WEBVTT
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Do you want to know what the ingredients are for the secret stores to maintain a cult comedy classic for almost five decades?
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Well, Costa Dylan squeezes all the juice out of his killer tomato journey here on DMR.
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So welcome back to DMR.
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Thank you for tuning back in as always.
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Much obliged.
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So today we've got a very special guest, which is Costa Dylan.
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So Costa is the creator and writer of the Killer Tomato franchise.
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So this franchise has been in operation since 1978.
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It's got several films that are out there in Movie Lamb.
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It's also got a podcast as well.
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It had a popular animated series in the early 90s as well.
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And now it's got the 2026 Attack of the Killer Tomatoes organic intelligence movie, which is just coming out.
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So buckle up.
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It's an amazing 40 minutes.
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Here we go.
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Welcome to DMR, Chewie's movie reviews.
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The red carpet.
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Enjoy the show.
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Welcome back to DMR.
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Thank you for tuning back in as always.
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And tonight we've got a very cool guest, the King of the Cult Classics, Mr.
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Costa Dylan.
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Welcome, sir.
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Thank you.
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Now you're calling from was it San Diego?
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Is it where is that where you're calling from?
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Yes, I'm in San Diego, California.
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How long have you been there for?
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Oh, this is uh where I went to uh uh high school.
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Yeah.
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And uh then I uh moved away and then came back and retired here about uh 11 years ago.
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There you go.
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There you go.
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Now you're back in the spotlight with the new Killer Tomato movie, correct?
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Yes.
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Very, very good, awesome.
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So let's go back in time to when all this started in 1978.
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But before we get to the actual movie, so did you grow up around that era?
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Whereabouts in the States did you grow up and what did you study and stuff like that?
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My dad was uh in the Marine Corps.
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So we lived in a few places in California.
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I was born in Connecticut, which is on the East Coast.
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Yep.
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Lived in a few places in California, lived in Nebraska, believe it or not.
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Okay, straight in the middle of the United States, and uh and then uh came to San Diego in uh seventh grade, uh stayed here through um high school, then uh went to college in California, and then I went to work for the National Park Service and worked in national parks all over the United States for 35 years.
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Wow.
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Wow, that's awesome.
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So what what did you do exactly in the the parks department?
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Did you what were your roles there?
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Uh I was for about half my career, I was a ranger.
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I did uh get led programs, did the law enforcement, search and rescue, firefighting, EMT, all that sort of thing.
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And then I was the superintendent of a few parks, that is the manager of a few parks.
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Okay, awesome.
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And you'll I'd imagine you would have seen some wildlife in that song.
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Uh yes.
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So definitely had wildlife, not uh not uh dangerous tomatoes, but lots of other wildlife.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, we've got um we've got a fair few uh killer species here in Australia, that's for sure.
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A lot of people joke about you know anything that here can kill you.
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Wouldn't say that's exact exactly true, but a lot of it, a lot of it is deadly.
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So I'm actually a uh a drone pilot and we're smacking in the middle of humpback whale season.
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So I go out and film all those amazing animals.
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That's a little bit quiet off of Sydney at the moment because they're all up in Queensland in the warmer waters, but then they start to migrate back down to Antarctica, and then this is when they start doing all their tricks and jumps out of the water and breaches and all that stuff.
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So yeah, it's it's it's a pretty cool site.
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Nice.
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Yeah.
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So let's go back to the 70s.
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So that that era is was pretty risque in terms of things that were coming out in terms of like horror movies.
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Obviously, you had the the Exorcist.
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I think the Exorcist was early 70s, 71.
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Is that correct?
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Somewhere in there, yeah.
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I don't know exactly.
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Did you go and see that when it first came out?
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No, no, okay.
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I don't like horror films.
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You know, killer tomatoes are comedies, they're not horror films.
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Exactly.
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I don't like horror films.
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Is it class as a comedy horror?
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It kind of is, isn't it?
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Or just flat out looks like that.
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Yeah, that's that's what people call it.
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But the original intent was to was to spoof Japanese monster movies rather than horror movies.
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Kaji movies, you know, like yeah, you know, Godzilla and Martha and all those um movies of the of the sixties.
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Yep.
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And uh that was the idea.
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Uh and it's always amused me that somehow we got clumped in with horror because we we've never been in that genre ever.
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Well, it's funny, like I remember like someone was I was born in 1985, and basically I lived pretty much in the the video store as a kid and memory serves.
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I think my next door neighbor was the manager of a local video store, and I remember having the Killer Tomato VHS tapes in my collection.
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I think it might have been the the third one or the the fourth film where the ladies like on the back of the on the Oh that's coach meals in France, yeah.
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Yeah, yeah.
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I vividly remember that.
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And I saw the I saw the new trailer come out and it just the nostalgia hit me big time.
