How The Flintstones superfan ended up directing the 1994 movie

Live-action takes on nostalgic cartoons are few and far between these days, all too often beaten out by cheaper-to-make CGI animations. However, judging by the later-in-life success of director Brian Levant’s incredibly detailed adaptation of The Flintstones, maybe they shouldn’t be.

"It was licensed to Netflix in the US earlier this year and immediately went into the top 10," says Levant, speaking to Yahoo UK as his 1994 family comedy turns 30.

"It surprised the hell out of lots of people but I think it’s mostly to do with people’s age," he reasons. "Those who experienced it in theatres as kids want to share it with their kids — or simply renew their relationship with the Stone Age’s first family."

Revisit the movie (streaming on NOW in the UK) and it’s easy to see why it still holds up.

How Brian Levant landed the job of directing The Flintstones

A retro toy collector and Hanna-Barbera expert, Levant was the perfect choice to bring The Flintstones to vivid life. His love for these iconic characters and their beloved Bedrock is immediately apparent from the film’s rich production design, perfect casting and punchy script.

All this is perhaps to be expected from a guy who has an entire room in his house dedicated to niche Flintstones memorabilia but despite this, Levant was far from Universal’s top pick for the job back in the early '90s.

Read more: Where are the cast of The Flintstones now? (People, 8 min read)

"I’d heard they were looking for a writer so I called my agent and said ‘I know I’d do a great job on this’. He called me back and said ‘they already have a writer but they were wondering if you’d meet as a director,’" remembers Levant. "I did not expect that at all."

The ‘Them’ in question was Amblin’s Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, a pair hot off their own dino-epic Jurassic Park. "I spent the next two weeks really thinking about what you could do."

Cracking The Flintstones' script

For years, Hollywood had been trying to make a live-action Flintstones movie but it was a tough rock to crack. At one point, Joel Silver had lined up Jim Belushi and Rick Moranis as Fred and Barney before things fell apart.

The following years saw directors like Ron Howard and Ivan Reitman turn it down but when Spielberg cast John Goodman in his 1989 fantasy Always, he found the perfect Fred Flintstone. Combine this with the creative leaps he’d just made with CGI effects on Isla Nublar and the director viewed Bedrock as a priority project. All they needed was the right story.

"They’d never hit the bullseye," says Levant. "They hired a big-name writer [to write a script] and paid him a s*** load of 1992 money. He turned it in early but it was terrible. The next morning, Steven walks in, drops it in the garbage can and says ‘Now what do we do?’ I saw all my dreams evaporate." Thankfully, Levant had a plan.

Having written for TV shows like Happy Days and retooled Leave it to Beaver, he knew TV writers quickly turn around stories all the time. Plus, with The Flintstones’ legacy as a half-hour comedy, he knew they’d be perfectly placed to do the same here. "I said: ‘Give me $25,000 and two weeks and we’ll hand you a new script.’"

There was a catch though, one that required Levant’s writers to use elements of the old plot. "We used the barest bones of that story to propel things," he says of perhaps the film’s biggest criticism: using a tale of corporate malfeasance as the central hook for a big summer family movie.

Still, he peppered his new take — one that saw Fred accidentally given a big-wig work promotion by sleazy suit Cliff Vandercave (Kyle MacLachlan) and his secretary Sharon Stone (Halle Berry) and almost losing his friendship with Barney — with as many dino-themed jokes and visual gags as he could: "I went for the biggest joke writers I could find," he says.

Assembling an all-star cast

Story aside, Levant’s movie was elevated by its cast, each of whom delivered a perfect real-life imitation of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera’s classic characters. "It was my wife’s idea to cast Rosie O’Donnell as Betty. I met with her and she knew more about the Flintstones than I did and had Betty’s voice and laugh down so perfectly."

The casting caused some controversy though, "a lot of it from Rick Moranis," adds Levant. "He said: ‘If she should be playing anybody in this movie, it should be Fred.’" Thankfully, it wasn’t a position he held for long: "As soon as they started working together he took me aside and said ‘I was so wrong. She’s great.’"

