36 Hours in Boston ...

Hopped on a plane Friday morning, got to Boston at about 6pm, and was back on a plane at 7am Sunday morning. It was a whirlwind trip to Beantown for the North American Premiere of CHOP ... and I couldn't have picked a cooler festival to do so.

I want to thank everyone who worked for BUFF and everyone who attended the screening - I had a great time and stayed out later than I have in years meeting awesome people and hanging out with old friends. Tom Devlin, who did FX for CHOP, was there, as was my old Troma compadre and "blink and you'll miss it" CHOP actor Caleb Emerson (who was showing his film FRANKIE IN BLUNDERLAND there). I got to see Lucky McKee's new film THE WOMAN, LUSTER, and my own movie for the first time projected large and with an audience, attended an after-hours house party that was still rocking when I stumbled out at 4am, and got to hear some sweet Kaiju Karaoke. All in all it was a great time, even if I was freezing because I'm a bonafide Southern California boy now.

As usual, I took a camera and then neglected to take a bunch of pictures. So here are just a few ...



Caleb Emerson and I at the Kaiju Karaoke party:



The boys from Whore Church and I at same party (photo from Whore Church and Alison Zombieface:



Only have one poster and here it is:



As if the festival wasn't awesome enough, I got word on Sunday night that CHOP had won the "Director's Choice Feature" award! I can't wait to get one of these in the mail so that I can put it on my desk:



HOT DANG! I love BUFF!

I've been incredibly busy since coming back - got hired to do a screenplay for a major cable network and just got out of a meeting with a director that we're attaching to another script that I wrote in December ... both of these projects (and more) are happening very soon, so I should be able to talk about them in the near future ...

... In the meantime, I picked up the new issue of Fangoria magazine (#302, INSIDIOUS on the cover) because inside is a fold-out poster of BONNIE AND CLYDE VS. DRACULA! Man ... My bedroom wall used to be plastered with Fangoria pull-outs when I was a kid. If you had told the 16 year old Trent that he'd be the subject of a Fango poster one day ... well, let's just say that I wouldn't have believed you. Pretty spiffy ... Of course, there's a poster of Argento's DEEP RED on the other side, which means that my face will mostly be against the wall of the young horror fan's bedroom, but it's still damned cool to be in Fango every time it happens ...

Did a couple of short interviews this week. Here they are:

SUVUDU Interview

The Screenwriter 7 Interview

That's it for the moment ... all about getting the film to Amsterdam's Imagine Film Festival now ...

***NEW UPDATE***
As soon as I posted this blog entry, I discovered the first review from the BUFF screenings. Here it is:

BRUTAL AS HELL's CHOP Review

-T

Yeah ...

... It seems that every day I'm seeing something on the internet about one of my projects. Guess that's to be expected when so many of them are coming hot on the heels of one another. At this point, I'm finding it easier to just copy a link and then throw it up on my Facebook page than to try and compile stuff for this blog ... But for those of you that actually DO come by this site, I'll try to quickly compile some of the latest stuff from the last few weeks. As usual, I'm gonna have to break it down by title just to keep it straight:

DEADGIRL
From what I can tell in the "Twitterverse," DEADGIRL's TV premiere on Chiller must have done pretty well. Once again, people are discovering the movie, telling their friends, and spreading the word. Chiller continues to replay the movie and, by gum, it appears that we've created a bonafide cult classic with this little film that "no one would ever make."

And a day after the TV premiere, The Hollywood Reporter ran a story from SXSW about DEADGIRL 2:

Hollywood Reporter: Is DEADGIRL 2 Alive?

Once HWR put that out there, every genre site picked up on the story and then the plot crunch (which was wrong to begin with) started to change due to sloppy "reporting" and the whole thing is rather silly.

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I wrote the DEADGIRL 2 script almost a year ago (HERE's the post). And although I did write the script in response to some of the accusations of misogyny in the first, it's NOT about girls finding a dead boy ...

... Regardless, if there ever is a DEADGIRL 2, I won't end up being involved in it (although I suspect that some elements that I introduced may end up getting stolen - if that happens, things will end up getting messy and full of lawyers and I don't look forward to that) ... I don't want to go into detail here, but there's been a creative schism in the DEADGIRL partnership and only one of us has the rights to the words DEADGIRL 2 ... and since I'm only the writer and the guy who dreamt up the whole thing to begin with, you KNOW that person isn't me. Personally, at this point, I'd like to see DEADGIRL 2 NEVER happen ... I'd prefer to keep the first one the classic it is and move on with my career.

But I can tell you that if I hear that a DEADGIRL 2 is going into production, you'll be able to come to this blog and download my original un-produced script here for FREE, just like I did with the first one. For now, however, it's going to stay buried (just like the title character should be) ...