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And then your PR firm approached me.
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I'm like, what?
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I said to my wife, Jessica go, check this out.
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This is insane.
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This is like again, it felt like out of a movie.
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So anyway, so let's go to 1978.
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So you're the creator of Killer Smart.
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You're a co-writer, or you you you came up with the idea?
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Run me back through.
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Well, I had a uh um friends that started making films with in high school, just little um amateur films.
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In those days, we had what were called super A cameras, you know, long before video, long before uh digital.
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And we would make uh films that um you know starred our friends and relatives because that way when we went to show the movies and charge people a dollar, the uh friends and relatives would give you the dollar so they could go see themselves.
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Uh pretty much paid for the um the processing cost.
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Yeah.
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The uh uh idea for Killer Tomatoes was uh looking for something to do for a student film.
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We had a a film class.
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That's our only my only film training is I had one class in college and needed a to have a film for the class.
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And we uh, you know, like I came up with this idea, let's make fun of uh these low budget Japanese monster movies, because as far as we know, nobody'd ever done that before.
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Yep.
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And uh it was an original idea, so we said let's go with our original idea.
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We made a little five-minute, ten-minute film for that class, and but and then what five years later, six years later, we decided to actually make a real movie out of it.
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We needed to expand a two-page script to a 90-page script, um, but that's what we ended up with.
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Yeah, okay, cool.
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So the last couple of days I've been hard at work studying the first two films, and I've just literally an hour or two ago finished the latest one as well.
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So when it when it came out in 78, where was it shown?
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Where was that originally shown?
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Was it in theaters?
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Well, in those days, yeah, it's the only place you could show a movie in those days.
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There was no home video, it hadn't been invented yet.
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Yeah.
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So unless you managed to sell your film to television, and that was still uh a tough, tough trip, it was shown in movie theaters and drive-in theaters.
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And uh eventually it did show up on television.
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Uh, it was bought by somebody or other, because I I remember seeing it in TV listings that you could watch it on TV.
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Uh but uh it that's yeah, that was it.
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It was shown in movie theaters.
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It would have been cool to see the drive-in.
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So it's just such a it reminded me of when I watched the first one.
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Obviously, in the 70s, you've got that 70s feel to it, but it kind of reminded me of that same spoof style of like the naked gun, because I grew up with that style of movie as well.
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So and what which came after us, yeah.
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Well, that's right.
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That's right.
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It did, didn't it?
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That's right.
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And then you had the the second one and the third one, um, and then obviously the new one with Liam Neeson, then which was quite a good instalment.
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I quite like the new one.
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But so what was the initial feedback when the first one dropped?
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So how had it had it all did people go, This is awesome, this is hilarious?
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Did they go, what's going on here?
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You tell me how was the initial feedback?
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Uh I think uh Steve Peace, uh uh, you know, my partners likes to say he one of the one of the people, the exhibitors we showed it to uh just turned to us and said, Why don't you just take all your money and put it on black in Las Vegas?
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It just it uh it did not go over well.
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Um people didn't understand it.
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The the fact that it was low budget, how they thought it um and it looks low budget.
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Uh the um we made it for less than$100,000, which in even today's US dollars would be less than$400,000.
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Nobody makes a feature film for$400,000 today.
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And so it um it not having any stars in it being such an odd film, it it did not get a lot of attention.
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It was it was tough to get anybody to agree to show it.
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So um it was it was not uh something we we kind of put it out there and uh we thought that was it.
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We were done with it and went on to s think about making some other kind of movie.
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Yep.
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So when did it obviously the next one I'll get to that in a second, but when did it kind of catch on that like within that 10-year period between the first and second film?
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Like when did it catch on?
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Did it start becoming a bit of a cult classic thereafter '78, like mid-70s, like when did it start to get a bit of momentum, I suppose?
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Well, a few a few things kind of came together that were uh serendipitous.
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So one is that uh a a couple of brothers, Michael and Harry Medved, decided to do a book called uh The Worst Uh Film Festival, and actually have a film festival about the Worst Film Festival, which they um had uh various um low budget and old movies that they would go to big cities like New York and Chicago and and have these this film festival, and we were they asked us if we would be in it and we said sure.
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And that that garnered attention being in that film festival.
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Then secondarily, videotape was invented, ta-da, and V CRs.
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Yeah, and people could uh bring movies home.
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And the big studios in those in the early days of VCR did not want to release their movies on video.
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They they thought it would um undermine their market for television sales and for um repeat showings and theaters and so forth.
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So uh a lot of a lot of studios refused to allow their titles to to go to videotape.
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Yeah.
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We said, what the heck?
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So here you are in the early days of video stores, and you go in a video store and maybe there's a hundred titles in there and we're one of them.