Levant had three choices for his film’s big-bad Cliff Vandercave and had he chosen differently, the impact could have been far-reaching. "The final three were Christopher Reeve, David Duchovny and Kyle [MacLachlan]; what a terrible choice to make. I loved all of them," admits Levant. "Christopher Reeve was magnificent and had he been shooting with us, he probably wouldn’t have been riding when he took that fall, so there’s some weird stuff there."

As for Cliff’s steamy secretary? "Sharon Stone was written for Sharon Stone but she chose to do Intersection with Richard Gere instead," Levant continues. "We saw every woman in Hollywood with a C-cup or larger [for that role]. Seriously," he laughs. "Halle stood out. When we first met, she said ‘Were there any Black people in Bedrock?’ She was wonderful."

An impressive production

With the backing of Spielberg, Levant and his team had the freedom to create a sprawling, practical Bedrock with foam-carved faux rock houses, working foot-powered cars and plenty of practical dinosaurs.

Read more: Halle Berry looks back at groundbreaking Flintstones role (Entertainment Weekly, 2 min read)

"Steven really wanted me to use Stan Winston who built the creatures for Jurassic Park. They were life-life and wonderful but I detected not a drop of whimsy or humour in him," says Levant, remembering their brief meeting. "My kids watched a tremendous amount of Henson programming and [their work was] remarkable," he says of his decision to ask the Henson’s to design a more playful, cartoonish and Flintstone-sy look for his prehistoric beasts.

Levant’s dedication to physical effects meant that there were only 53 CGI shots in the entire film, many of these used up by the Flintstones’ loyal pet, Dino. "He was a puppet in close-ups and CGI in full body [shots]," says the director. "We tried to do Dino and Babypus, the family’s sabre tooth tiger, as people in costumes. [The Henson Creature Shop] had great people but it didn’t look good so we redesigned Dino to me more like the cartoon."

Even more amazing is that the creatures rarely flubbed their lines: "The dinosaur that powered the elevator in the Slate and Company offices never worked. But other than that, we never had a problem. We had a 72-foot Brontasaurus and a six-inch bottle-opener [dinosaur]," he says of the broad range of their talents. "The Henson puppeteers were so dedicated and skilful."

Word about Levant’s production quickly got around town and soon, the real-life Bedrock he and his team had built in Los Angeles’ Vasquez State Park became a must-see attraction. "People from all over the industry came to the set just to see it. Joel Silver, Roger Corman, Frank Oz… they were blown away," smiles Levant. "Today, if you made the Flintstones, you’d make the doors and floors and everything else would be CGI but we built it. It was tactile and you really felt that it was real."

The doomed Flintstones sequels

It paid off too. Levant’s film was such a big hit that Amblin immediately wanted not just one sequel but two. "They wanted to shoot two and three back-to-back, like [they did with] Back to the Future," reveals Levant.

Unfortunately, Goodman had other ideas: "From the first time somebody said ‘You should be Fred Flintstone’ he really didn’t want to be Fred Flintstone," he adds. "I think what drove that idea was every time he was in an airport, people would come up to him saying ‘Yabba Dabba Do’ He threw himself into it wholeheartedly but there was something in the back of his head that said ‘I don’t want to walk around in a dress all day.’"

Read more: The Flintstones star had a message for producer Steven Spielberg: “Yabba Dabba Don’t!” (Deadline, 2 min read)

With that, plans for a musical version with the original cast of what became 2000’s less well-received prequel Viva Rock Vegas were swiftly nixed but the mammoth success of 1994’s original is something Levant still holds close to his heart.

"I got the job because I collected Flintstone’s toys and when I showed my collection to Steven, he saw that I appreciated the show not on a financial level but it was something I loved," he says.

"The Flintstones were a part of my life before I started the movie and they remain a major part of my life. I’m happy there’s still interest and people are still enjoying and talking about it."

The Flintstones is available to stream now on Sky and NOW with a Sky Cinema Membership.