A 26-year-old movie that offers a surprisingly direct insight into dynamics of the Republican nomination race is Joe Dante’s 1990 horror comedy sequel Gremlins 2: The Next Batch. I recall it as being pretty funny, especially the publicity hound billionaire Daniel Clamp, owner of Clamp Center. The moviemakers started off intending Clamp to be the deplorable bad guy, but he winds up helping the kids from the original movie save the day.

Dante told Lou Lumenick of the New York Post recently:

“It was pretty obvious from the name who we were talking about,” says Dante, “though Clamp is also part Ted Turner, since he runs a cable empire as well. Clamp was originally supposed to be the megalomaniac villain of the piece, but he was so oddly endearing, he ended up becoming a semi-heroic figure.”