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Yeah.
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And and and the the the cover art is is so between the title itself and the cover art, which is um iconic now, uh people would pick it up and say, uh, you know what what's that all about?
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And then thirdly, um weirdly enough, there was a television cartoon called Muppet Babies based on the Muppets.
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Yep.
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And in in one of the episodes, Elmo has a dream about being attacked by the killer tomatoes.
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Oh, and they used clips from the film.
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And it turned out to be a very popular episode of Muppet Babies.
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Yep.
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And so all of those three these things kind of came together to make a uh studio say to us, Well, are you interested in doing another killer tomato movie 10 years after the fact?
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And we said basically, you know, no.
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We we sort of saw it as a one-off thing.
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We were we'd already made another film in between, and we were uh working on script for a a a third type of comedy.
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And but you know, when they stepped forward and agree to finance it, well, that changes everything.
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So it's like, okay, now we got you're gonna say you're gonna finance the movie, we'll do it.
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And and that's how Return of the Killer Tomatoes came about.
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Yeah, awesome, awesome.
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So just a few notes on the on the first one.
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So the things that really stuck out in me were like the small boardroom scene, the helicopter scene, the the parachute man is a running theme on each of the of the movies.
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You got the undercover t uh tomato agent, and there was a note in there about bombing New York.
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And I remember this, I think they said that well, the tomatoes aren't in New York.
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And said, Well, you just gotta bomb it anyway.
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I thought that was great.
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Yeah, and the and the reporter says, uh, you know, isn't a reporter back from the Middle East yet?
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He's still handling that, and it's like the joke still works.
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100% still works, 100%.
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So then oh, that was uh the I think the movies are just under an hour and a half, the the original one.
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So then fast forward to 1988.
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So yeah, you've got uh George Clooney in the second one, which he look he looks like an absolute baby in that, doesn't he?
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Oh, it was.
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It was it he he'd only done one other film, which was he did his small part in.
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Yep.
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So this was the the first time he was in a lead role in a film.
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Yeah.
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Uh he was largely unknown.
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I didn't know who he was.
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He he he was actually on a television show that I didn't watch called Facts of Life.
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Uh but but uh it was more of a a show that girls watched.
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So we didn't know it.
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Um we we hired him because it was audition and uh thought he was great.
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Yeah, good.
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Yeah, it's good stuff.
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I I find both of them, all of them very, very funny.
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So a few of the standout scenes in that movie was the tomato sauce at the start of the movie where they got the pizzas and the there's no sauce allowed at all.
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I like that that aftermath is well obviously 10 years later, and you got him working in the pizza joint, and then I caught on to it, I don't know if a lot of people would, where he flips the dough in the air and it lands on his head at the end of the movie.
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I thought it was such a brilliant little thing that well the the the the the premise of that film was to make fun of sequels and filmmaking.
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Yeah so we make fun of product placement, we make fun of first and third real payoffs, yeah.
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Um FT, which was a direct um reference to ET because you know the the cute little character you think it dies and it comes back, you know.
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It was so it was so um trite, you know, very um kind of thing that you see uh a trope you see in movies.
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And so we were trying to to to make fun of these these things that are common in in uh films and common in in sequels.
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The theme song, the lyrics of the theme song is all about sequels.
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Yeah.
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You have to listen to the theme, the lyrics of that.
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So Ft, is that is that stand for furry tomato, fuzzy tomato?
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Yes, yeah, fuzzy tom fuzzy tomato, yeah.
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Fuzzy tomato.
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And then you've also got the the character Tara Tara, Tara, is that right?
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She's a tomato uh tomato woman, I think it is.
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Yes, and then yes, the mad scientist.
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Now he was I couldn't grab his name, didn't have a chance to get, but was he did he play Gomez?
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Yes, John Aston.
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Yeah, right.
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How old was that?
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Yes, he played Gomez in the television Adams family.
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He's been acting since West Side's story in 1959.
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He he has a long lot of credits to his name.
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Yeah, yeah, very, very familiar face when I was watching.
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I was like, wow, that guy's been a hell of a lot of stuff.
00:16:31.440 --> 00:16:33.759
So so the second one was was very solid.
00:16:33.840 --> 00:16:39.600
So let's let's go over how that was basically seen in out there in movie land.
00:16:39.759 --> 00:16:42.879
Like how what was the second one, the sequel feedback on that?
00:16:43.519 --> 00:16:48.080
Well, it was much better because as we like to say, it was a quote real movie.
00:16:48.240 --> 00:16:57.279
By that time, we had 10 years of uh experience under our belts, we had was a more solid story, we had much more money.
00:16:57.440 --> 00:17:03.279
Yeah, um, we could we had more professional actors, uh, we had uh better lighting.
