Latest / Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast / BPS 317: How to Make Your Own Damn Indie Movie with Lloyd Kaufman

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BPS 317: How to Make Your Own Damn Indie Movie with Lloyd Kaufman · Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast

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You are listening to the IFH podcast Network. For more amazing filmmaking and screenwriting
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podcasts, just go to IFAH podcast network dot com. Welcome to the Bulletproof
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Screenwriting Podcast, episode number three seventeen. With computers and technology, we're becoming
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more and more secluded from each other. Wolfgang Peterson rest in peace. Broadcasting
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from a dark, windowless room in Hollywood when we really should be working on
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that next draft. It's the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, showing you the craft and
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business of screenwriting while teaching you how to make your screenplay bulletproof. And here's
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your host, Alex Ferrari. Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the Bulletproof
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Screenwriting Podcast. I am your humble host Alex Ferrari. Now, today's show
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is sponsored by Bulletproof Script Coverage. Now. Unlike other script coverage services,
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Bulletproof Script Coverage actually focuses on the kind of project you are, the goals
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of the project you are, so we actually break it down by three categories
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micro budget, indie film, market and studio film. There's no reason to
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get coverage from a reader that used to reading tempole movies when your movie is
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Brothers, The Blacklist, and many many more. So if you need your
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screenplay or TV script covered by professional readers, head on over to cover my
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screenplay dot com. Enjoy today's episode with guest host Dave Bullis. This guy
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is the founder and president of Truma Entertainment and the creator of the Toxic Avenger.
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I'm sure you already know who the guest is without me even saying his
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name, but with guests Lloyd Kaufman. Yeah, Hi, Dave, how
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are you doing good? How are you buddy good? Thanks for having me
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on my pleasure Lloyd. And you know my daughter, one of my daughters,
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the Mutant middle child, one of the Mutants, and Romeo and Juliet.
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She started a company called kit split, which is an airbnb for a
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film gear for film equipment, film and video equipment kit split, k T
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k is and Kaufman it dot com. Her partner is named Christina and guess
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what the last name is. Budellis so Lizbeth Kaufman is my daughter, but
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her partner is Christina budelis kit split dot com. We use it. It's
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great. It's if you own a camera and you're not using it, trauma
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might need a camera and can rent it from you through kit split, get
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very cheap and expensive insurance and get a price that's probably twenty percent of the
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exorbitant equipment houses. So kitsplit dot com is Herst Media as one of their
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major investors, and they they're in uh, both the East Coast and the
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West Coast. And you know, Lloyd, I'll not only link that in
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the show notes, but I wanted to ask you also about independent film and
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you know, just how everything has changed even you know since we last talked,
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uh you know are you know, unfortunately George Romero he's passed away.
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Um net neutrality has sort of paled away. So it's just so it's just
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a shame, you know. But but so I wanted to ask you,
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Lloyd. You know, I would like to pass away myself. Frankly,
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I don't have the nerve to put a making an appointment with the business end
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of a shotgun little a little scared of pain, you know, Lord,
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I could only imagine what the eulogies would be at your funeral. I mean
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I could just imagine there it would actually be a line bigger than the Apple
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Store or Starbucks. Just to just I'm serious, I mean you you have
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always been a rock star of an indie film. Uh And and I just
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so I wanted to ask you know, what do you think of the current
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state of independent, you know, filmmaking. I mean, you just touched
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upon the rental houses. You know, has has things gotten a little better?
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Have they gotten a little worse? Well, it only gets worse at
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least for trauma. The problem is, as you know, the democratic revolution
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of movies means that everybody can make a movie and you don't really need money
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anymore. You know, you can make it on your phone. As you
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know, it's broadcast quality. And young people today have mastered the thousands of
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people making movies, and out of a thousand movies, they're going to have
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a few masterpieces. The problem is you can't live off your art. You
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can't pay the rent or eat. And that is because the giant telephone and
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the movie the media conglomerates now at and t owns time Warner, you know
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that kind of stuff. They control all the sources of revenue, so and
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they want to own and the laws have changed so they now can own all
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the sources of revenue. It used to be that the television networks were not
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allowed to own the content, but now they can own it, and they
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want to own it. So that is why Netflix is spending eight billion dollars
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on their own damn. They're making their own damn movies and T shirt and
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TV shows. And you know, there's only about seven big companies that control
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all the media. So it's it gets more and more difficult for trauma and
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for any independent filmmaker. But the good news is that you young people can
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make movies for nothing. I can't because I don't know how to do it.
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I'm stuck in the celluloid age, so I can only make five hundred
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thousand dollars movies, which that model does not work it used to, but
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not only more so this one. I'm going to do Shakespeare's shit Storm,
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our version of the Tempest of Shakespeare's Tempest. That's bound to be the last
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one because my wife and I have to put up the money and I can't
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imagine we can keep putting up half a million bucks, so this will be
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I mean Return to Return to Nukem hi aka volume two. Trauma and our
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fans. Our fans helped us on Kickstarter. We paid for the next one
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though Traumas has no money, so my wife, the commissioner, and I
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will have to fund the move. You know, I actually helped back Return
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to Return to Nukem High volume two and kickstarted. Lloyd, Yes you did,
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I remember that, and thank you so much. You gave us the
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fifteen thousand dollars and I'm eternally grateful to you. It was very generous.
