Troma Entertainment: Difference between revisions
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Troma Entertainment is one of the longest running movie |
Troma Entertainment is one of the longest running movie studios in the world. Founded in 1974 by Yale graduates [[Lloyd Kaufman]] and [[Michael Herz |Michael Herz]], the company produces low budget genre-bending movies which have developed a significant world-wide [[cult film|cult followings]]. |
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Troma's most notable films include The Toxic Avenger franchise, Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD, Tromeo and Julliet, and Cannibal the Musical. |
Troma's most notable films include The Toxic Avenger franchise, Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD, Tromeo and Julliet, and Cannibal the Musical. |
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Revision as of 18:28, 25 November 2007
Troma Entertainment is one of the longest running movie studios in the world. Founded in 1974 by Yale graduates Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz, the company produces low budget genre-bending movies which have developed a significant world-wide cult followings.
Troma's most notable films include The Toxic Avenger franchise, Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD, Tromeo and Julliet, and Cannibal the Musical.
Company information
Lou Lumenick of the New York Post wrote on October 25th 2007 that Troma President, Lloyd Kaufman's "horror comedies stretching back to the '80s have been cited as influence by Peter Jackson, the Farrelly Brothers, Quentin Tarantino, Takashi Miike and Guillermo Del Toro, just to cite a few of the prominent examples."
The Troma collection of over 800 movies and T.V. programs contains early work of Oliver Stone (Battle of Love's Return), Trey Parker and Matt Stone (Cannibal the Musical), Marissa Tomi (The Toxic Avenger), Kevin Costner (Sizzle Beach USA), Vincent Donofrio (The First Turn On), Robert Deniro (The Wedding Party), and Samuel L. Jackson (Def by Temptation). There have been major retrospectives of Troma Movies at the Cinemateque Francaise, the American Film Institute at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., the British Film Institute and other important archival organizations and museums. Troma's "The Toxic Avenger" has become part of the American Lexicon and has been cited in the New York Times' editorials as well as profiles on Ralph Nader.
Troma films are known for their shocking imagery. James Gunn and Peter Jackson, credit Troma with inventing the "slapstick gore" cinema. Movies like the Toxic Avenger, Class of Nuke 'Em High, and most recently Poultrygeist, contain wry political satire mixed with grande guignole sexuality, graphic violence, and a bizarre sense of humor. Troma's slogan is "Movies of the Future". Troma is also known for re-cycling the same props, actors, and scenes over and over again, sometimes to save money, mostly for comic effect.[1] This has become a hallmark of Troma's filmmaking style. Examples include a severed leg, a Penis Monster, and the flipping/exploding of the same car filmed for the movie Sgt. Kabukiman, NYPD that has been used for every major Troma release since that film.
Many now-famous celebrities got their start with films released by Troma including Kevin Costner (Sizzle Beach, U.S.A.), Samuel L. Jackson (Def by Temptation), Marisa Tomei (The Toxic Avenger), Vincent D'Onofrio (The First Turn-On), James Gunn (Tromeo and Juliet), and Trey Parker and Matt Stone (Cannibal! The Musical).
The birth of Troma Studios
In the mid 1970s, Kaufman and Herz began producing, directing, and distributing raunchy sex comedies such as The First-Turn On and Squeeze Play. In 1985, Troma experienced its first hit film with the violent, dark-comedy superhero film The Toxic Avenger. The film went on to become Troma's most popular film, inspiring sequels, more than 200 educational children's products, and a children's television program. The Toxic Avenger character is now Troma's official mascot.
Lloyd's follow-up film to The Toxic Avenger was Class of Nuke 'Em High, co-directed with Richard W. Haines. The film was also a hit nearly as successful, and inspired two sequels. At one time, it was the highest-selling VHS for Troma.
Soon after Class of Nuke 'Em High was completed and distributed, Kaufman directed Troma's War. Intended as a criticism of Ronald Reagan's attempt to glamorize war, the story concerns a group of ordinary people who crash-land on a remote island, only to find it populated by an isolationist militia that intends to overthrow the U.S. government. Troma's War was unfortunately disembowled by the MPAA rating system, which caused it to be less profitable than anticipated.
In the early '90s, reruns of films like The Toxic Avenger, Class of Nuke 'Em High and Surf Nazis Must Die found new audiences on late night cable, most notably on USA Up All Night. Troma Entertainment also produced the infomercial spoof The Troma System, which was broadcast on upstart cable network Comedy Central.
In 1991, Troma partnered with the videogame company Namco to produce the superhero action-comedy spoof Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D. Troma and Namco hoped to parlay the Kabukiman character into a crossover success on par with the Toxic Avenger. The character Sgt. Kabukiman went on to join the Toxic Avenger in Citizen Toxie: Toxic Avenger IV, as well as Troma's British T.V. show broadcast on Channel 4, Troma's Edge T.V. Both Toxie and Sgt. Kabukiman have marched in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
In the mid-'90s, Troma formed its own home video label, Troma Team Video. Troma also founded the portal site Tromaville.com, which designed, hosted, and sold advertising for several upstart websites including Fangoria.com, amongst others.
In 1996, Troma producedTromeo and Juliet, which was Kaufman's take on the Clinton-Yuppy generation, with a major tip of the hat to William Shakespeare. The film was written with James Gunn, who went on to write Scooby Doo the movie and to give Kaufman a part in his big-budget Universal Pictures movie, Slither. Troma then followed up with Terror Firmer (1999), loosely based on Lloyd Kaufman's book All I Needed to Know About Filmmaking I Learned From The Toxic Avenger,[2] and Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger Part IV (2001), an independent film sequel to the Toxic Avenger series.[3]
Poultrygeist and the future of Troma
Today, Troma produces, acquires and distributes independent films. The company's latest production, Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead, is slated for theatrical release in the summer of 2007. Variety wrote that Poultrygeist is "a veritable Cluckwork Orange." C.H.U.D. called it "the best film Troma's ever produced, and certainly Lloyd Kaufman's most accomplished."
Other work
Troma holds the annual Tromadance Festival in Park City, Utah, at the same time as the Sundance Festival to accentuate their grassroots film activism. The festival screens submitted movies from independent filmmakers from around the world, the best of which are usually released on DVD by Troma or compiled in the "Best of Tromadance" series. In addition, Kaufman acts as an advisor to aspiring filmmakers by teaching master-classes, acting in films to help first-time independent film makers.
Kaufman has written two books about his experiences with Troma in independent cinema. One, All I Need to Know about Filmmaking I Learned from the Toxic Avenger, co-written with James Gunn, is an autobiography of sorts. The other, Make Your Own Damn Movie, (St. Martin's Press) is a how-to book about making independent films the Troma Way, which was recently made into a dvd boxset.
Kaufman also co-wrote a novelization of The Toxic Avenger with Adam Jahnkie.