00:17:03.679 --> 00:17:09.039
It it just was uh it wasn't as amateurish a film as the original was.
00:17:09.200 --> 00:17:09.519
Yeah.
00:17:09.759 --> 00:17:20.240
And it it um it just played a lot better because it it it didn't re require that kind of cult status, it stood up on its own.
00:17:20.559 --> 00:17:20.880
Yep.
00:17:21.119 --> 00:17:34.319
And that's when like the 80s was a lot of I know you you don't classify this as uh a horror movie per se, but that's when a lot of slasher films were coming out as well, and like a lot of the VHS obviously was in its peak to a degree.
00:17:34.640 --> 00:17:43.279
So the distribution of that, so that went straight to the movies and the VHS and then all that kind of stuff as well, the all the normal Ron of the Mill stuff.
00:17:43.440 --> 00:17:43.839
Right, yeah.
00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:47.039
So it was in the theaters and then it went to videotape, yes.
00:17:47.279 --> 00:17:49.039
Yeah, okay, okay, cool.
00:17:49.279 --> 00:17:58.319
So then moving forward, you got a couple of years later, which was in 1990, with the the cartoon series, is that right?
00:17:58.799 --> 00:17:59.680
Right, right.
00:17:59.839 --> 00:18:01.279
I do remember, I do remember that.
00:18:01.359 --> 00:18:07.279
I remember that I was I might have been a bit young, I'm not gonna be at five years old, but I do remember seeing that on TV here in Australia.
00:18:07.359 --> 00:18:08.880
So run me through that.
00:18:09.039 --> 00:18:10.720
How long did that one go for?
00:18:11.599 --> 00:18:12.640
For two years.
00:18:12.880 --> 00:18:19.519
Uh it was it was the um the fledgling Fox Children's Network, it was called.
00:18:19.759 --> 00:18:23.680
Uh Fox not being a major network yet.
00:18:23.839 --> 00:18:29.519
They they were a new network, and this was their Saturday morning uh lineup.
00:18:29.759 --> 00:18:32.720
And so we were in the original Saturday morning lineup.
00:18:33.200 --> 00:18:43.279
The um uh cartoon show ran for two years, and then I think it got displaced by uh mighty more than Power Rangers took our time slot.
00:18:43.599 --> 00:18:46.240
Um and and so that was that was that.
00:18:46.400 --> 00:18:58.720
But it it it continued, you know, the concept, and uh Fox uh financed two movies um based on the uh um cartoon show.
00:18:58.799 --> 00:19:06.720
Uh that so the third and fourth movies were also from from 20th century Fox because they had been invested in the cartoon show.
00:19:06.960 --> 00:19:07.680
Yep, nice.
00:19:07.920 --> 00:19:11.039
So that revolves us into 1991.
00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:13.839
We've got to the Killer's Mano's strike back.
00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:28.559
So run I didn't have a chance to watch that one recently, but run me through the plot of that particular one and also No, it's it's kind of hard to explain, but it's it's it's premises kind of you know making fun of detectives movies, man.
00:19:29.039 --> 00:19:35.359
Uh the the um we we we throw in a little um Indiana Jones stuff in it.
00:19:35.839 --> 00:19:44.880
We have the Temple of Food and uh a few other things going on in there, just kind of um you know, wackiness of of stuff.
00:19:45.279 --> 00:19:45.759
Yeah.
00:19:46.079 --> 00:19:53.359
And that's when uh around that time, it might have been a little bit earlier than that, it was the Gremlins 2 when it came out.
00:19:53.519 --> 00:19:57.119
So were you a fan of all those genres as well, that style of movie?
00:19:57.519 --> 00:19:59.359
Yeah, I liked Gremlins, yeah.
00:19:59.519 --> 00:20:09.599
Uh and uh the um uh the we we we look for inspiration.
00:20:10.160 --> 00:20:13.440
None of the killer tomato movies are really quote about killer tomatoes.
00:20:13.519 --> 00:20:16.160
They're a way just to make uh light of something else.
00:20:16.559 --> 00:20:18.799
So uh tomatoes are like the vehicle.
00:20:18.960 --> 00:20:24.400
So we watch some of those films in order to figure out what we want to uh spoof in our own film.
00:20:24.640 --> 00:20:25.440
Yeah, exactly.
00:20:25.599 --> 00:20:54.079
Yeah, I was my son, I've got uh he's almost six, so he's five and a half, and he's starting to get into really starting getting into films at the moment, and I'm kind of keeping him around the PG status film that I don't want to go too hard too too quick or get into the M-rated stuff, but we started watching Gremlins 2 the other day, and I'm looking back at that style of movie and the puppetry and the animatronics, especially the second one, it's it's immaculate, like just it looks like unbelievable.
