The landscape on the road from Melicha to the west coast of Malta is quite rare until you reach the sea to the old World War II pill box and look down at the Bay below. There, you will be welcomed with an extraordinary and clumsy sight: a picturesque village with disclosure, which seems to appear fully formed by the pages of Comic. It was, of course, the intention, as it was specially built for "Popeye", the notorious musical for Robert Altman's comedy, based on the classic comics of EC SEAR.

The village of Popey does not take long to walk, but it is a miracle of production design. Indeed, it was perhaps unnecessarily too designed for the needs of the film. The diaries were brought from the Netherlands and the wooden roof shingles were delivered by Canada for a seven -month construction, employing 165 traders and demanding eight tonnes of nails and 2,000 liters of paint. I remember walking around the streets of a family vacation on the island in the 1990s, thinking, "There are real villages in England less detailed than this." Aside from Sweethaven, live quarters, music studio and editing package were also built from scratch, and all that extravagance offers an indication of the excess that turned the filming into a manufacturing nightmare.

"Popeye" was not even the first choice of live musical paramount, based on a comic book. It happened in 1977, after the studio lost Colombia for Annie's rights, resulting in producer Robert Evans instead turning to an inappropriate sailor. It's been three years before the cameras rolled on their own built -in Maltese set, with the original casting elections of Dustin Hoffman and Guilda Radner (like Popeye and Olit Oil, respectively) were replaced by Robin Williams and Shelley Duval. Maverick's director Robert AltmanComing out of the back of the 20th -century Apostles, Fox was ready as an incredible choice to control the film after Hull Ashby and Luis Male and both turned the project noses. However, there was a reason to be optimistic. Williams was hot after his Starwar turned into "Morot and Mindy", while Duval was the perfect choice to play olive (since she was even nicknamed the character as a child). But after the cast and crew arrived on the island in the Mediterranean, things really became very chaotic.

Cocaine was a major factor in Hollywood in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when films such as "Blues Brothers" and "Kadishak" became notorious about the large amounts of nasal candy used during filming. Even Kerry Fischer admitted to taking Coca-Coca on the set of "Starwells War: Episode V-Imperi's strike back" at that time, making "Popeye", but one of many high-profile productions stimulated by tons of marshg powder.

Robin Williams was already strong in drugs and alcohol until he took his first lead role in the film, which was a kind of story of origin, as Popey arrives in Swithaven in search of his long -lost father, falling for olive olive, heads on his head with Bluto (Paul L. Howard Storm. Director of Williams of Morok and Mindy, described the degree of the problem (through The country): "He used Coca -Coca, and if you crush Coca, to get down to drink alcohol. He was out all night and fucking everyone in the city."

Producer Robert Evans was also partial to cocaine, and his habit almost penetrated him into a deep trouble with the Maltese authorities. He brought some materials with him on a flight from the United States, which went bad when the luggage disappeared at the airport. He was later crushed for trafficking while the film was post-production, but the charges were subsequently dismissed.

It was not just the starvet and producer of the indulgent film. Barry Dealer, who was then CEO of Paramount Pictures, did not say in uncertain terms that Popeye was the "most famous movie set" he once visited during an interview with Anderson Cooper (through Fun weekly), claiming, "all were stoned". The passage of cocaine on the set apparently became part of catering and demanded some ingenuity. Dealer said movie cans delivered by Los Angeles to Malta were used for smuggling in a daily basis, while co-composer Van Dyk Parks recalled the opening of Toki-Toki to change the battery just to finish a bag with a blow. Dealer continued to suggest that the enormous use of cocaine even had an effect on the step of the final film, comparing it to vinyl records (through The country):

"If 33 revolutions per minute is a standard speed of playing LP of Ramophone, this is a movie that plays at 78 revolutions per minute."

Locations in Florida and Bogota, Colombia, were considered "Popeye" before Malta was selected thanks to his infinity tank in deep water and a useful bay where Robert Evan's production team could have built the village of Swihaven. When the cast and the crew arrived on the island nation in January 1980, one thing they probably couldn't expect is the game to stop the rain. Malta is a popular tourist destination partly as a result of its Mediterranean climate and good weather for most of the year, but some of the worst 40 years have caused production to last two months. As a result, the film also trampled budget and Tempers began to decay. Robert Altman's son, Stephen, who worked on Popeye as a production designer, once described how difficult it was:

"To make" Popey "was like going to war in a distant land. Was traumatic. We all had PTSN. We can tell funny stories about it now, but many years later it was like, "Oh man, don't talk about Malta."

Malta is certainly not the worst place to get stuck for several months, but it has long been spent from home in a stormy drug -fueled spiralng cost, unreasonable bad weather and no obvious plan on how to finish the film. In the end, the studio asked Altman to finish things and return to Los Angeles with what he had, resulting in a rush and a pretty makeshift end.

Even before Popej hit theaters, overwhelming consumption and chaotic shooting, it made some people label the movie "Gate of Evans", "Referring to Michael's inflated bomb" "Heavenly Gate" (which Killed one of the most iconic study in Hollywood). It wasn't that bad - Popeye made a decent refund at the box office, bringing $ 60 million out of a $ 20 million budget. However, it was still considered a flop due to the fact that it was not the massive hit that was expected on Paramount and no one actually seemed to love. Somehow, it avoided the brutality of receiving any nominations at the inaugural Golden Raspberry awards, but dealt with the worst image of the "Bad" chains. The entire stench around the film put Robert Altman on the Hollywood naughty step for most of the 1980s, which eventually made him leave the United States for a period of independent in France to rebuild his career.