I'm the polar opposite of Lloyd when it comes to directing: pretty much every shot is figured out beforehand. Lloyd had people around from a production standpoint that he didn't usually have. We had problems that you have-a location backed out or something-but overall it was a pretty fluid process. He had his own ideas about how things should work and I was harsh with him at times.
I battled a lot with the cinematographer. That's a strange situation.Ī lot of times, Lloyd handled the camera and I took care of the actors.
Tromeo and juliet full movie movie#
I was incredibly fortunate because most people have to go through other stages of filmmaking-admittedly, this was a lower budget project-and I came into this movie as a director. My girlfriend at the time she'd never seen me so excited about anything. I walked onto a movie set on the first day and I can't quite explain it. How did it feel directing your first movie?
I knew what Troma movies were, but I also wanted to step outside of what a Troma movie had been up until that point. At the end of the day, he offered me $150 to rewrite Tromeo and Juliet, which was a fucking mess-basically just Romeo and Juliet transcribed with dirty words thrown in. He said, "Maybe you can write Tromeo and Juliet," or "Maybe you can do The Toxic Avenger," or "Maybe you could do some other film." I would have preferred to do some other film at the time The Toxic Avenger and Tromeo and Juliet both sounded so cheesy and terrible to me. I went into a meeting with Lloyd because I'd gone to Troma to get a job filing papers in the office or something-but he knew I went to Columbia and that I had a reputation for performing on the Lower East Side. I was able to watch it with an audience and think about the parts that worked, as well as the parts that didn't. A lot of what I learned about filmmaking was in that film, especially the test screening. I can't believe how much time has passed-but, really, I can, because everything in my career really started with Tromeo and Juliet. We spoke to him and Troma co-founder Lloyd Kaufman separately about the making of their cult film.Ĭan you believe it has been 20 years since the initial release of the film? The film was also a jumping off point for Gunn's career, cementing him as one of Troma's most successful alumni. The disc also includes commentaries by Lloyd Kaufman and James Gunn amongst others along with deleted scenes and rehearsal footage.Tromeo and Juliet stands apart from much of Troma's other work, in that it focuses less on supernatural fare and possesses more of a romantic core. The film also lacks what could have been a great gross out suicide in the climax but instead changes the iconic ending.Ĩ8 Films who specialise in B-Movies of various kinds has released the film in two different aspect ratios Full-Screen or Widescreen.
Tromeo & Juliet remains nearly 20 years since its little release a curiosity in the development of James Gunn who is now one of the “hottest” directors in Hollywood after the gigantic success of Guardians of the Galaxy. It however is baggy and all over the place and the film’s best jokes are about a Paedophile priest. It suffers from being terribly paced which also is problematic for another Troma film The Toxic Avenger Part II, with campy B-Movies if it goes over 90 minutes you desperately need to make something that transcends the genre and Troma never strives to do that so they suffer. Naturally with Troma there is some casual crossdressing and lesbianism which prevails through everything they’ve done. The acting is Troma films are never their strong point and that’s just a kind way of saying it has deliberately awful acting to fit within the campy nature of the films they make.
The biggest deviation from the play besides obviously language differences is that the tragic ending is changed drastically. Obviously given it’s a Troma production there are loads of gore and sex and all that kind of fun stuff. Motörhead’s Lemmy overseas the proceedings as the film’s narrator and for the most part follows the play fairly faithfully. The film as the title suggests is loosely based on the Bard’s famous play of star-crossed lovers. Troma head houncho Lloyd Kaufman may be credited as the sole director but it’s equally comes from the twisted mind of James Gunn who was an uncredited director. It’s hard to fathom that the same guy directed Tromeo And Juliet nearly 20 years later would make one of the biggest blockbusters in recent years Guardians of the Galaxy.
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