00:20:54.160 --> 00:21:06.400
And I just I just feel that I think it's a little bit of a lost art, especially nowadays with how heavy CGI comes into things, as opposed to like how it was back in the 80s and the 90s.
00:21:06.480 --> 00:21:08.480
What what are your what are your thoughts on that?
00:21:08.799 --> 00:21:19.839
Well, we do um is it we do um strive for PG, we want a film that families and adults can see because most comedies are are R-rated, you know.
00:21:20.319 --> 00:21:26.960
I I think Melper makes funny comedies, but they're mostly R-rated and full of lots of swearing and so forth.
00:21:27.039 --> 00:21:27.920
And we didn't want that.
00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:31.920
We wanted to make sure that families could could see things.
00:21:32.160 --> 00:21:35.920
And the practical effects are I think part of our hallmark.
00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:44.960
So even the new film, the one that's just out now, um Attack of the Killer Tomatoes Organic Intelligence, is a film with practical effects in it.
00:21:45.359 --> 00:22:02.319
We have real tomatoes, we have um um uh imitation tomatoes, we have puppet tomatoes, uh uh we have uh three foot uh manufactured tomatoes, and we do have some CGI tomatoes that But we have the full full range there.
00:22:05.279 --> 00:22:05.680
Yeah.
00:22:05.839 --> 00:22:11.039
And I think that's where the kind of the magic is when you can kind of blend both of them together.
00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:20.400
For instance, like when you've got films like you know Jurassic Park, which it did have CGI in it, but it also had the animatronics, and it just worked very, very well.
00:22:20.640 --> 00:22:26.960
So yeah, hopefully they can start bringing that kind of stuff back into film these days, the animatronics.
00:22:27.039 --> 00:22:29.279
And I did pick that up in the latest film as well.
00:22:29.519 --> 00:22:31.359
So keep doing what you're doing there.
00:22:31.440 --> 00:22:31.759
It's good.
00:22:31.920 --> 00:22:34.160
So we've got here, that was 1991.
00:22:34.319 --> 00:22:36.160
Then we're going over into Europe.
00:22:36.400 --> 00:22:40.079
So they've got 92 with the the Killer Tomatoes Eat France.
00:22:40.160 --> 00:22:40.799
Is that right?
00:22:41.039 --> 00:22:41.440
Yes.
00:22:41.599 --> 00:22:41.839
Yep.
00:22:41.920 --> 00:22:42.400
So it was that.
00:22:42.559 --> 00:22:43.519
Yeah, and that was fun.
00:22:43.680 --> 00:22:44.319
Yep.
00:22:44.640 --> 00:23:07.279
Well, the premise of that film is just um we decided to, you know, take the um broad themes of fairy tales and uh the questionable knowledge that some Americans have of Europe and European history and play to the stereotypes of what somebody might think uh France was like.
00:23:07.599 --> 00:23:12.880
And uh um so we we do we do have a lot of fun.
00:23:13.119 --> 00:23:28.240
Um we don't we don't see it as making fun of France or French people, but the perspectives that uh some Americans who are not um I would guess I use the word enlightened uh think France is like.
00:23:28.480 --> 00:23:28.799
Yeah.
00:23:29.200 --> 00:23:38.000
So so uh it was it was certainly not intended to uh disparage the uh France in any way, but but it rather the American image of France.
00:23:38.240 --> 00:23:39.359
Yeah, yeah, good stuff.
00:23:39.440 --> 00:23:42.720
I'll have to go back and watch the ones uh haven't so haven't seen in a while.
00:23:42.960 --> 00:23:48.400
So moving forward, so that was in the 90s, so you've also got quite a large like fan base.
00:23:48.640 --> 00:23:51.519
So what what's the fan base consist of these days?
00:23:51.599 --> 00:23:54.960
Like what have you what have you seen out there with the Killer Tomato land?
00:23:55.519 --> 00:24:00.960
Well, it's yeah, uh we we just finished uh uh San Diego Comic Con.
00:24:01.119 --> 00:24:06.880
Yep, which we we we go there um that's the second year in a row we had a panel there.
00:24:07.039 --> 00:24:07.200
Okay.
00:24:07.519 --> 00:24:15.599
We often have uh merchandise there, but the second year in a row we did a panel, and uh it was uh probably 800.
00:24:15.839 --> 00:24:18.880
The room we were in probably held 800, and we were pretty much full.
00:24:19.519 --> 00:24:22.960
So there was quite a quite a fan base of people at Comic-Con.
00:24:23.279 --> 00:24:23.680
Yep.
00:24:23.920 --> 00:24:30.160
And uh we we we hear from people through various means.
00:24:30.240 --> 00:24:46.559
So there definitely is a fan base, which is still just kind of amazes me because you don't think of uh we don't uh we didn't make uh films for the purpose of uh becoming uh a cult film.