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By bye, pleasure. I actually found the money in a the old story
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of the old burlap sack behind a seven to eleven yea, yeah that once
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you took the Everett head out of it, there was all that money.
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And thank you for giving it to help us. But our fans really raised
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about eighty thousand bucks for the budget of Return to Return to nucom i aka
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Volume two. We had run out of money, and we we had money
7:15
coming in later, but we had a time where we either would have had
7:19
to stop and lay people off in the editing department, but the fans came
7:25
to the rescue and got us over the hump, and then we were able
7:28
to pay for the rest of the movie. So we uh, you know,
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it's about four hundred thousand maybe, so the fans got it, gave
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us twenty percent of the budget, so it was pretty damn nice. So
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as we talked about independent cinema, Lloyd and we talked about return to Return
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to Nucom High Volume two. So you know, where does the impetus for
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you? Where do you when do you decide, you know, what movie
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you're going to make, and you know, when you start actually starting to
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write, you know, you start to write the scramp and you actually have
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to get the money to that for this, you know, where does that
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impetus to start from? Usually it's it's born in the current events of the
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day. But Donald's moved next to the Trauma building. There was a McDonald's
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that moved in next to our building on in New York in Hell's Kitchen,
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Ninth Avenue in Manhattan, and they were horrible neighbors. They destroyed, they
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damaged our building, and they and they had they brought rats the size of
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raccoons and and uh and it got me into reading fast food Nation and starting
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to think a bit about the disgrace that is called fast food and how McDonald's
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tortures the animals, exploits the workers, makes shit food that causes a pupecent
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teenagers to get the obese. There's nothing good about it, and of course
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the mc donald's architecture is disgusting to look at. There's nothing good about it
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whatsoever. So that led me to want to make a movie about that issue.
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And I'm a big lover of Broadway musicals and I always wanted to make
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a musical. And Gabe Friedman, who was our editor for ten years,
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our supervisor, main editor for ten years, he suggested make it into a
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musical, and he pretty much wrote Poultry Guys Night of the Chicken Dead,
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or we wrote it together, but he really was the driving force. And
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he in fact, I think he's the one who gave me a Fast Food
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Nation to read. And the movie course, Fast Food Nation didn't appeal to
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anybody but the small number of yuppies who read the book, so the movie
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was pretty boring. We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
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and now back to the show. Whereas Poultry Guys is aimed at the younger
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generations who can change the world and maybe, and in fact, McDonald's has
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I think cleaned up is act a little bit. I think they're raised their
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minimum wage a little and I believe they're trying to emphasize salads and healthier food,
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at least I hope they are. Yeah. I haven't been to McDonald's
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in quite a long time, so I haven't really I don't really know the
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menu too well, except for the only time I would go there to is
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to maybe eat breakfast or something like that really quickly. You know, you
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kind of like, you know, in a rush, and you just kind
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of go in there to grab something and then you eat it and you go
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out. I'm sorry, I ate that. Just because it's fast food doesn't
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mean it can't be good, you know. I mean, it's nothing wrong
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with salad, nothing wrong with the protein, but to make this fatty disgusting
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and they, of course the animals are tortured, and that's where poultry guys
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came from. In the case of Return to Return to newcom Hi aka Volume
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two, that's the second half of my big event movie Returned to Newcomb High
11:09
volume one and volume two, and the themes there were they also concerned food
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and the fact that our high schools have been serving crap food, so they've
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contributed to the very bad health of the American teenagers. And you know,
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we have a huge problem with obesity. And also the bullying is a big
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theme of of return to Newcomb High. And of course it's a lesbionic love
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story and sugar cookies in nineteen seventy one was a lesbian a lesbian vertigo was
11:50
based on Hitchcock's vertigo. So we've always been sort of rooting for the underdog
11:56
and returned to Newcomb High Volume one and two, or deal with the underdog
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who gets bullied for being uh uh you know in the l lgbt Q department.
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M hm and uh, I mean, you know, it's kind of
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like trauma, right lord. You know it's it's the underdog, always fighting
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for the for the little guy, trying not to get smushed by, you
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know, the the corporate giants, trying to fight back, doing everything one
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cans to change the world, make the world a better place, every little
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bit to be part of the actions and passions of his or her times.
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As Oliver Wendell Holmes stated back in the day, the old Supreme Court justice
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very right wing though, and because you know, as we sort of talk
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about, you know, return to Turn nukeam High Volume two. I know,
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you know, once you finally got everything together, you know, and
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you and you were able to start the kickstarter and it was successful. Uh
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you know, we're you're able to start shooting. You know, what were
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some of the challenges of making a film, you know, making an independent
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film nowadays? So what were some of the big challenges that you came across?
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Well, making the movie. The biggest challenge we have is we make
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twenty million dollars movies for three hundred and fifty to five hundred thousand dollars.
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And you know Trent Haker, right, you know, he wrote Citizen Toxie.
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He just has a wonderful movie out called sixty eight Kill. And when
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we were writing Citizen Toxi, we had we had an investor who was going
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to put up I think two million dollars for Citizen Toxi and we wrote it
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for that budget, and then the investor disappeared and we had to make the
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movie for about half a million. And we did not change the script.
