In the Meantime ...

... I'm trying to put together my end of the year wrap-up and BEST & WORST list right now. Hopefully it'll be up in the next few days. In the meantime ...

... You know that you've made a bonafide cult classic when fans of the movie start to write gay-themed fan fiction about characters that you've created. I found these when I was just following links on Twitter and was surprised to find not one, but three "Rickie and JT from DEADGIRL" fan fiction scenarios!

Here they are. Be warned that they've got some graphic homosexual love-making in 'em ... although if you're visiting my site then this kind of thing shouldn't offend you at all ... It's all in good fun and full of love (both between the characters and from the writers of these stories):

"Apology Accepted"

"Bad Boys"

"The Stars"

Totally awesome. I love the fact that people are taking the characters that I created and running with them!

-T

A Quick Update ...

... It's been a few days since the release of CHOP on DVD and VOD. It's also an incredibly slow week for the internet review sites and bloggers, so hopefully more reviews will go up next week. The ones that HAVE gone up have been overwhelmingly positive. Figured I'd share some:

Godsmack's Shannon Larkin Reviews CHOP

About.com Reviews CHOP

Critical Outcast Reviews CHOP

A Really Entertaining Review From OMGJeremy

... But not everyone loves the movie (and that's okay). In the interest of fairness, DVD Snapshot only found it to be "meh."

DVD Snapshot Reviews CHOP

When I started this blog there was really only one option for color and look. And that's the one I've been sticking with for the last several years. In keeping with my new "dedicated blogger" status, I've decided to mess with the look and functionality of the site. It'll probably change more once I take the time to really explore my options, so be prepared for that!

Coming soon: my year-end wrap-up and BEST & WORST list ...

-T

Today is the Day to Get CHOP-ped!

Well, here it is, the day that every filmmaker dreams about, huh? CHOP is available all over North America today and that means that it's probably already available for illegal download, as well. But I'm hoping that those of you who know me and visit the site will if not buy it, then at least rent it on iTunes or order it on VOD today ... CHOP is an example of truly independent filmmaking and no one will be "sticking it to The Man" by downloading it off of Bittorrent ... It's readily available on iTunes, Amazon, Target, WalMart, and other retailer's websites and conveniently on VOD if you're so inclined:

It was a little over two years ago that I called "that's a wrap" on CHOP and a lot has happened since then, but I just wanted to take a moment to thank EVERYONE that was involved in the film ... screenwriter Adam Minarovich (without whom there would be no movie), Executive Producer Pan Dongming (there would SERIOUSLY be no movie without his generous input and trust in me), Producers Jeff Hamilton and Chad Ferrin and the rest of the crew, my awesome cast - in particular Timothy Muskatell and Billy Bakshi, who were there every day. Also all of the festivals that played the film (too many to mention individually), and of course Bloody Disgusting Selects/Salient Media/The Collective for picking up the film.

I'm hoping that some reviews start to go up this week ... I'm quite curious to see how actual paying customers respond to the film. But in the meantime, I'm gonna throw up a few significant links right here along with a few behind-the-scenes shots ...

RYAN'S REVIEWS is a site that's been super-supportive of the movie and did three interviews for the release:

Ryan's Reviews Interviews Lead Actor Billy Bakshi

Ryan's Reviews Interviews Producer Jeff Hamilton

Ryan's Reviews Interviews Director Trent Haaga

Like I said, I hope to put up some links to some reviews this week (and I also plan on another festival announcement, if you can believe that!), but in the meantime, here's a new and (almost ridiculously) positive review that went up this week:

IGOR'S LAB Reviews CHOP

Well I guess that's it for now, but I'll be back several times in the next week ... Gotta do my end of the year "Best and Worst of" list and I'm planning to do a pretty ridiculous giveaway very soon. But you'll have to come back here to find out what it is!

Oh, and go purchase a copy of CHOP, whydontcha?

-T

Big Holiday Update ...

The holidays kicked my ass this year. The last month of the year is insane for most and mine was no different, especially considering my birthday is the 22nd and now Bronson is old enough to participate ... It was a crazy but successful end of 2011, which wasn't a bad year all around. I'm gonna do a quick catch-up update here but will be back a could more times before 2012 - of course I've got to update tomorrow, the release date for my directorial debut and then there's the end-of-the-year wrap-up post, so come back before New Years!

As I said, it was my 40th birthday on the 22nd. Lynh threw an awesome surprise party here at the house last weekend. I'm kind of a baby-face and it frustrates me to no end that I can't grow a manly beard, so Lynh and my good buddy Jeff "The Beard" Sisson collaborated to have my friend and special FX maestro Jim Ojala apply a big-ass ZZ Top beard for my party. Check it out:

Here's Jim getting ready to apply the beard:

My lovely wife and organizer of the whole she-bang:

Billy Bakshi, star of CHOP:

Author and director extraordinaire John Skipp and Allison McGillicuddy:

ISLE OF DOGS and KILLJOY 2 director Tammy Sutton with Tim Polecat:

And me pre-beard with my main man, David Chirchirillo:

Good times were had by all and it was great to see all of my friends, old and new, who came to usher me into what is considered middle age ... So thanks to everybody who showed up.

