#BREAKINGBARD DOUBLE FEATURE with #SHAKESPEARESSHITSTORM Secret Screening on Halloween Eve at #Tromaween! Lloyd Kaufman’s latest Tromasterpiece screens with Tromeo & Juliet (screenplay by James Gunn) on Oct 30th in #TromaQueens!
The Opioid Epidemic is destroying America. Legendary director Lloyd Kaufman celebrates Troma’s 45th (and his 50th year making movies) by taking on Big Pharma, addiction, the intolerance of social media and white fragility in #ShakespearesShitstorm. This irreverent musical adaptation of “The Tempest” is ripe with bawdy couplets, Hieronymus Boschian images of excess and unrefined iambic pentameter.”
On Friday, October 30th, the final evening of #Tromaween (the retro horror series that is taking place all month long at the legendary Bel Aire Diner (31-91 21st St, Queens, NY -Tix and info www.belairediner.nyc) the Troma Team is presenting a sneak preview of #ShakespearesShitstorm as a double feature with it’s spiritual sequel “Tromeo and Juliet” (screenplay and co-produced by James Gunn – Guardians of the Galaxy, Suicide Squad).
Director Lloyd Kaufman says “#ShakespearesShitstorm was filmed in Queens over the Summer of 2018 and the Bel Aire Diner acted as caterer as well as late night home base to the Troma Team so it was only fitting that we return to present a sneak preview for Tromaween! We’re honored to be presenting our finest work with the finest Diner and Drive-In in all of NYC!”
#ShakepearesShitstorm marks the most ambitious project in Troma’s 45 year history. Working with one of Hollywood’s best special effects companies, Eric Fox & MorbFX (as seen on SciFy’s Face Off) in conjunction with Troma alumni Doug Sakmann, Troma brings a whole new visual experience to their stylized brand. Having a bigger budget also brought about larger scale on-location filming in Albania (a first for narrative feature films in the country) as well as a celestial orchestral score from Portugal and a little help from the Bard. With over 1000 gallons of fake bodily fluids used throughout the production, Shakespeare has never been this raw and unfiltered.
“…what endears me most to #ShakespearesShitstorm is Lloyd Kaufman’s incredible grasp on Shakespeare’s work and intent, as well as the director’s unflinching introspection. Kaufman approaches conversations on his art and how the world around him has changed as he has created it with sincerity and even sadness similar to that of Charlie Chaplin in his final years.This is an exploitation film unlike any other, and it is a pure and simple cinematic masterpiece.” – Jesse Berberich, somethingghoulish.com
Prospero (played by director/co-writer Kaufman), a brilliant and generous pharma-scientist, has had his life and career ruined by blind, greedy, perverted pharmaceutical execs, causing him and his very hot daughter Miranda to flee from NYC to Tromaville, New Jersey. When the evil execs and their elite guests take a celebratory luxury cruise to North Korea, Prospero uses his science, magic, and a load of whale laxative to create the titular Shitstorm, wrecking the cruise ship and causing its execs to wash up on the shores of Tromaville. Prospero’s planned a brutal revenge – with all the sex, mutations, musical numbers, and violence that Shakespeare always wanted but never had!
“…the film is surprisingly even-handed in its rhetoric, especially given the broad register it operates in, portraying both the virtues and the ills of a (performatively) enlightened society gone awry. In the end, the saturating melange of political and social commentary — including the welcomingly progressive treatment of body, race, and gender — while entirely outrageous, manages to embody its own sort of wokeness. #ShakespearesShitstorm is an act of defiance by a singular artist, evolving in his own way.” – Jaime Grijalba Gomez, inreviewonline.com
The movie had its world premiere at the virtual Fantasia Film Festival 2020 to rave reviews and has received similar praise at festivals around the world including Le Estrange Festival (France) Slash Festival Des Fantastischen Films (Vienna) & La Nuit Fantastique (France). Festivals coming later this month include MonsterFest in Australia on Oct 29th.
“If you’re looking for gross-out humour and over the top action (that car crash makes a welcome
appearance, of course), you won’t be disappointed. There’s even a sequence that almost out-does Brian Yunza’s Society for body horror. This is probably Troma’s pièce de résistance, a film in which all the elements come together to create one marvellous magnum opus. The satire, gross-out humour, use of Shakespeare and complete irreverence work perfectly. It’s even better than Derek Jarman’s version of the story.”
– Starburst Magazine
#ShakespearesShitstorm is directed by Lloyd Kaufman with screenplay by Brandon Bassham (writer & and director of the more recent Troma hits Feartown U.S.A., The Slashening and it’s sequel The Slashening: The Final Beginning. Produced by Justin Martell, John Brennan (producers of Return to Nuke Em High Vol 1 & 2) and Troma’s first lady Pat Kaufman (married to and working with Lloyd for over 46 years). Co-produced and SFPX supervised by Doug Sakmann (working with Kaufman for over 20 years as producer as well as company mascot Sgt Kabukiman N.Y.P.D.). It was through this team of people with such a deep history and understanding of the Troma Team that the magic of #ShakespearesShitstorm was created.
The cast for the film includes Erin Patrick Miller (The Jungle of Accounting), Kate McGarrigle (Odd Man Rush), Amanda Flowers (Werewolf Bitches from Outer Space), Abraham Sparrow (I Am Legend), Dylan Mars Greenberg (Evil Everywhere), Debbie Rochon (Bloody Ballet), Zoe Geltman (Rare Birds of Fashion), Zac Amico (Amityville: Vanishing Point), Monique Dupree (Remnants), Frazer Brown (Cursed Films) and Lloyd Kaufman himself in the dual role of both the mad scientist Prospero and his thieving and deceiving sister Antionette.
#TROMAWEEN At the Bel Aire Drive-In & Diner Oct 9-30
Celebrate Halloween throughout October with the Troma Team screening retro horror at the Bel Aire Drive In! The programs are packed with short films, cast and crew appearances and other surprises! Bel Aire Diner will also be serving a full menu (and bar) through the events you can make it dinner and a horror movie! See classics from Director Lloyd Kaufman as well as the first films from, Trey Parker and Matt Stone (South Park), Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction) James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy) and many more!
We are also working to provide help to New Yorkers in need, with #MUTANTSFORHUNGER, a canned food drive for the homeless. The Bel Aire Diner is hosting a donation drop box for the Food Bank of NYC where you can donate canned food 24 hours a day – every single day in October!
Also, when you donate canned goods during any screening event you can get a $1 beer from Pabst Blue Ribbon or shot of Sailor Jerry Rum, or a free can of water from Liquid Death Mountain Water! Before you visit the Bel Aire next time, grab a few cans of food from your cabinet or from the store and donate! Every little bit helps! And you’ll be rewarded with booze!
#TROMAWEEN Retro Horror Series runs Oct 9-30th
Bel Aire Diner and Drive-In – 31-91 21st St, Queens, NY 11106 For tix and info www.belairediner.nyc
MUTANTSFORHUNGER with the FOOD BANK FOR NYC – Accepting donations 24 hours a day all Oct!
#TROMAWEEN SCHEDULE
Thurs Oct 22 – 8p Cannibal the Musical, 10p Def by Temptation
Thurs Oct 29th – 8p Slashening: The Final Beginning with cast and crew in attendance, 10p Poultrygeist
Friday Oct 30th – 8p Tromeo & Juliet, 10p #ShakespearesShitstorm SECRET SCREENING – Open to public!
Presented by Troma Entertainment and NYC Zombie Crawl
www.troma.com
www.nyczombiecrawl.com