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We made the script that Trent wrote and Trent was extremely it's in fact,
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he's in I interviewed him in one of my books and he devotes a fair
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amount of the interview with how happy he was that we didn't cut anything out
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of the script due to the budget. We figured out ways to do everything
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that was in Citizen Toxy two million dollars script. We figured out how to
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make that movie for four hundred thousand bucks, and he was very, very
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happy with that. But that is the most daunting part of it. This
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movie. We're about to make Shakespeare's shit Storm, which is a version of
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the Tempest. It is huge. It's a huge thousands as well. It's
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like Returned to NUKELEMI Volume two. It's enormous, cast, special effects,
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costuming, transformations, explosions, people, high falls, people on fire.
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I mean, it's a twenty million dollar movie made for under half a minutella
14:48
probably three. Volume two I think was three hundred and fifty to maybe four
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hundred thousand, somewhere in that zone. But we won't make if it's as
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slow as it is, we will lose it all because we're denied access to
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the revenue streams. Well, and I know you're having uh, you know
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a lot of premiers. You're you're you're sort of touring the film. Uh,
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yes, and you have some of the you know, and I saw
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some of the screenings on the on the website for the film. But also,
15:16
you know, I had Dave Kempfield, I'm mutual friend Dave Kempfield on
15:20
the podcast and he was obviously he does the Truman Now podcast. So you
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know, you started your own streaming service. By the way, Lloyd,
15:26
this is a great idea in my opinion, because I think that's where everything
15:31
is going. So you know, everyone's going to have their own content that's
15:33
theirs and just sort of go from there. So, you know, how
15:37
has you know, Truman Now, you know, has that sort of come
15:39
to what you wanted it to be? As you know, has you ever
15:43
had a good response from that? Trauma Now is great. The problem is
15:46
nobody knows about it and we have no money to advert that. We have
15:48
no money, period, but we certainly don't have money to advertise, so
15:52
it's all word of mouth and it's terrific. In fact, returned to Nukemi
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Volume one, the first half of this event film is premiering on on the
16:04
Trauma Now at this very minute, and every month we have two or three
16:08
premiere movies, you know, world premiers, and then I curate about a
16:15
dozen movies from our library, some of which are classics or or sometimes there's
16:21
a theme. It's a great service and it's only four ninety nine a month,
16:26
and it keeps Trauma alive where we have we We're bust. We're living
16:30
on the uh, the memory of fumes. We're not living on fumes.
16:34
We're living on the memory of fumes. And without our fans going on Trauma
16:40
Now, I don't know how. And you know shopping at our studios store
16:44
or Trauma Direct. Trauma Direct is our store on Trauma dot com. Uh,
16:49
you know we are. Fans are the only reason we're still around.
16:52
They support us, and they subscribe to Trauma Now and anybody out there who's
16:57
listening. They want to support new, brilliant independent filmmakers, the next generation
17:04
of James Gunns and the other famous directors who have come out of the loins
17:10
of Trauma, Eli Roth, Trenega and actors like Samuel Jackson and so on
17:17
and so forth. Support Trauma Now and support the new filmmakers whose movies are
17:22
premiering on Trauma Now. It's a great, great system. It's only four
17:26
ninety nine. First month is free, but even if it isn't free,
17:30
pay the four ninety nine. We're the last independent movie studio, were the
17:36
last ones, and we're certainly it's a forty fourth year and it's never been
17:41
more difficult, and we're the last ones who even pay lip service to true
17:45
independent filmmaking. There are no studios left who have any longevity, and the
17:52
ones one or two that do have longevity, it's all about money. There
17:56
is no idealism or love of the art or it's all about who's in the
18:02
movie and the packaging and the huge advertising campaigns. We're the last one.
18:08
Trauma Entertainment is the last one, and where it's all thanks to our fans.
18:12
We wouldn't be here without our fans. And net neutrality helps us to
18:18
the free, open and diverse Internet, which unfortunately FCC, the Federal Communications
18:26
Commissions. The director at jet Pie is his name, Pie was his last
18:33
name for ship pipe. He's decided to get rid of net neutrality. So
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that means the main conglomerates now AT and T, Comcast. You know these
18:45
aren't even that they're not even involved in the artists, their phone companies,
18:49
sps. But the point is they want to build a super highway that they'll
18:55
they will be able to afford to pay for and be, But we will
19:02
not be able to afford to be to put our content on the super highway.
19:07
So no longer will everybody be equal. There will be an elite of
19:11
rich people. It'll be a CBS, NBC, ABC world. You'll have
19:15
the homogenized baby food of the major conglomerates on this super highway and their vassals,
19:23
and then all the innovation and all the new people and all the brilliant
19:30
James Gunns and Eli Rosso. The future will be on this dirt road,
19:34
the Internet. That will be a dirt road and take a long time to
19:41
buffer, and and they'll slow us down and feed themselves up. You know
19:45
it's gonna it'll be over, be over, and you'll there won't be any
19:49
more innovation. You know where did kickstart to come from? Came from net
19:55
neutrality on the Internet. We'll be right back after a word for our sponsor,
20:03
and now back to the show. It's a free, open and diverse
20:08
internet, democratic medium. Trauma has half a million people every month coming to
20:15
my fansite and Trauma's website and store and Twitter and Facebook and at Lloyd Kaufman
20:22
on Instagram. You know, we have a literally maybe more than five hundred
20:26
thousand every month because they like it, And we have just as much opportunity
20:32
on the Internet as Disney. If they like Disney, they go to Disney.
