A recent guest on the the popular Shudder program “The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs,” Lloyd Kaufman is a pioneer within the world of independent cinema. As the co-founder of Troma Entertainment with Michael Herz, Kaufman produced, acquired and distributed more than 1,000 independent films. Kaufman himself directed more than 50 features, documentaries and shorts, including “Class Of Nuke ‘Em High,” “Tromeo & Juliet” and “Return to Nuke ‘Em High Vol. 1” and “Vol. 2.”
Beyond launching Troma, Lloyd Kaufman worked on his fair share of iconic films. This includes “Rocky,” “Saturday Night Fever,” “My Dinner With Andre” and “The Final Countdown.” Having inspired future generations of filmmakers, he would go on to influence (and later work with) the likes of director James Gunn and “South Park” co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Kaufman has authored 7 books, and his latest film is “Shakespeare’s S***storm,” a loose adaptation of “The Tempest,” currently in post-production. He and the Troma team have also kept pushing things further with their Troma Now streaming service.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Lloyd Kaufman via Zoom on May 20. In between sips of Monster Energy Drink Ultra, he spoke about the past, present and future of Troma, why he decided not to work on the Barbra Streisand movie “The Owl & The Pussycat,” advice for aspiring filmmakers and plenty more. The full chat is embedded below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyjB_e3AkKI
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