00:24:46.880 --> 00:24:47.839
Those things just happen.
00:24:48.160 --> 00:24:48.400
Yep.
00:24:48.559 --> 00:24:53.839
And I I was I was interviewed uh when we were doing the fur the battle scene in the first film.
00:24:53.920 --> 00:25:02.079
This San Diego uh TV station asked me what our hopes were for the film, and I said our goal is to become thousandaires.
00:25:03.440 --> 00:25:04.480
That's a great answer.
00:25:04.960 --> 00:25:07.119
That's about all we can hope for at the time, you know.
00:25:07.359 --> 00:25:10.720
And I think we did become thousandaires, so it worked.
00:25:11.200 --> 00:25:14.720
Well we were a bit of a bit of money back then, so in the in the 70s, so for sure.
00:25:14.799 --> 00:25:14.960
Right.
00:25:15.359 --> 00:25:15.920
That's cool.
00:25:16.160 --> 00:25:34.960
So moving forward here, so what would you how would you say like with a cult classic like outlasting a lot of other films, like especially multiple decades from the 70s up until now, and then you might have a few films that get maybe one, two, maybe three movies, you're or you're into multiple movies.
00:25:35.200 --> 00:25:43.440
Like how would you describe like how this kind of theme, Killer Tomatoes, has kind of outlasted some of the the bigger name films?
00:25:43.519 --> 00:25:45.519
What what would you what are your thoughts around that?
00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:49.200
Well, probably I think that yeah, the title has a lot to do with it.
00:25:49.359 --> 00:25:54.640
We we we we I often say it's the um best known least seen film in the world.
00:25:55.119 --> 00:25:57.359
People know the title, but they've never seen the movie.
00:25:57.519 --> 00:25:57.759
Yeah.
00:25:57.920 --> 00:26:06.160
And and uh I think some people because of the title, it keeps bringing in new people going, you know, I've heard of that film and I've never gotten around to watch it.
00:26:06.319 --> 00:26:07.920
I'm I think I'm gonna watch it.
00:26:08.160 --> 00:26:18.079
And and that that's uniqueness, the the title and the concept, it makes it stand out from other stuff.
00:26:18.400 --> 00:26:24.799
And uh secondarily, I think that it um it it's still universal humor.
00:26:24.960 --> 00:26:26.720
It's not a lot of topical humor.
00:26:26.880 --> 00:26:32.640
You don't it's not the humor isn't stuck in 1978 or or 1991.
00:26:33.119 --> 00:26:42.799
So you can watch it without having to guess what those references are, who they're talking about or something, because there's very little topical humor in it.
00:26:42.880 --> 00:26:50.319
It it stays irrelevant, so it makes it easier for the audience of any age to keep up with it because of that.
00:26:50.480 --> 00:26:53.759
Sort of like you know, I I love the Marx Brothers.
00:26:53.839 --> 00:26:57.440
I was influenced by watching Marx Brothers.
00:26:57.839 --> 00:27:00.000
And theirs are like half and half.
00:27:00.079 --> 00:27:08.079
It's it's there's topical humor and that and if you understand the time, it's funnier than if you don't understand the time.
00:27:08.480 --> 00:27:11.759
And we we're um kind of like that.
00:27:11.839 --> 00:27:18.160
You there's some a little bit that you have to understand the time, but most of it you don't need to understand the time at all to get it.
00:27:18.880 --> 00:27:20.079
Yeah, yeah, 100%.
00:27:20.400 --> 00:27:24.160
I I kind of picked up that on on the new film as well when I watched it today.
00:27:24.400 --> 00:27:29.359
So and moving forward with like social media game and and podcasting.
00:27:29.440 --> 00:27:32.319
So is it's got its own podcast now, is that correct?
00:27:32.799 --> 00:27:36.960
Yes, I I have some podcasts up uh killer tomatoes.com.
00:27:37.119 --> 00:27:37.440
Yep.
00:27:37.680 --> 00:27:39.279
And which you can listen to.
00:27:39.359 --> 00:27:49.519
Um I've interviewing interviewed a number of people associated with the films over the years, all four of the previous films over the years on the podcast.
00:27:49.839 --> 00:27:58.000
And the um uh right now then we as we said, killer tomatoes.com has a lot of lot of stuff on it.
00:27:58.640 --> 00:28:02.000
And uh we have an Instagram account that you can follow.
00:28:02.240 --> 00:28:08.319
So we're we're up to up to uh the modern age in that regard.
00:28:08.480 --> 00:28:10.160
I don't manage the Instagram stuff.
00:28:10.240 --> 00:28:14.559
We have another younger group of people than me that do that, but yeah.
00:28:14.880 --> 00:28:15.440
Yep.