CHOP
I'm going to be running out to Boston this weekend for the North American Premiere, so I'll have a real update with pictures and shit that won't be on Facebook, so come back for that one!

In the meantime, I'm closing in on a really cool North American Distribution deal and it was just announced that we're playing 4 times (!) at the 27th Annual Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival!



Imagine Film Fest's CHOP Page

Man, I'd love to be at one of these screenings, but if the festival doesn't offer to bring me out, I'm certainly not going to spend my own money - I've got a wife and kids, man! Do I look like I'm made out of money or sumptin'?? :)

Another positive review for CHOP went up this week, too:

28 days Later Analysis Reviews CHOP

And even though I talk about a bunch of other films, here's a good a place as any to put a link up for my Geek Tyrant interview:

GEEK TYRANT interviews Trent Haaga

FETCH

It's finished and it's interesting and there's just not a lot of news out there about this film that I wrote ... hopefully it'll secure some distribution soon! In the meantime, here's a really nice review to whet your appetite:

CONDUIT REVIEWS FETCH

PSYCHO HOLOCAUST
It's hitting DVD in June from PopCinema. Here's the box art:



Here's an article on Fangoria.com about the film and release:

FANGORIA PSYCHO HOLOCAUST STORY

... Okay, that's all I've got for now. 2011 is shaping up to be an interesting year ... I sometimes forget that I also have FOUR scripts that have been optioned or bought and are supposed to shoot this year (one of them being my "still can't tell you the title or anything" movie for SyFy) ...

... And I just had a really great meeting about a potential new screenwriting gig for another MAJOR cable station ... but, as usual, I can't say anything more about it. Drats.

Thanks for checking in and I'll be back next week with a report from the Boston Underground Film Festival!

-T

Exclusive Chiller TV Videoblog

Wish I could figure out how to actually imbed the video on the site here, but this is the best I can do:

Trent Haaga on Deadgirl-Exclusive Chiller Videoblog: "Trent Haaga, writer and creator of the first Chiller NEXT film "Deadgirl" talks about how he came up with the story concept."

Trying to get some work done and gearing up for CHOP's North American Premiere at BUFF. In the meantime, here's their nice write-up (and screening dates/times):

BUFF's CHOP Page

-T

DEADGIRL ... The Screenplay!

A few posts back, I said that one of the bonus attributes of the DEADGIRL Blu-Ray (coming August 2011) would be a .PDF of the first draft screenplay ...

... Well it appears that due to the limitations and difficulties of the .PDF format, they've decided not to do this.

Since that plan went out the window and in honor of DEADGIRL's TV Premiere ... and because I get asked how different the film was than the screenplay all the time, and ... well, just for the hell of it, really ... You can click on the link below and download your very own copy of DEADGIRL, which was written in the Winter of 1999/2000. Hope you enjoy it!

Download DEADGIRL - The First Draft

-T

A Few Things ...

... I'm just gonna get right to it:

News regarding the release of BONNIE & CLYDE VS DRACULA: An article on Fangoria.com states that it's playing theatrically in all sorts of strange cities before the DVD release on April 26th. Distributor INDICAN PICTURES has cut a new trailer, which is right here:



28 Days Later Analysis reviews B&CvsD

DEADGIRL is having its TV Premiere on CHILLER TV Friday, March 11th. This is pretty cool, as CHILLER is the sister station of the SyFy Channel (who I just wrote a script for) and I've been asked to do a little something by the channel to help promote the film. You'll be able to see that on their website in just a little bit, so stay tunes here for more on that. In the meantime, a few DEADGIRL/Chiller promo bits:



Also check out the new CHILLER TV SPOT FOR DEADGIRL

The BOSTON UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL screening of CHOP is in a few weeks. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to be there for it, so check back for updates on exactly when and where the screening will be and a full report once I return (if I go) ...

CHOP has also been accepted into a really cool European film festival that takes place in April, but I guess I'm not allowed to let the cat out of the bag on that one just yet ... Again, stay tuned as the announcement is imminent.

FETCH ... I wrote you so lovingly ... and you star Ashlynn Yennie of THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE ... but WHERE ARE YOU?

Someone got to see it and really likes it, apparently (and to even be mentioned in the same article as Gaspar Noe THRILLS me):

The Conduit Speaks FETCH Article

Wow. These are only the projects that I'm allowed to speak about for now. But there are always a ridiculous number of irons in the fire ... my next directorial effort, I've got no less than FOUR scripts that have been bought or optioned that could go into production this year, a few potential screenwriting gigs, some more festival potential on CHOP, and even the odd acting gig on the horizon ... At this point, there are almost more projects going on that I CAN'T talk about than ones that I CAN talk about ...

Come back real soon for more updates ... I should have more news in a matter of days ...

- T