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In his latest podcast/interview, host and screenwriter Stuart Wright talks with Evrim Ersoy, the Programme Director at Fantastic Fest, about 5 Great Turkish Remakesploitation Movies, Ari Aster’s attendance at Fantastic Fest and recommends a trio contemporary Turkish movies too.

Edit: On Tuesday 7th July Fantastic Fest were sad to announce that this year’s Fantastic Fest has been canceled. They are refunding filmmaker submission fees and offering refunds to badge holders. More details can be found here.

5 Great Turkish Remakesploitation Movies: Killink Istanbul’da (1967) (aka Killing In Instanbul) 3 Dev Adam (1973) aka 3 Giant Men Kartal Yuvasi (1974) (aka Eagle House) Dunyayi Kurtaran Adam (1982) aka The Man Who Saved the World Kader Diyelim – ‘Let’s Say It’s Fate’ Psycho the musical (1995)

Also recommended:

Karanlik sular aka The Serpent’s Tale (1994) Remake, Remix, Rip-Off: About Copy Culture & Turkish Pop Cinema (2014) The Antenna (2019)

Also mentioned:

Midsommar (2019) Scream Queen – My Nightmare On Elm Street...

I've stated my love for bad movies many times before, and while there are a few films that get a lot of overexposed..."adoration"...from bad movie fans (your The ROOMs, your BIRDEMICs, your Fateful Findings), one always seems to slip through the cracks. And that's Turkish Star Wars (a.k.a. The Man Who Saves The World), an incompetent Turkish rip-off of Star Wars (straight up stealing... Read More...

It is the same thing every year. We leave the previous Fantasia International Film Festival and think, 'There is no way that they're going to be able to top this year'. Then we wait with baited breath to see what they have been able to wrangle together this year and are once again blown away by the cornucopia of fantastic cinema goodness they are going to share with us.    With an already stellar first wave of films announced they have added to this year's volley with new titles like Jang Hoon's A Taxi Driver set to close the festival. Lifetime Achievement Awards will be given to Turkish actor CÜNEYT Arkin (Turkish Star Wars) and luchador Mil Máscaras. I saw Mil Máscaras in Mexico a...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

So this is fun. Tommy Wiseau stars as the Presidents [sic] of the United States in a Transformers-parody called Car Botz, funded by Loot Crate. It's a fake trailer done in the style of foreign knock-off films, like Turkish Star Wars, with it humor described in the press release as "Tim And Eric meets Borat". So if that sounds interesting to you, take a look at the link below! Well,... Read More...

Considered lost for over 30 years, the original 35mm print of the 1982 film “The Man Who Saves the World,” or better known to fans as the “Turkish Star Wars,” has been found. The print was discovered in a collection of a retired movie projectionist in northwestern Turkey, who kept the copy instead of returning it to the production company. After its original exhibition, he lied and said it had been damaged during projection.

The film was bought by Neon Harbor owner, filmmaker and film historian Ed Glaser, who is a big fan of the film.

“A 35mm print of ‘Turkish Star Wars’ is the holy grail,” said Glaser in a press release. “Not just of rip-off films, but all cult film. There are no negatives, and the few other prints of the film ever struck have been destroyed. My goal is to get this one scanned to preserve it for posterity...

Before the title is even shown, two directors/producers are shown arguing over how many types of films can be made. The average between the two is somewhere between 30-37. There’s a formula to film. Well, at least if you were working in the Turkish film industry between the early 1960’s to the late 1970’s. Films were practically released on an assembly line, one after another. Actors are interviewed stating how many films they performed in. Some say 200, others tout how they starred in 1,000. It becomes clear very quickly that the type of cinema that was being turned-out during this time period was a product. Remake, Remix, Rip-off delves deep into this product. It is an informative document of a period of time that is often overlooked in world cinema. Although, I prefer to think of cinema as more than just a formula or a product, this well-intentioned documentary...

Fantastic Fest is more like summer camp than just a normal film festival. It happens once a year in September. You get together with old friends and meet new ones. Every day and night is filled with fun activities. Most importantly though, this non-traditional camp is for fans of the most bizarre, violent, horrific, and Fantastic films you could imagine. And even still, Fantastic Fest is so much more. I will be covering Fantastic Fest once again this year starting September 24 through October 1. This will be my fourth time attending Fantastic Fest and We Are Movie Geeks fifth time covering the crazy events that take place in Austin. For eight days I will be immersed in a world that is unlike any other film festival I have ever attended. What other festival is going to feature events like an opening night Christmas party, a karaoke competition, a “nerd rap” throwdown,...

Stare at the magnificent poster, and then read the official announcement of what the greatest film festival in the world is up to at the end of September.

