‘Sharknado 4’: Presidential Remix

It’s raining fins again. This time the shark storm is hitting Las Vegas.

Syfy unveils “Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens,” the fourth installment in its popular — annual — series on Sunday night at 8 p.m.

“Bernie, Hillary and Trump would all make for a fun day on set,” said Anthony C. Ferrante.

The franchise’s two main stars, Ian Ziering and Tara Reid, are back by popular demand (Syfy let viewers vote on the fate of Reid’s character). They’re joined by a cast including Gary Busey, Cheryl Tiegs, Steve Guttenberg, Gilbert Gottfried, Stacey Dash, Vince Neil and Wayne Newton, to name but a few.

This time around the action is set in Las Vegas, with previous installments taking place in Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C., respectively, not to mention Orlando’s Universal Studios Florida, owned by Syfy parent company NBC Universal.

The original “Sharknado” aired in July of 2013, and although it was initially watched by 1.37 million viewers (slightly below the average audience of 1.5 million viewers for a typical Syfy original film), it began trend on Twitter, and managed to make cult status in record time.

LifeZette sat down with “Sharknado” creator/director Anthony C. Ferrante to discuss the surprise success of the campy series.

Question: “Sharknado” has officially surpassed the trilogy mark. Is it safe to say “Sharknado” has jumped the shark?

Answer: Let’s call it “The First Trilogy.”

Q: The subtitle is “The Fourth Awakens.” Is this the result of a contest on social media? I know you’ve gone that way in the past.

A: Actually, this wasn’t a contest. This is the marketing department trying to come up with something better than the last time. We had a bunch of titles, but this was everyone’s favorite.

[lz_ndn video=31143719]

Q: You’ve got another great roster as far as celebrity cameos, and the real fun is that this pretty much means we get to see innovative shark-related deaths involving them. Which presidential candidate would make for the best death in a “Sharknado” film?

A: (laughing): Is it too late to say Bernie Sanders?

Q: Technically. Why him?

A: The fun with the cameo thing is seeing these famous faces go through this outrageous ordeal. To that end, Bernie, Hillary and Trump all would make for a fun day on set. These films have become a total escape for fans, for this very reason, too. People want to forget what’s happening in the world, if only for a few hours, and this year maybe more than ever. And to be able to sit there and shout at your TV, “Hey, it’s so-and-so … oh man!” has become one of the most fun things about watching the movies, second to live tweeting.

Q: You really do have to thank Twitter for the success of these films, don’t you?

A: Oh yeah, the fans found us. It really comes down to the fans. If it wasn’t for them we would not have had the success. They gave us $200 million dollars worth of marketing. We knew when we were making it it was weird. We felt like we were making a cult film, but we didn’t think that would happen overnight. And it did.

Q: And to circle back around to those cameos, some of them make total sense, but just as many beg the question, “How did they get this person to say yes to doing this?” I remember feeling that way about Matt Lauer’s elongated cameos two films back.

A: Most of it is by gunpoint.

Q: Even for the likes of David Hasselhoff?

A: We go after certain people, and sometimes we get ’em and sometimes we don’t. Others ask us to be in it and we say, “Sure, have some fun with us.” There’s a lot of things that surprise is with these movies. For me, I was thrilled we got Robert Hays (“Airplane,” “Airplane 2”) for the first movie. I think it’s because we do this stuff with a sense of fun. I know Judd Hirsch, who is a really respected actor (TV’s “Taxi”), just wanted to be eaten by a shark on TV.

[lz_ndn video=31142061]

Q: Any top-secret, surprise cameos in this 4th installment?

A: There’s one that’s sorta like the Wil Wheaton cameo from “Sharknado 2,” where if you blink you miss him. This is a person you definitely wouldn’t expect in a “Sharknado” movie, and he gets severely decapitated in a gory, gory way.