The day after my birthday, I began my descent into a mid-life crisis by getting a tattoo, something that I haven't done in 20 years. I figured why not make it count and totally made myself unavailable to work in the corporate world by doing my hands ... What the hell, right? I mean, I am halfway through my projected lifespan. And I'm playing this artist/creator thing to the bloody end. Check out my gangster/nerd ink work:

That's it for personal updates. I'm thinking about resurrecting my Facebook page but only to use it as a portal to this blog ... gonna see if I can figure out how to make the page live, but disable commenting, etc., so that I can simply throw up links to new blogs ...

I'll be back tomorrow for a big CHOP RELEASE update.

- T

More CHOP Stuff ...

Just a quick one today.

You can download an exclusive .mp3 of the CHOP END THEME SONG from distributors BLOODY DISGUSTING SELECTS right now:

Free CHOP Music Download

It's a techo-y little ditty composed and performed by my man Justin Hersh. Enjoy!

I don't even have a Facebook page, so I'm not totally sure what Get Glue is, really. But they're doing a promotion to win one of those DVD/Poster combo packs right here:

Get Glue CHOP Promotion

Yeah. That's it for the moment. More to come!

- T

A Very CHOP-py Holiday Season

Bloody Disgusting is coming up with new and fun ways to promote the December 27th release of CHOP. In addition to the contest (two posts back), they've just released a series of pretty damned funny holiday greeting Ecards:







There are a bunch of other designs, as well. Be sure to spread the gruesome holiday cheer and help promote my little directorial debut while you're at it!

BLOODY DISGUSTING'S CHOP HOLIDAY GREETING ECARDS

I just got home from shooting a small scene in my good friend Caleb (Die You Zombie Bastards, Frankie in Blunderland) Emerson's newest feature film. Caleb is a hell of a guy and I'm happy to finally have landed a role in one of his movies!

I'll leave it up to Caleb to release info about said film when he's ready for it, but in the meantime here are a few phone shots from high in the Angeles Forest mountains!





Back for more updates soon!

- T

A Mutually Beneficial Christmas?

Wow, I'm a blogging fool these days ... just like I promised.

Anyway, it's the holiday season and things always get a bit tight during this month what with all of the kids and nephews and nieces, etc. Not only that, but I always go through a "spring cleaning" phase at the end of the year ... so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and put up some stuff on eBay just in time for Christmas. Maybe you're not in the market for out of print paperback books and comics, but I am selling some incredibly rare and one-of-a-kind Troma stuff that's been sitting around for decades. Maybe you're a Troma fan. More than likely you've got a big Troma fan on your Christmas list. If that's the case, you should follow the link and check out some of the cool and unique items (that I've listed at incredibly generous prices). You get a unique and one-of-a-kind gift and I get money to buy nice things for my family ... everybody wins! Check it out:



Trent's Christmas eBay sale

I was watching some videos on YouTube yesterday and found this cool little 18 minute behind-the-scenes video about the making of HELL ASYLUM (which I wrote, acted in, and Produced back in 2001). It's pretty neat and shows the trials and tribulations of making a fast and cheap movie ... Tim Muskatell from CHOP is featured in it and, man, do the two of us look young and thin here! Check it out, it's pretty interesting:



More updates later in the week maybe ...

- T

CHOP Contest!

Hey, all!

Here's a phone shot of the package that I got on Saturday:



Got a box with some CHOP DVDs from Bloody Disgusting and some sweet CHOP mini-posters. I signed a bunch of them and just sent them back to B-D as prizes in their CHOP CONTEST!

Wanna help promote the film and maybe win a signed DVD, movie poster, and a chance at a $100 gift card? All you gotta do it run over to the CHOP page and enter to win:

CHOP Contest Page

In the meantime, the AMERICAN MANIACS news finally got picked up by a couple of sources:

Bloody Disgusting's AMERICAN MANIACS Story

Dread Central's AMERICAN MANIACS Story

And the trailer is finally available for me to embed here on the site, so I'm gonna do it:



More cool updates coming soon, I promise!

- T

3 Releases This Month!!

I know that I try to keep working as much as I possibly can, but it's a rare occurrence when THREE movies that I'm involved in come out in the same month ... So here's a quick re-cap (in order of release date):

JESSICKA RABID hits DVD on December 13th from Troma. But if you can't possibly wait that long, it's currently available for rent on youtube:

RENT JESSICKA RABID on YouTube



CHOP - My directorial debut hits DVD and VOD from the fine folks at Bloody Disgusting Selects on December 27th. It'll be available on Amazon and Netflix and everywhere else that still sells DVDs. For obvious reasons, I hope that everyone goes out and buys or orders the movie during their holiday breaks!



American Maniacs - I know that I just announced this movie less than a week ago, but it's coming out exclusively on VOD on January 1st, 2012! I made a mistake in the last posting when I said that Automatic Entertainment was the distributor - apparently they're only the sales agents behind the film and the actual distributor is PHASE 4 FILMS, who recently released Kevin Smith's RED STATE.

PHASE 4 FILMS' American Maniacs info page



Wow ... that's a lot of new product for a 30-day period.

Another update in just a few days ... have a great weekend!

- T