20:36
If they like Trauma, they go to Trauma. But everybody's equal,
20:38
it's a level playing field. But if there's a super highway that's fat that
20:42
you can get that delivers fast broadcasting to the consumer, and then traumas on
20:49
the dirt road that takes a long time to buffer, nobody's gonna Nobody's gonna
20:55
want to waste their time. It'll be like public access TV. People are
21:00
gonna want to go with a good quality broadcasting is and that's going to be
21:04
on the super highway, and we will not be allowed to be on it,
21:08
mainly because we won't be able to afford to be on it. So
21:11
I imagine we'll be done if indeed the free, open and diverse Internet goes
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away. But never mind Troma. Troma is just a movie company. They're
21:19
going to be cures for cancer. There are all these wonderful things that come
21:23
out of the free, open and diverse net neutrality that simply won't happen.
21:29
The innovators are going to have to go through. If you have a toothpaste
21:32
that can prevent cavities, really prevent cavities, you won't be able to go
21:37
direct to your audience. Right, the angry video game NERD gets millions and
21:41
millions of views and makes and makes money from the net neutrality Internet. But
21:48
if maybe he will be able to afford to be on the super Highway.
21:52
But the net. The YouTube stars of the future, your new young first
22:00
I'm YouTube stars who under normal net neutrality conditions might be able to attract millions
22:07
of people because they've got something that the public lights, something new and different
22:11
and that might change the world a little bit. They won't be able.
22:15
They'll have to go through one of the majors or the vassals of the majors.
22:18
The toothpaste, the guy who invents tooth the gal or guy who invents
22:26
stuth real cavity preventing toothpaste will have to go through coal Gate or Palm or
22:30
the other one Procter and Gambell, and they won't be permitted to make very
22:34
much money. They'll they'll you know, they'll get the tiny you know,
22:37
you know how it is right if you won't you know, so you know,
22:44
and we are a lot of innovation that won't happen because nobody will know
22:48
about it, or that the gatekeepers in the cartel and the monopolies won't have
22:52
the imagination. Do you think that the monopoly, the cartel, do you
22:57
think that they would have understood the how great kid starter could be? Right?
23:02
Kids starters started with nothing nothing. Yeah, right, it's grue because
23:06
the public wanted it, there was a need for it. But the establishment
23:10
wouldn't understand that. They're not gonna they certainly and they certainly don't want competition.
23:15
Netflix wouldn't be here without net neutrality. Now they're or now they're part
23:18
of the elite and they're part of the the they're probably going to close the
23:22
gate. They'll probably close the gate and not you know, now that they're
23:27
inside the the treasure house, probably a baris from h you know, they
23:33
probably go against net neutrality. Google, I think is for net neutrality,
23:38
and I think Facebook is too. So that's good. Yeah, that's actually
23:44
something to hear because you think they'd also be a be against it. But
23:48
you know that's why would't have you on here, Lloyd, because again you're
23:51
fighting for the small guy. Uh. You know, like when when people
23:53
ask me, how do you promote a podcast? And I go, I
23:56
have no clue, I have no idea what the hell I'm doing. So
23:59
but that's why I have people and like you, Lloyd, because you're out
24:02
there fighting the good fight. Well, you'll you'll have a good podcast,
24:04
and you've done seventy five or more chapters episodes, and obviously whatever you're doing
24:11
because of net neutrality and the democratic level playing field of net neutrality, you're
24:18
you're able to attract the viewers. If you didn't, if your podcast were
24:22
not interesting to people, they you'll be gone. Well well, thank you,
24:27
well, thank you lord. I appreciate that. By the way,
24:30
your your episode, this episode were recording right now, is going to be
24:33
episode two h five. Wow, can you believe it? Thanks? Great?
24:37
When will it air? It's gonna air next week, kay, So
24:42
it'll be plenty of time to you know, for everyone to hear about the
24:45
premiere and everything. But you know, you know, I saw a video
24:48
of you, by the way, Lloyd, I know, we're starting to
24:49
run out of time. And I saw a video of you, uh and
24:53
it was called Kevin or it was called Lloyd Kaufman bothers people at yogur Host's
24:59
premiere. I have to ask, you know again it was called Lloyd,
25:03
Colvin Bothers, Kevin Smith, and uh, you know, it was just
25:07
it was it was, it was funny, it was it was good,
25:11
all good stuff. And uh, I just wanted to ask, uh,
25:14
you know, you know, doing grassroots campaigns like that, you know,
25:18
um, I you know, I've wanted to have Kevin on this podcast.
25:21
He seems like such a good guy. Is he a good guy in person?
25:22
Lloyd? I don't know him well, I certainly admire him, and
25:26
he's certainly one of our greats. Um. But I can tell you there's
25:30
a show that he has called Comic Book Men, and they have a episode
25:37
coming up in the fall, I think with it's trauma for one of their
25:41
episodes where we're all uh there and it's terrific, it's very funny. And
25:47
how nice of h men and Men and Brian Johnson and Kevin Smith, you
25:52
know, they they were nice to devote an episode to trauma Entertainment, Toxi
25:56
and Kabuki Man and I and and I and Catherine Cochrane and Elizabeth Ambrosio.
