0:00 I raced in Brock Yates... (creator of CANNONBALL BAKER SEA TO SHINING SEA MEMORIAL DASH)... ONE LAP OF AMERICA 0:23 was brought in to bring the movie back 1:22 I got all these guys from the movie together for a private party at my house 2:40...
0:00 I raced in Brock Yates... (creator of CANNONBALL BAKER SEA TO SHINING SEA MEMORIAL DASH)... ONE LAP OF AMERICA
0:23 was brought in to bring the movie back
1:22 I got all these guys from the movie together for a private party at my house
2:40 whatever animosity was between those guys for all those years totally melted away
5:50 this time throw a purse at your wife and call her a whore
6:44 We're gonna order hot wings and get fucking wasted. But we are not leaving here until we come up with a name
7:02 Tom opens that book. Did you know there was a NASCAR legend named Fireball Roberts?
8:06 Everybody wants to see Cannonball Run. It's just never. It's never gonna happen. It's never gonna happen.
Unknown Speaker 0:00
I raced in Brock Yates is for those people who don't know who Brock Yates is he was a legendary automotive journalist for current driver, and the creator of the original cannonball Baker sea to shining sea Memorial dash race, which ran four times. And so I racing is One Lap of America because somebody connected me to get in and medium hit it off. And I was actually brought in to bring the movie back. After I raced once there and then Brock found out a little bit behind behind the scenes about me. He called me up and he says, Hey, J bird wants you to come up to the to the estate and let's talk about getting this movie back together cuz you're like, you're younger at the time as young guy, young guy, you got the connections, because nothing's happening on this thing. And I got it the closest I'll be honest with you, man, we had everybody on board. Hal Needham, allready. Brock. These are all the producers right? And and Raymond Chow from Golden Harvest. And at the time, Raymond Chow was probably 200 years old. Lord knows the man still alive today. But nobody had gotten these guys back together. You know, the 70s Nobody knows. These contracts are written so loosely, right. Nobody knows who really controls it ruddy think, who produced the Godfather thinks he controls it. How thought he could I got all these guys together for a private party at my house in Winter Park, Florida, and didn't tell any of them that I brought the other ones. And, and it was I got to tell you, we had Terry belay there, you know, Hulk Hogan and a few others. And it was just it was so fine. And we screened the movie in my home theater had a theater that the home theater that looked like a movie theater, and we screened the movie Pammi his wife Brock's wife is like oh my god, J She he has not seen this since like 1982 and we screened it How's doing talking about it Brock's talking about rocks like that God did Martin there. Hey, he really drinking that she had real alcohol right there. And cracking. I mean, we're just cracking up. They're telling me about Sir Roger Tamizh like that's Brock's wife. Family's like oh my god. dirtiest mouth on the planet. That guy had a had a dirty joke every two seconds. But it was super cool cuz I had stunt drivers there and all these all these friends from the industry. Everybody is so jam packed. You guys see the photo jam packed in here, listening to what would be a DVD, you know, the DVD narration in real time happening while these guys are talking about all this shit that really went down. And we got it there. I gotta tell you for whatever animosity was between those guys for all those years. It totally melted away. They were all like kids again. All in love with each other. All like let's do this dadadada da and only when he didn't come was Raymond Chow. Right. And Golden Harvest big company. And Raymond Chow is a you know, bazillionaire. And at the time, I think like you say you stick to my spin. 200 years old at that time. We had everybody on board, including Raymond and then right when it came down to the final signing, I get a phone call from Raymond's people, and they said you know, Jay Raymond respects you very much and he he thinks you'd be great and you know, the whole pounding it on because you're gonna get dropped off a cliff. But he's he says it's gonna be a pass. And that that was the end of that, right? So since that summit tell you right now, for anybody who even knows what Cannonball Run is, that movie will never get remade will not okay? frocks now passed away. House passed away. outright. He's on his last leg. Again, Raymond Chow still powers through at 300 years old. But what happens is, these contracts are so loosely written in the 70s. Anytime anybody breathes doing a cannonball film, The lawsuits happen. And it goes nowhere. And so the last one was, I think 2013 allready. said we're going to do a cannon ball. And then they got so watered down. We're going to do it in Europe, because it'll be in the United States would have anything to do with the movie. And they need to underwrite it with brands. And it was like, and I got everybody called me. Oh, God, is there. Do you see the press announcement that I said, I'm gonna tell you what I believe it want to see it never happened? Well, you
Jeff Sterns 4:25
know that it won't. But the thing that you got to feel good about is these guys that had issues with each other when they're from a distance, they're able to carry it around, let the other guy make the first move or create their own story about what's wrong with the other guy, but when you didn't tell the others that who else was gonna be there when you were inviting them? Then now we're here, you know,
Unknown Speaker 4:46
it's like high school. It's like high school, right? You only remember the good parts. When they got back together and they're watching that movie. It hit them how cool it was. And and they wanted to do it again. And we were and we were so close and then when and Raymond did that. There's no way to do it. I mean, there's you gotta have everybody on board or somebody's gonna sue. And nobody wants to take that on. And so I told Brock, when that happened, I said, you know, what if we, if we look at a little bit different, what if we, what if we did something that where the movie was inspired from the real event? Why don't we create a product inspired from the movie and we create I said, and we'll call it, you know, whatever and broccoli like jaybird, anything you want to do and right behind you, because there's never going to happen bla bla bla, and it was Tom. Okay, so we created this concept of this quasi reality show, even though everything's authentic. Okay? Not like amazing race where it's all staged, literally an amazing race. They tell them okay, get out of the car and run off the cliff. And then do it again. Only this time throw a purse at your wife in color a whore. Right that they're called produced. It's all reality is that way ours was more like Doc, you tainment right? Because we didn't. We didn't. I mean, the shit that went down on our show really, actually went down. It's hilarious. So we struggled though for like six months trying to come up with a name. Right. And Brock was co producer and, and we couldn't come up with any I finally told a few friends in Florida. I you know who Mani Pat. You remember Mani Patterson? Very well, yeah. And Monty was like my mentor, man. I love that man. It's so sorry. That he had passed away. I love that man. Like, like, like another father. That guy was to me. And Monty. And Tom LaPointe. And David Hickman, who was president of my ad agency, and I said, Look, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna go downtown Orlando. I forgot what with this eatery was, but it was a hot wings place. We're gonna order hot wings and get fucking wasted. But we are not leaving here until we come up with a name. And let me tell you, Tom, Tom came in with a book of NASCAR legends. Right? So we're all talking and we're at this point, we're probably three sheets to the wind because we're still trying to come up with a name. And and and Tom opens that book up it goes Hey, did you know there was a NASCAR legend? Named Fireball Roberts? And I'm like, get the what his name was fireball. I mean, sounds like cannon ball. And of course cannon ball got ball in it. Yeah. And hit right and and Brock named cannonball after cannonball Baker. I'm like, Okay, we named Mars after Fireball Roberts. And and we're in. And then I said, Nobody talks until we get the registered trademarks clear, because I don't need you know, 20 Century Fox on my ass. And they've never peaked. They never peaked on the show. Even though we're clearly a spin off of some sorts, right? But now we're actually trying to produce a movie based on fireball run series. But, you know, basically it's the Cannonball Run movie. Nobody can produce with all these wacky characters and antics, but it'll be a scripted, scripted, right? So, but it kind of plays on the same thing. So we're able to bring it back that nobody can bring back but that's one movie. Everybody wants to see Cannonball Run. It's just never. It's never gonna happen. It's never gonna happen.
Jeff Sterns 8:15
This has been Jeff Sterns connected through cars.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai