Barry Diller‘s e book tour for his just lately printed memoir “Who Knew” hit New York Metropolis’s 92Y, the place moderator Anderson Cooper requested Diller throughout a Q&A to disclose “essentially the most coked-up movie set” he ever visited throughout his tenure because the CEO of Paramount Photos. The previous studio govt had the reply nearly instantly: Robert Altman’s “Popeye” (1980).

“Coked-up movie set? Oh, ‘Popeye,’” Diller answered (through Leisure Weekly). “By the best way, you’ll be able to watch it. Should you watch ‘Popeye,’ you’re watching a film that — you consider it within the factor that they used to do about document speeds, 33 [RPM], no matter. This can be a film that runs at 78 RPM and 33 pace.”

Diller served as the pinnacle of Paramount Photos from 1974 till 1984. His illustrious tenure on the studio included the releases of hit films resembling “Saturday Night time Fever,” “Raiders of the Misplaced Ark,” “Grease” and “Beverly Hills Cop,” amongst different classics. However it’s Altman’s “Popeye” that earns the excellence of getting essentially the most “coked-up movie set.”

“You couldn’t escape it,” Diller mentioned concerning the drug use on the film’s set. “They have been truly delivery in movie cans on the time. Movie cans could be despatched again to L.A. for day by day processing movie. This was shot in Malta. And we discovered that the movie cans have been truly getting used to ship cocaine backwards and forwards to this set. Everybody was stoned.”

Robin Williams starred because the title character in “Popeye,” which marked the comic’s first big-screen appearing position after making a reputation for himself on hit tv collection “Glad Days” and its spinoff “Mork & Mindy.” The movie co-starred Altman common Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl. The film was a field workplace success with $60 million worldwide (unadjusted for inflation), practically double its manufacturing funds. Evaluations, nonetheless, have been blended.

Selection wrote in its unique “Popeye” overview: “It’s greater than faint reward to say that ‘Popeye’ is much, much better than it might need been, contemplating the treacherous problem it introduced. However avoiding catastrophe is just not essentially the identical as success. To the attention, Robin Williams is terrifically transposed into the squinting sailor with the bulging arms. However to the ear, his mutterings usually are not all the time understandable.”