26:03
You know, we had a trauma episode. Very I can't talk too much
26:04
about it because I've been pledged to confidentiality. You know, they don't want
26:11
me to be a spoiler, obviously, but it's very funny. They did
26:15
a great Guys hilarious So keep an eye out for comic Bookmen and the trauma.
26:21
So how nice it is Kevin Smith to you know, allow a trauma
26:25
episode. Well, and and speaking of that, Lloyd too. You know
26:27
you mentioned Toxy. I don't know if you could actually talk about this,
26:32
but one question I've been I wanted to really ask you is, you know,
26:34
I know there was a talk about a remake about there was actually be
26:37
a remake of the Toxic Avenger. Is there any more news about that.
26:42
Well, they've got Conrad Vernon as the director, and he is great.
26:49
He loves trauma, he's he did the Sausage he did Sausage Party, he
26:55
did Shrek, he's he loves movies. You know, he's one of the
27:00
unique establishment people who actually love movies and are in it for the art.
27:04
Not for the the scum soaked red carpet rape culture. Uh so. So
27:12
he's a good guy and you can have a conversation with him. He knows
27:15
film history, and uh he's going to do a great job. I'm not
27:21
confident that the movie ever. I think their deal runs out make so so
27:26
far they have not put it together. Akiva Goldsman, who was the big
27:32
shot on the case. It's been about ten years, and uh, I
27:36
think I think they have not been able to make it happen because they got
27:41
a couple a few more months to run. And if they, you know,
27:45
I think it's going to take a miracle because at some point, John
27:48
Travolta was attached to it, right, they had John Travolta. They had
27:53
what's his name, Uh, you know, the pumping iron guy, the
28:00
governator. Yeah, he signed, he signed. Apparently they announced it at
28:04
the Canned Film Festival years ago, and then he quickly unsigned for something.
28:10
He unsigned because he got offered sixty million dollars remake. He was getting sixty
28:15
million dollars for a remake of something one of his maybe it was a terminator
28:21
or whatever it was. It was shite, but unfortunately that was it.
28:26
So far they've come up with nothing. Uh you know, and they I
28:33
mean they have Conrad Vernon, he's great, but I think I don't think
28:37
it's going to happen. If it if it happened, we would have gotten
28:41
a big check. They've got they've got till May. So if if it
28:48
goes, we get a big check, and then we can make not only
28:51
can we make Shakespeare's ship Storm, which we are making, but we would
28:55
be able to make the fifth Toxic Avenger Part five I'm and Punishment, which
29:02
takes a lot of which takes place in Chernobyl. But we don't have the
29:07
eight hundred thousand dollars to make Toxic five. So I don't think that will
29:11
get made. I think Shakespeare's shit Storm might well be if I get through
29:18
it, if we actually make it the summer. It's very daunting task.
29:25
Like all movies, movies, Shakespeare's shit Storm is, you know, twenty
29:30
million dollar movie being made for three or four hundred thousand. So it's a
29:36
hell of a project. So that may well be the end of it,
29:38
because I can't keep putting up my wife and my money to make movies.
29:42
And where the major media and you know, the major media not only doesn't
29:48
give us any outlet for revenue, but doesn't even cover us after fifty years
29:53
of making movie. I've been doing this for fifty years. We'll be right
29:59
back after a word from our sponsor. And now back to the show.
30:07
And New York Times never said, never put. The word trauma has not
30:15
been in the New York Times or any newspaper. You know, twenty five
30:19
years we had our fortieth year. A couple of years or four years ago,
30:25
no New York media covered it. Not a word, No Hollywood reporter,
30:30
no no variety. You know, there hasn't been an independent movie studio
30:33
that has existed for forty four years. There hasn't been one in history that's
30:38
done what we've done and left such a mark on the cultural map. Right,
30:45
Look at all the directors, from James Gunn to Eli Roth, to
30:49
the guys who did Deadpool, to Takake, to the guy who did the
30:56
Stillness or whatever it is of Water Delta Row. Right, they all loved
31:00
Tramas. Peter Jackson is a Trauma fan. Hyo Miyasaki, the guy who
31:06
did My Neighbor Tutoo, was a huge fan. Right. The Deadpool guys
31:08
talk more they talk about, right, you can see their influence of trauma
31:12
there. Yet, if the fact that we live for thirty years, survived
31:18
for thirty years, totally independent, totally independently with no you know, we
31:22
don't make movies for lifetime, which is a division of one of those conglomerates.
31:27
We're totally on our own, no interest because we don't we don't have
31:33
the money to advertise. So the New York Times has no interest in us,
31:36
nor does the New York Post, nor do any of them of the
31:40
media. The only reason they're interested is when there's some advertising, right for
31:45
variety, if you take a page in Variety of advertising they might give you.
31:49
If you're independent, you might get a little article, you know,
31:52
about what you're doing at the cann Film Festival. Same with Hollywood Reporter.
31:56
But apparently you know, we just we are not anything. We don't exist.
