Convert date str into a iso-formatted UTC date str, i.e.:
    yyyymmddhhmmss

    :type date_str: str
    :param date_str: date string to be parsed.

    :rtype: str
    :returns: iso-formatted UTC date str.

def get_utc_iso_date(date_str):
    """Convert date str into a iso-formatted UTC date str, i.e.:
    yyyymmddhhmmss

    :type date_str: str
    :param date_str: date string to be parsed.

    :rtype: str
    :returns: iso-formatted UTC date str.

    """
    try:
        utc_tuple = dateutil.parser.parse(date_str).utctimetuple()
    except ValueError:
        try:
            date_str = ' '.join(date_str.split(' ')[:-1])
            utc_tuple = dateutil.parser.parse(date_str).utctimetuple()
        except ValueError:
            date_str = ''.join(date_str.split('(')[:-1]).strip(')')
            utc_tuple = dateutil.parser.parse(date_str).utctimetuple()
    date_object = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(time.mktime(utc_tuple))
    utc_date_str = ''.join([x for x in date_object.isoformat() if x not in '-T:'])
    return utc_date_str