00:28:15.680 --> 00:28:20.319
And the social actually it was pretty cool to see in the new film the the social media aspect.
00:28:20.400 --> 00:28:24.000
I think there's uh an influencer on there with he's getting all the likes and stuff when he's filming.
00:28:24.240 --> 00:28:27.440
So run me through the new one.
00:28:27.519 --> 00:28:38.720
So what what I've found, especially the last couple of days, like watching from 1978 until 2026, the evolution of the film and the comedy and whatnot.
00:28:38.880 --> 00:28:49.200
So I won't go into too many spoilers because it's it's very, very fresh, but run the audience through about what they can expect in organic intelligence this time around.
00:28:49.839 --> 00:29:08.559
Well, we you said earlier you introduced me as the uh um creator of the killer tomatoes, and I kind of like to think I'm more like the uh discoverer of the killer tomatoes because the f the first film uh we reveal was never really a comedy.
00:29:08.640 --> 00:29:10.000
It was actually a documentary.
00:29:10.319 --> 00:29:24.160
And uh we've been trying to warn people for almost 50 years that uh there are killer tomatoes out there and they're dangerous, and that you know, it it's sort of like uh, you know, Watson and Crick didn't invent DNA, they discovered it.
00:29:24.240 --> 00:29:27.680
I'm like, you know, I'm the Watson and Crick of uh Killer Tomatoes.
00:29:27.839 --> 00:29:44.559
I I found them and discovered them, and I expect a Nobel Prize for it because uh that's the premise of the of the film, is the characters in the film have made this discovery that the original film was in fact a documentary and that the government had been covering it up.
00:29:45.039 --> 00:30:08.240
And uh they they reveal that uh to the world that the first film was uh a warning and that uh killer tomatoes have always been around causing havoc and they still are around and they have to have uh uh somebody um trying to uh watch out and save humankind from the nefarious tomatoes.
00:30:08.559 --> 00:30:09.920
Yep, yep.
00:30:10.240 --> 00:30:18.480
So with the characters that are in the new one, are there any original cast members that are still around or are they in this particular movie?
00:30:18.880 --> 00:30:19.519
Only two.
00:30:19.599 --> 00:30:20.720
Uh John Aston.
00:30:20.960 --> 00:30:22.160
Yep, what is he playing?
00:30:22.480 --> 00:30:24.319
His voice, his voice is in the film.
00:30:24.480 --> 00:30:28.160
Okay, so he's he he continues to pay uh Professor Gangrene.
00:30:28.480 --> 00:30:36.319
Yep, as he's 95 years old, so uh he wasn't able to be in the film in person, but we were able to use his voice, and me.
00:30:36.400 --> 00:30:37.519
I'm the only other person.
00:30:37.680 --> 00:30:39.440
I'm the only person that's been in all five.
00:30:39.680 --> 00:30:41.839
Are you in the cameo in the library?
00:30:42.079 --> 00:30:42.400
Yes.
00:30:42.720 --> 00:30:43.279
I thought so.
00:30:44.400 --> 00:30:50.319
I'm also uh one of the one of the pilots on the aircraft carrier wearing a leather jacket.
00:30:50.559 --> 00:31:01.119
Yeah, I I saw that when you you scream out the word or whisper the word tomato and you get actually hammered with it must be pretty cool to if star in your own movie as a cameo.
00:31:01.759 --> 00:31:02.640
Yeah, it's fun.
00:31:02.799 --> 00:31:13.119
Yeah, it's it's uh um I I used when we used to do screenings, I used to uh tell people if you could spot every time I'm in a movie, I'll give you a prize.
00:31:13.440 --> 00:31:18.000
Because uh I'm in I'm in I show up more often than they they realize.
00:31:18.960 --> 00:31:26.319
So obviously we we've been heavy on the the tomato theme, but you did mention you were working on some other films back in the 80s, is that right?
00:31:26.400 --> 00:31:27.359
Or what was it?
00:31:27.519 --> 00:31:34.240
Yeah, we did a film uh goes by two different names, Happy Hour, Sour Grapes, because the distributor changed the name.
00:31:34.480 --> 00:31:40.000
And it was uh a comedy with um uh Rich Little and Jamie Farr.
00:31:40.160 --> 00:31:59.519
And the idea of the the film was some uh an inventor has uh invented a product that if whatever you put it in becomes addictive, and he's a real do-gooder, so he wants to put it in toothpaste so kids will brush their teeth, and it gets stolen by a big uh corporation that puts it in beer.
00:31:59.839 --> 00:32:09.200
And uh so pretty soon everybody in the country is uh addicted to beer, and the drinking age gets lowered to six, and um and everything's out of control.