32:02
We do not exist. Return to nucom I Volume two, Return to
32:07
Return to Nukeomaka volume two. It doesn't exist. Doesn't matter that Lloyd Kaufman
32:12
has been making fifty has fifty years of experience making movies like The Toxic Avenger
32:17
or a class of Nucomi or Squeeze play waitress. First turn on movies that
32:22
have clearly influenced a huge segment of our mainstream talent and have brought forth Samuel
32:30
Jackson Oliver Stone got into this industry because of me. I mean, there
32:35
are tons of people who wouldn't who wouldn't be around, or who who are
32:39
heavily influenced by the trauma. Yet nobody cares nothing. We are, we
32:47
are, we are non We don't exist, we do not exist, and
32:52
it's it's especially damning in New York, where we've you know, we own
32:57
a building, we've got the payroll, we've we've made movies in New York
33:00
State for fifty at least I have for fifty years, and the fucking bastards
33:06
don't even acknowledge that we exist. They critics review us, and they always
33:12
they give us a very good review in the Museum of Modern Artists premiering A
33:15
Return to Newcomb High and UH and the Museum and the Moving Image here premiered
33:22
Return to Return to Newcomb High aka Volume two. But only the critics of
33:29
the Times or the Post or whatever give you know, pay you know,
33:32
they pay attention. They review the movie. But again, when they review
33:36
the movie, they stick. It's usually stuck in the ghetto of where the
33:42
guys making a documentary about a left handed mattress worker, or you know,
33:46
some kid who's made his first horror film and um, you know, but
33:52
it's politically correct kind of person. Uh yeah, but that's you know,
33:55
that's called you know, they stick it in the in this section. It's
34:00
like a ghetto, which and the people reading the paper of the New York
34:02
Times, you know, they don't even read that section. Yeah, you
34:07
know. And that's why again, Lord, I wanted to have you on.
34:09
I think it's so important to support trauma because you actually release one of
34:14
my favorite movies of all time, which is Cannibal the Musical, which is
34:16
Trey Parker Matt Stone. Um, you know they forever we're listening case,
34:21
you'll know that name. There's names that they do. South Park. We
34:23
discovered them. We discovered them and helped them make Cannibal the Musical. We
34:29
distributed it. Nobody else would nobody, We helped them finish it. And
34:35
you'll see the opening of Cannibal the Musical is a very trauma issue and the
34:38
rest of the movie is a much better taste and it's a brilliant film that
34:43
they were able to use the VHS box to help them get credit credibility.
34:49
So when they were pitching South Park and all that stuff gave them a little
34:52
bit of professional you know, professional error. And I'm in some of their
34:59
early I'm in our Gasmo and they're great guys. They're terrific, They're wonderful.
35:04
They were great, they were great. But that's only another example of
35:07
why, I mean, there's an avalanche of people that have come out of
35:13
trauma. It's unbelievable how we are totally ignored. I still can't get over
35:20
it. Oh and then the thing that really pisses me up, David is
35:24
and I again, I'm grateful. You know, James Gunn gave me two
35:29
seconds and his wonderful Guardians of the Galaxy, which is a masterpiece. That's
35:34
a beautiful film, and I have a two second shot, so all,
35:37
you know, all the recognition. I've gotten more recognition for my two seconds
35:43
and Guardians of the Galaxy than for my fifty years of you know, killing
35:46
myself to make poultry guys, neither of the Chicken Dead or Trauma's War or
35:52
terror Firmer. You know, it takes me about five years to make a
35:53
movie, returned to Nucom High and returned to return to nucom aka Volume two.
36:00
You know, it's a two part event film, similar to in the
36:02
same way that Kill Bill is two volumes. I spent seven years on that,
36:07
right, the seven years, that's all. That's the only movie I
36:09
made in seven years. So you know, these people write plenty of attention
36:16
to Suicide Squad, which is plenty of attention to Patman Forever, plenty of
36:22
attention to whatever scum, the Weinstein, Robert Redford Sundance rape, red carpet
36:30
worshiping culture of the so called the independent world. Right, that we don't
36:36
even own the world into the word independent in any word anymore. Right,
36:40
that movies are the twelve million dollar movie made by celebrities that get shown at
36:46
Sundance, that people forget after ten minutes. That's where that's what it's all
36:52
about. Worshiping Harvey Weinstein up on the right, he's up on the hill,
36:57
and everybody's in at Sundance, they all all of him. And look
37:00
at the scum, look at the world they live in, Look at the
37:05
Robert Redford Sundance Harvey Weinstein worshiping world. Right, and yet, and yet
37:12
Troma ignores U. We're ignored. We are ignored. We who've been doing
37:16
this for forty four years, right, we who have a fan base that
37:21
goes out there in books, a movie theaters. Our fan base are the
37:24
only reason was still here, right right. We have a brand, Troma.