Fantastic Fest announces the first wave programming lineup for its 11th annual celebration of exciting genre-bending films, including the World Premiere of Bone Tomahawk with Kurt Russell and Matthew Fox in attendance, a retrospective of Turkish Genre Cinema, and a special Mondo Gallery event and programming series curated by filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn to celebrate the release of his new book Nicolas Winding Refn: The Act of Seeing, which profiles Refn’s collection of vintage exploitation-era American movie posters. “We’re very excited about this year’s mix of premieres, unique events and a retrospective theme unlike any other featuring audacious and otherworldly Turkish remakes of classic Hollywood films,” said Fantastic Fest founder Tim League.

See the full list of first...

Fantastic Fest is touted as the largest genre film fest, from experience, I can tell you the Austin week-long event still feels like an intimate gathering, for fans who love of horror, sci-fi, experimental, foreign, action, animated and just straight-up gnarly film. The curtain has rolled back on this year's first wave of programming at the Alamo Drafthouse fest, held Sept. 24 through Oct. 1 at the South Lamar location. Highlights include the world premiere of Kurt Russell-starrer "Bone Tomahawk"; a retrospective of Turkish genre cinema; and a programming series from "Drive" and "Only God Forgives" director Nicolas Winding Refn, who will be supporting his new book "Nicolas Winding Refn: The Act of Seeing." There are a few films that are crossing over with other major film fest lineups, like one-take flick "Victoria" which took home awards from Berlinale International. The initial film lineup for Fantastic Fest 2015 is below it's new poster,...

The day has come. The reminder that Autumn is nearing and the best genre film festival in the Magnited States of America is nigh! We got the poster and the first wave of films listed below. Nicolas Winding Refn comes back and curates some obscure films and motherfuckin’ Kurt F’n Russell is coming with his new film, Bone Tomahawk! Read below and prepare for our coverage of this year’s Fantastic Fest!!!!

From the Press Release:

Austin, TX – Thursday, July 30, 2015 – Fantastic Fest announces the first wave programming lineup for its 11th annual celebration of exciting genre-bending films, including the World Premiere of Bone Tomahawk with Kurt Russell and Matthew Fox in attendance, a retrospective of Turkish Genre Cinema, and a special Mondo Gallery event and programming series curated by filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn to celebrate the release of his new book Nicolas Winding Refn: The Act of Seeing,...

As genre cinema has found more fans around the world, their place in film festivals have also grown, with genre getting its dedicated sections in acclaimed festivals such as the Toronto International Film Festival’s Midnight Madness section. The demand, however, has grown now to allow for festivals dedicated to genre cinema, and one of the more notable stops in the latter group is Fantastic Fest. Running for a decade now, the 2015 incarnation of Fantastic Fest will be held once again in Austin, Texas, running from September 24th to October 1st. The first wave of films that will play at the festival have now been announced.

The Festival’s closing night film will be S. Craig Zahler’s Bone Tomahawk, which will be making its World Premiere. Kurt Russell and Matthew Fox, who star in the feature, will also be in attendance at the festival. The 2015 Festival will also have...

Kurt Russell, Matthew Fox, and more star in the horror Western Bone Tomahawk, the closing film of Fantastic Fest 2015. Karyn Kusama's The Invitation is also included in the first wave of programming for the Austin-based festival that kicks off September 24th.

Press Release: "Austin, TX - Thursday, July 30, 2015 - Fantastic Fest announces the first wave programming lineup for its 11th annual celebration of exciting genre-bending films, including the World Premiere of Bone Tomahawk with Kurt Russell and Matthew Fox in attendance, a retrospective of Turkish Genre Cinema, and a special Mondo Gallery event and programming series curated by filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn to celebrate the release of his new book Nicolas Winding Refn: The Act of Seeing, which profiles Refn's collection of vintage exploitation-era American movie posters. "We're very excited about this year's mix of premieres, unique events and a retrospective theme unlike any other featuring audacious and...

Turkish films over the years have been known to be of... shall we say... questionable quality? I'm looking at you, Turkish Exorcist, Turkish Star Wars, Turkish Jaws, and Turkish Rambo! That can't last forever though, can it? It's looking like the Turks have finally gotten their cinematic shit together.

Variety is reporting out of Cannes that Barcelona genre producer M's Entertainment (Asmodexia) has set its second feature, the low-budget Baskin.

Baskin’s plot revolves around four cops responding to a routine call who discover a Lovecraftian cult whose quarters hide the very horrors that should only belong in Hell.

The film is costing under $500,000 is and fully financed by M's Entertainment via private equity. By targeting theatrical but also robust VOD play, M's Entertainment is breaking in a new production/distribution/promotion model for genre movies in Spain. Turkish helmer Can Evrenol will direct from his own screenplay based on his 2013 short.

I don’t have a lot of experience with Turkish cinema — my knowledge pretty much begins and ends with “Turkish Star Wars” — but I do know what I like. And effects guru-turned-director Cem Gul’s upcoming action-packed thriller “Kaos” looks like something I’d really enjoy. Stunts involving automobiles? Check. Slow motion fight sequences? Check. Lots and lots of gunplay? Check. In other words, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t investigate this promising title when and if it arrives here in the States. Until then, I suppose I’ll have to make due with the trailer. Speaking of which, you can find that clip embedded below...

