“Sharknado, enough said,” the tagline to the cult classic original film reads. Last night the Field Museum of Natural History headed to the Music Box Theatre to present Sharknado as part of the cinema science series.
Screenwriter Thunder Levin, yes, the man who wrote Sharknado, which attracted nearly 1.37 million viewers, was on site to discuss the “so bad that it’s good” blockbuster of our generation.
https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks/status/841842930658775040
After the screening of Sharknado, a Q&A was held with Levin, and the Field Museum’s Kevin Feldheim, the A. Watson III Manager of the Pritzker Laboratory for Molecular Systematics and Evolution.
Audio of the session is below (sorry no transcript available)
Feldheim broke down the science of the movie, and answered questions that he received about what could and what could not actually happen in real life. He mentioned a few recorded instances of tornadoes picking up fish, worms and even alligators, and then dropping the animals from the sky.
https://soundcloud.com/p-m-banks/sharknado-writer-thunder-levin-field-museum-scientist-kevin-feldheim-qa
Yes, there was seriously an alligatornado in South Carolina in 1887.
The original Sharknado, when it debuted in 2013, was the trending topic of all trending topics on Twitter, generating nearly 5,000 tweets a minute at its peak. Levin was hilarious, as he gave the audience numerous insights into the inspiration, writing, casting and production of the movie, quite often in sarcastic fashion.
“This movie was vigorously researched, I spent years in the lab,” said Levin tongue-in-cheek.
Thunder Levin’s best answers and commentary related to the reaction Sharknado received. However, you must listen to the tape above in order to get the full effect.
“The budget for this movie was about $1 million, or the catering budget for a real film,” he said.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times and NBC Chicago.com, contributes to Chicago Tribune.com, Bold, WGN CLTV and KOZN.
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