Lloyd Kaufman is the president of Troma Entertainment, and the chairman of the IFTA.
Hes a busy man.
Not that that stopped us asking him about everything under the sun…
Your recent MySpace blog mentioned that Troma is about to move into a new building in New York… Its in an even crappier neighbourhood and a crappier building, we managed to find an even worse building.
And the neighbours are worse?
We wanted to get away from McDonalds!
So youve checked out the rat situation at the new one?
The area is so unusual, theres nothing there.
But there is the Museum of the Moving Image, which has rats of a different sort.
And theres two big movie studios very near us, one of which has the name Kaufman, too.
So itd be kind of fun to call our building Kaufman, too.
Itd be funny if Robert De Niro was directed to the Kaufman building and it was the Troma building.
His first movie was a Troma movie calledThe Wedding Partydirected by Brian De Palma.
Lets get to why were here: youre one of this years Zone Horror Cut competition judges…
Yes, I had the honour of judging last years competition and the movies which were submitted were terrific.
What will you be looking for in a winner?
I think, basically, originality.
It is an industry controlled by a small number of devil-worshipping international conglomerates.
[At this point, a member of the Grouchos staff asks us to move into another room.]
So whats going on with Poultrygeist now?
The test was very successful, so the film will be hatching around May, maybe.
Do you still feel its the best movie Tromas made?
I would say so, yeah.
Its the most daring, thats for sure, its the most intelligent, too, I think.
And its got singing and dancing, which is great.
Which is what matters, at the end of the day.
Indeed, yeah, its about entertainment.
But also, it has very provocative themes.
And thats why Tromas been around for 35 years.
Well, we are more homosexual ourselves, but we could be persuaded to go another way…
I dont know, really.
You know, Im just trying to make the movies.
So you dont have much interest in the high definition formats?
Well, certainly it looks great, but the bigger issue for us is that we are economically blacklisted.
So thats really our concern.
Thats a big deal, really, and Im very serious about that.
Its a tough world.
MySpace has been useful for Troma, though, hasnt it?
There are so many Troma promotional sites out there; the official ones and the fan ones…
There are many, many fan websites.
Even my Lloyd Kaufman website is fan-based; its fan-driven, its fan-created.
The fans do it, I dont do it.
The Tromadance website is by fans the Tromadance festival which is starting next week.
So thatll be a nice thing in terms of getting exposure for the winner.
Is there any possibility of having a Tromadance festival in the UK?
Well, again, its all fan-driven.
In Utah, its very expensive so Troma and our fans have contributed the money to do it.
It took place for two years but I dont know if theyre doing it again.
We had the third year this year of Tromapalooza concerts in Las Vegas, and in Dallas, Texas.
Basically, bands donate their time and then they get publicity.
And if any money is made, then Tromadance gets it.
Den of Geeks Duncan says his lifetime ambition is to remakeThe Toxic Avenger.
How would you feel about potential remakes of Troma movies?
So it would all depend on who it was that wanted to remake the movies?
You know, Im an auteur director and it would all depend.
It wouldnt be about money, it would be about making sure it would be interesting.
By the way,Poultrygeistis actually a shot for shot remake of another gore slapstick comedy calledSchindlers List.
While were on the subject of Toxie, whats happening with the Toxic Avenger comics?
That just came out about a month ago.
Im sure youll be able to get it off the Troma website, it shouldnt be hard to find.
There was a previous Toxic Avenger comic done by Marvel, right?
Yes, Marvel didToxic AvengerandToxic Crusaders.
They were very successful.
But there was never, like, Toxic Avenger vs Spider-Man?
Well, they wanted to do something like that but then they went bankrupt.
He bought them and drove Marvel into the ground.
So that was the end of that.
And they wanted to own Toxie, they want to own everything, so thats a big problem.
The whole identity, the whole interesting patina of his library was destroyed.
He says thats his biggest regret, even though he got a lot of money.
Except for meeting me, having to have lunch with me was worse.
He was a good guy.
Has the WGA strike affected Troma at all?
Whats your position on the strike?
Well, it certainly hasnt affected Troma, weve never had any writers.
I dont know how to write.
So that would be my advice.
But the Writers Guild has no affect on us.
Were so blacklisted that nothing can affect us.
Do you think thatll ever change?
Theyd love to have Brett Ratner stealMothers Dayand make it intoX-Men.
Doesnt bear thinking about really, does it?
These guys never pay you, its almost an insult to suggest it.
Its just about the only movie of that bang out that hasnt been remade.
Weve got a fairly high price just to prevent that.
And we need money, so it would be wonderful if someone paid us that.
Do you think the original movies would become more available if they were remade, though?
Would it help with getting them on TV and into Blockbuster and all that?
That would be the good thing, yes.
Although actually theHalloweenremake was pretty good.
Did you like it?
I didnt see it.
It was pretty good!
Rob Zombie, good for him.
BecauseDevils Rejectswas not terribly great and the other one, the first one, was unwatchable.
That was what put me off.
Halloweenwas good, it was well written, it was very good.
Had you considered doing that kind of thing with Troma characters?
So its inCitizen Toxie.
That allowed us to satirise that whole genre.
That was very cool, our fans basically came up with the plot forCitizen Toxie.
Ive been told not to bring the Toxic Avenger mask, which I do have with me.
Whats the meeting about?
Because Im chairman of the IFTA, we want to discuss the issues of industry consolidation and net neutrality.
Well, theyre not.
Everything they do hurts the independents, they do nothing to help us or the public.
They dont know that all the regulations against monopoly have been done away with in my country.
As do the senators from California.
We have to go through a middleman, which is owned by the majors.
And then if there is any revenue, they will take most of it.
Are you hoping the situation will be easier to sort out in the UK than in the US?
Did you see that, by the way?
Thats a great film, huh?
That kid is great.
Its wonderful, its so original.
Speaking of politics, youre working on a documentary, Splendour and Wisdom, about George Bush?
How did you know about that?
Well, because I looked it up on the IMDB this morning.
Oh, thank you!
