Troma, a New York City-based film studio dedicated to cheapie films with gory gross-outs (Bloodsucking Freaks), gratuitous sex (Blondes Have More Guns), grotesque monsters (The Toxic Avenger) and general goofiness (Cannibal! The Musical), has been attracting rabid fans for some 22 years. Now the independent outfit is tweaking the majors by holding a screenwriting contest on its Web site (http://www.troma.com/home). "The movie industry thought having nine writers for our film Stuck on You was too many," says Troma president Lloyd Kaufman. "So we thought, let's give 'em 40 and involve our fans. We're not exactly an auteur-style company."
But they are cyber-savvy. The Great Troma Script-Writing Contest invites site surfers to submit two-page installations of Battle of the Bikini Sub-humanoids, the fourth film in Troma's Class of Nuke 'em High series. Each week's winner receives $50, a writing credit in the film and a posting of his or her handiwork on the site.
"There's a modern vaudevillian tone" to the plot-in-progress, says Troma production head James Gunn of the 14 pages that have already been written. In the opening scene, a Forrest Gump sendup, a dolt on a park bench downs a radiation-tainted feather he mistakes for a chocolate and promptly turns into a bloodthirsty monster. "I was just thinking about what movie openings stuck in people's minds," explains Bill Doorley, the industrial film writer from Pittsburgh who won the first $50.
Even contest losers can find goodies on Troma's unsophisticated but jam-packed site. The pages burst with film clips, posters—even an advice column. It's just an extension of Troma's fan-friendly policy, the company says. "How many presidents of Hollywood studios answer e-mail from someone in Sweden?" asks Gunn. About the same number, one supposes, as would release a movie called Surf Nazis Must Die.
>Brit Hume
A PC FROM D.C.
BILL CLINTON AND AL GORE HAD BEITER be careful when they talk bits and bytes around Brit Hume. The chief White House correspondent for ABC News has been moonlighting as a computer guru since shortly after the network furnished him with his first PC to cover Walter Mondale's feckless 1984 presidential campaign. That same year, Hume (alternating with Washington Post writer T.R. Reid) began writing Computer Report, a weekly consumer-oriented column (now syndicated in 26 papers)that addresses cyber-issues large (Microsoft), small (computer mice) and thorny (pornography on the Internet), all from the standpoint of the average user.
Hume, 53, says he finds himself "constantly" in front of his IBM-compatible, "drafting scripts, reading wires and sending e-mail." One of the first journalists to publish his e-mail address (72737.357@compuserve.com), Hume told PEOPLE that he doesn't mind hearing from disgruntled viewers, most of whom "complain about unfair treatment of the President." After all, he says, "you can delete it."
Years of dealing with Washington spinmeisters has made Hume skeptical about the industry's more relentlessly hyped ventures. Not only did he give Windows 95 a mixed review, but he's not the least bit impressed by the current Internet craze. "The Net is such a mess," he says, "and the World Wide Web has so much junk on it, it's clogged. I'd rather have root canal than sit around talking to people in chat rooms."
- Contributors:
- Cynthia Wang,
- Alicia Brooks.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