37:29
Troma is a brand. I don't think people go to see a Paramount
37:31
movie because Paramount's name is on it. In fact, nowadays, that's such
37:37
a filthy culture that they've got, right, m you know, you know,
37:40
I also was talking to some friends. Lloyd and I apologize and we're
37:45
running out of time, but just in just in closing, I know,
37:49
I know you have to run, but I was talking to I can give
37:52
you another ten minutes. Oh cool, awesome. Hayden said that he just
37:57
came in and said it's okay, okay, awesome. I didn't want Hayden
38:00
to break my legs or anything. He's the best. Lee loves you and
38:06
thank you. He was very thankful that you're giving me some time too,
38:09
and thank you. Oh you know again, oh Lloyd, any anytime,
38:14
because the first time I ever met you, I remember I wanted to like
38:17
this' because there's so many things I wanted to say to you. And we
38:20
met on the set of Crossbearer, which is the film in Philly, and
38:22
I was just covered in fake blood and you were like I woked up to
38:25
you. I was like, hey, Lloyd. You're like, please don't
38:28
get any of that blood on me, because you were wearing a new jacket
38:30
I remember, and I was like, oh, sorry, afgot I was
38:32
covered in blood, but thank you for preserving my jacket. No problem.
38:39
Those are the memories, and I cherish forever, Lloyd the first, the
38:44
first memories. Don't touch me, kid, No, I'm just kidding.
38:46
I love you. I love at least at least I didn't touch you.
38:50
See that's what the mainstream, right, all these agents and facilitators and and
38:55
right, it's a it's successful, talk about to train the swamp. Oh
39:01
my god, the mainstream cartel. It's a cartel. It's a monopoly.
39:06
And I don't I think it's just disgusting. And it's a it's hundreds of
39:12
millions of dollars of lobbying in Washington to get the rules against monopoly changed,
39:17
and all this worshiping of a conspicuous consumption. You know, they they'd rather
39:23
put it, they'd rather publicize a twenty five thousand dollars wedding cake in the
39:29
New York Post than talk about the fact that Trauma just achieved its fortieth anniversary.
39:36
They'd rather have a piece about Rihanna's fur coat and how one of these
39:40
fashion models in two hundred thousand dollars dress skirt wardrobe wants to have the fur
39:50
coat that the fur coat that Rihanna has been wearing. Right, just the
39:54
idea of a fur coat is obscene. We'll be right back after a word
40:00
from our sponsor and now back to the show. But you know, it's
40:08
it's it's it is the value system, the e entertainment value system, the
40:15
the the whole the whole thing is filthy. And we saw back in the
40:22
sixties. Uh, you know, it's it's it's it's money. It's all
40:25
the nine percent of the industry. And again I think I'm an expert.
40:31
Ninety nine percent and more than nine of the people in our industry or scum
40:37
of the earth. They're crooks, they're lazy, they hate movies. They're
40:42
there for because they think it's easy and it's a fast it's easy and they
40:47
and they're there for the for the velvet velvet ropes that keep the real people
40:57
out. They're they're they're propelled by flying. I'm sorry about the pun.
41:01
They're propelled by flying. Uh. You know, a business class to the
41:06
Canned Film Festival and then bragging about how, oh I had dinner at mass
41:10
Shoe, you know, and uh, you know that's a restaurant that they
41:15
you know, it's like eight hundred dollars for four people. You know that
41:17
that's the world they live in. That's the world they live in, right,
41:22
Yeah, and you get you know, get young people to blow them,
41:29
you know, casting couches, and you know, you hear about all
41:31
that stuff, and it's true, it's discussed. It's horrible. But the
41:36
worst of it is, uh, from the from the point of view of
41:38
art, is that we're getting a world of homogenized baby food. Yes,
41:45
politically correct, I suppose, uh, and that's good. But stuff that's
41:52
going to change the world is not getting to the public. Yeah, it's
41:58
a lot you know, real art, the genuine artists. Yes, there's
42:02
a tiny amount. There's a tiny number. James gunn eli Roth, John
42:07
Voy, you know, those people, the best people in the world.
42:12
A tiny tiny number genuinely love the cinema. But the rest of them,
42:17
they are going straight to hell. They are going to burn in hell,
42:22
you know, because one of the things that you know, you just touched
42:25
on was there's so many people you meet in this industry you call themselves producers.
42:30
They make a producer's card, they pass that at networking events, and
42:34
you always say, you know, where are these movies that you're making?
42:36
You know, where where are the script set that you're you know, you're
42:37
talking about, where is this where? You know, where the hell is
42:40
all this stuff? And if you start to scratch that service a little bit,
42:45
Lloyd, you start to see that it's all just a facade built on
42:47
bullshit, and it's just it's all about going somewhere and being seen. And
42:52
that's what they really want. They just want to be famous. They don't
42:54
want to actually put it work in, or they don't love movies or anything
42:58
else. There would be a storyteller. It's just about being famous, you
43:00
know what I mean? Or or the yeah exactly, yeah. Basically you're
43:06
right, money, money and power, money and power, money and and
43:12
and hookers and mansions and you know, drive around a rose voice that you
43:15
don't even own, you know, fucked up values. None of them,
43:20
none of them knows who Nathaniel Hawthorne is. M or even if the keshmcka
43:25
like you just mentioned, or you know, like if you mentioned somebody like
43:29
that, or or even Miyazaki like, they wouldn't know who those people are.
43:32
You have to dumb down your conversation with the h you know people.
43:37
Again, there's a very small number or the greatest people in the world.