With domestic films repeatedly ranking in the nation's most viewed, the Turkish industry is booming as others around it stall

You couldn't move for new waves in the noughties: even Antarctica looked capable of knocking out its own film scene. But the Latin American buena onda in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, the South Korea extreme-Asia offshoot and the Russian blockbuster boom all had one thing in common. They found it hard to sustain their initial impact, whether it was because the global media moved on to the next big thing, or their key directors were poached by Hollywood, or there was a lack of sustained investment. Gael García Bernal reflected on the Mexican version of the problem at an Nft talk: "When we did Amores Perros, Mexico only made six films that year. There will be 65 films this year. But I don't know how many of those will be seen.

For those of you who don't know already, there was an actually Turkish version of Star Wars made the film known as Turkish Star Wars a.k.a. The Man Who Saved The World. The movie basically followed the same theme of Indiana Jones but stole a bunch of scenes from Star Wars, with a bunch of stock footage, and footage shot for the film. It really turned out being very very interesting.

The movie has been turned in a music video featuring Turkish post-punk, new wave, no wave, psychedelia and Hard Rock. This is an entertaining strange video, check it out and tell us what you think, enjoy!

Turkish Star Wars - Punk Re-mix from Django's Ghost on Vimeo.

Here's a list of bands that were used in the video:

01. Uzun Ince Bir Yoldayim - Özdemir Erdogan Ve Orkestrasi

02. Zardanadam - Kalbim Yok

03. Rashit - Kapak Güzelleri

04. Deli -...

From Turkish versions of Tarzan and Dracula to wintry weepies, via (whisper it) Midnight Express, Fiachra Gibbons picks out the best films shot in Istanbul

• As featured in our Istanbul city guide

From Russia with Love, Terence Young, 1963

"They dance for him, they yearn for him, they die for him …" From Russia with Love is not only arguably the best of the Bond films, it set the template for all that followed, right down to the corny one-liners. This is Tatiana, the Russian double-agent love interest succumbing to Sean Connery's charms: "The mechanism is… Oh James… Will you make love to me all the time in England?" "Day and night, darling… Go on about the mechanism…" The film was shot when the city's population was less than two million (it has mushroomed to more than 13 million today), and it's a magic carpet ride back to a time when Istanbul teemed with hamals,...

Over the years we've seen plenty of amusing foreign knockoffs of Hollywood films. Now, I'm not talking about legitimate international remakes like the Japanese remake of Sideways, I'm talking about things like Turkish Star Wars [1], which re-appropriated actual clips from Star Wars without authorization, or Aabra Ka Dabra [2], Bollywood's take on Harry Potter. Now this week, an amazing trailer has been making the rounds for HALKa, the Bangladeshi version of The Incredible Hulk. The posters describe it quite accurately as "a dangerous comedy about love & war" -- apparently they're getting around copyright issues by calling it a parody. The CG work is hilariously terrible, and the story is quite a bit different than what we're used to. Something to do with a young boy who gets terrorized by bullies until one day he just gets pushed too far. Personally I don't know why Marvel bothered hiring Mark Ruffalo for The Avengers.

Wider than Cinemascope, deeper than 3D, more sonically astounding than Thx, it’s Foleyvision! Every line of dialogue, every note of music, every single sound effect if performed right before your eyes by the amazing Foleyvision cast.

This Thursday, a sound effect event will be happening at the Ritz that will blow your ears off. Foleyvision, those aurally creative people who brought us new soundtracks for such hits as Turkish Star Wars, Santa Vs. Satan, For Your Height Only, and Turkish Wizard Of Oz will be bringing an awesome new show: Flash Gordon’S Trip To Mars.

When Ming the Merciless projects a deadly ray from Mars to extract all of the nitrogen from Earth’s atmosphere, it’s up to Flash and his pals to use awesome special effects to save the world from destruction!

In case you’ve never been to a Foleyvision show, here’s how it works.

Jarred Hess is the man behind the much-loved Napoleon Dynamite and the Jack Black wrestling comedy Nacho Libre. It’s been over 3 years since Libre and he’s finally back to bring another offbeat comedy to the big screen. His latest Gentlemen Broncos deals with a young writer’s ambitions, crappy science fiction and an at-the-end of his career sci-fi writer. To help promote his latest film I was given the more than fantastic opportunity of interviewing Mr. Hess to discuss Broncos and here’s the result. Gentlemen Broncos is currently in theaters.

I always like how your films carry an underdog theme. What is it exactly that appeals to you about that?

Jarred Hess: You know, I guess… I moved around a lot growing up and I guess I just identify with the outsider guy — trying to fit in and pursuing his dream. I don’t know, it’s...