alumnus Andrew Prowse as the film’s director, but clearly something changed and the more-than-capable Brian Trenchard-Smith. No word on any noteworthy casting choices at this time. The production is still currently filming in Hawaii.
The Your Video Store Shelf hour-long audio interview with Brian Trenchard-Smith is a good one for those interested in the b-side of cinema. He’s certainly got a good attitude when it comes to the movies he makes. He also makes mention of a review Harry Knowles did of Megiddo: Omega Code 2. Nope, that was my review from back in the days when I did stuff for Ain’t It Cool News – one of the earliest online reviews I ever wrote. That was only six years ago and look how much I’ve written since! And I still have yet to fully master the comma; or as I call it, my mortal enemy.
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