43:42
Conrad Vernon, you can actually talk about movies. You don't have to dumb
43:45
yourself down, obviously, James Gunn Obviously, Trenthega loves movies and you and
43:52
loves you know, you can have a conversation without you know, you have
43:58
to dumb yourself down for the so called professionals now, the big the gatekeepers,
44:04
the gatekeeper. Yeah, and that's why I you know, I'm glad
44:07
to see you're still making movies, Lloyd and uh, you know, so
44:10
you know, returner to return in ducam Heights volume two. He actually just
44:15
announced a date um at the Trocadariat the theater here in Philly, U you
44:20
know, and you have it going to to uh having the premier out in
44:22
Los Angeles as well as the at the Beverly Hills. And I also going
44:25
to link everybody in the show notes to all of those theaters. We can
44:30
buy tickets online. How how is it possible? How is it possible that
44:36
Romeo and Juliet, written by James Gunn, that was selected by the Museum
44:43
of Modern Art to be in their Shakespeare series. They only showed three Romeo
44:50
and Juliet movies, one of which was Tromeo and Juliet. How is it
44:53
possible that movie has never been on any TV or any of the showtimes and
45:01
hbos and blah blah blah. How is it possible that returned to newcome I
45:06
seven Years of My Life, which is a very well reviewed the time New
45:09
York Times liked it that critics there certainly don't do us any favors. They
45:14
wrote a great review. It's never been on any cable system. Nothing totally
45:19
blackballed, only because we're independent. How is that right? That's there's plenty
45:24
of shit they put on, right, They got plenty of shit. They
45:29
got some good stuff too. HBO, Showtime whatever, the only one that
45:32
showed any of our movies in the last twenty years, The only thing.
45:37
The only kind of broadcast we've been on was Robert Rodriguez's Channel l RAY and
45:43
he's a filmmaker, he's an artist, and he loves Trouman. He's one
45:46
of the people that really love movies. Yeah, but you know, why
45:51
is it? You know, it's a cartel, it's a monopoly. It's
45:53
disgusting. And thank you David Budellas for helping us promote Lemley's a Fine Arts
46:00
Cinema March March eighth, and Lemley's NoHo seven plus March ninth through thirteenth in
46:07
La And I'll be there with the cast, and I think we're going to
46:12
see something from James Gunn and John Voight's making a video and Trenthega. We'll
46:19
have celebrities, Troma alumni there, the cast, Catherine Cochrane and other Zach
46:25
Amico and some of our stars will be there. It's going to be great.
46:29
We have an art show. By the way, the Hyaena Gallery in
46:32
Burbank has organized an art show for a month of March with all the paintings
46:37
and sculptures are all inspired by return to Newcombe High and returned to Newcomb High.
46:45
I saw a return to return to newcom Hi about twenty artists. I've
46:49
created paintings and sculpture all inspired by the class of newcomb High Legacy, the
46:57
franchise, or whatever you want to call it. And then there's a going
47:00
to be a big party on the ninth of March at the Club Cobra,
47:05
which is a club next very almost next door to the Lemle NoHo in North
47:10
Hollywood. So it's going to be quite a trauma festival. And then March
47:15
first you go to the Trocadero. I'll be there with Catherine and uh and
47:20
some of the stars, and we're going to have a great premiere at the
47:23
Trocadero in Philadelphia for Return to Return to nukam Aka volume two. And this
47:29
is all thanks to our fans. Our fans go to the theaters and tell
47:34
the managers they want to they want Lloyd's movie. And so if there are
47:38
any fans there, thank you and thank you for going. If they're fans
47:44
listening. And now go to your local cinema. I can very often show
47:49
up. Yeah, and I'm gonna link to the show. It's everybody where
47:52
you know, you can go to the screen, you can go to eat,
47:55
a local theater, and you know, ask for Lloyd's movie there and
47:59
then you can actually do that. So I'm gonna link to all that in
48:01
the show notes. Lloyd, again, I thank you for going over the
48:06
time, by the way, I know, hold on, hold on one
48:07
second please, Oh yeah, let's wrap it up. See that something's happening
48:13
here, can you I've run over, But thank you very much by my
48:17
pleasure, Lloyd. And again, I can't wait to have you back on
48:21
again when you when you make Shakespeare Ship Storm, we'll have you back home
48:23
for the third time. That'll be the trifecta wonderful. And come and visit
48:28
Traumaville one of these days. I am gonna take you up on that.
48:31
I want to come out New York Ye give you a tour, and I
48:34
want to take you to lunch. I want, I want, I want
48:36
to come up there, and I want to take you to launch Lloyd beautiful,
48:37
Let's do it anytime. That's great, and you'll get a kick out
48:42
of trauma visiting. We get a lot of tourists here too. They just
48:45
ring the doorbell and come visit the Trauma Building and beautiful Long Island City.
48:50
Queen's all right, he see us soon, David, thanks, take care,
48:53
Lloyd, best wishes. Bye bye, everybody. Bye. I want
48:58
to thank Dave so much for such a great job on this episode. If
49:00
you want to get links to anything we spoke about in this episode, head
49:02
over to the show notes at Bulletproof Screenwriting dot tv. Forward Slash three seventeen.
49:08
Thank you so much for listening to guys. As always, keep on
49:10
writing no matter what. I'll talk to you soon. Thanks for listening to
49:15
the Bulletproof Screenwriting podcast at Bulletproof Screenwriting dot tv.