00:32:09.839 --> 00:32:21.119
The the problem with the film is the studio that we were working with kept demanding changes to the story to the point that we we just felt like, well, they've lost lost the plot.
00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:28.880
It isn't the the satire that we started with got kind of got lost as they kept making changes.
00:32:28.960 --> 00:32:37.440
So it was a it was a disappointing experience in in filmmaking and having an external entity um making changes.
00:32:37.759 --> 00:32:40.720
Fortunately, we didn't have that with any of the Killer Tomato movies.
00:32:40.799 --> 00:32:45.039
We've been able to make them the way we wanted them uh without that kind of interference.
00:32:45.359 --> 00:32:46.559
Yeah, okay.
00:32:46.799 --> 00:32:56.079
And another question as well, because you've been around for many decades with obviously starting in the 70s, and then you had VHS as well.
00:32:56.319 --> 00:33:04.079
Now obviously people get still go to the movies, but then you had the the rise of like DVD and then Blu-ray, now 4K, now streaming.
00:33:04.240 --> 00:33:09.279
Like, where do you see the future of film?
00:33:09.440 --> 00:33:20.559
Because like here in Australia, like whilst I don't go to premieres on Thursday nights or Friday nights because I'm 41 and my young dad, I got two kids, and it it really depends on the the movie as well.
00:33:20.720 --> 00:33:34.640
Like sometimes you'll go in there and the movie will be here, it will be like maybe 80% filled in terms of the cinema, and then other times you'll go there on a Sunday afternoon, and it'll be like 15% filled, you know what I mean, in terms of ticket sales.
00:33:34.720 --> 00:33:42.240
Like, where do you see film evolving because of all the different styles of what you has come over the last couple of decades?
00:33:42.880 --> 00:33:55.599
Well, it's a it's a sad thing that uh people mostly choose to watch films at home now because uh there are a number of things that go with the film viewing experience in a theater.
00:33:55.759 --> 00:33:55.920
Yeah.
00:33:56.160 --> 00:34:08.239
One is that uh and uh is it's a thing the filmmakers know that maybe the average person doesn't quite grasp, is that at home you are bigger than the screen.
00:34:08.400 --> 00:34:10.559
In a movie theater, the screen is bigger than you.
00:34:10.880 --> 00:34:11.440
Great point.
00:34:11.679 --> 00:34:21.679
And that's that makes for a different feeling when you're looking at a picture that's bigger than you are, and you physically have to move your head left and right to watch it.
00:34:21.920 --> 00:34:24.480
Whereas a television at home, you just stare at it.
00:34:24.800 --> 00:34:28.800
Um you don't have to move move, there's no interaction with the screen.
00:34:28.960 --> 00:34:38.880
Yeah, secondarily, comedies always do better with a crowd because uh laughter is contagious and people fear each other.
00:34:39.440 --> 00:34:48.880
And watching a comedy in a theater uh with other people is going to be much more fun than watching a comedy just by yourself at home.
00:34:49.199 --> 00:34:57.920
And uh when when we first started, the the mantra was you never want to show a comedy in a drive-in because of the same thing.
00:34:58.000 --> 00:35:00.960
You'd have three, four people in the car maybe um laughing.
00:35:01.039 --> 00:35:03.119
You couldn't hear the laughter in all the other cars.
00:35:03.519 --> 00:35:09.440
Now it's of course we don't have drive-ins really, but it's the same premise of watching a comedy at home.
00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:19.679
It it might be funny and you might love it, but it still won't be as funny as if there were a hundred and fifty other people around you watching it at the same time and laughing at the same time.
00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:20.320
Yeah.
00:35:20.480 --> 00:35:25.199
It's it's regrettable that people don't get up and go out to the movies.
00:35:25.280 --> 00:35:27.119
They they sit and wait and watch it at home.
00:35:27.440 --> 00:35:28.320
They're missing something.
00:35:28.559 --> 00:35:29.199
Yeah, you're right.
00:35:29.280 --> 00:35:34.480
There's there's some films that they come out and you look at them and go, okay, I'll wait for Shrewman.
00:35:34.559 --> 00:35:44.159
But then there's others where you're like, no, no, no, I have to get in the car, I have to go and buy that ticker stuff, get my popcorn, and sit down and 100% watch it.
00:35:44.400 --> 00:36:02.320
Like, obviously, there's some big films that are coming out towards the end of the year, which is Avengers Doomsday, and you've also got June part three as well, and those those are things, and those are films that you you can't watch it for the first time, or I think anyway, for the first time on just a normal streaming.
00:36:02.559 --> 00:36:06.000
So you can if you want, but yeah, those are spectacle films, without a doubt.
00:36:06.239 --> 00:36:09.920
Spectacle films are the other kind of film that you don't want to watch at home.
00:36:10.880 --> 00:36:22.320
Way back in I think 19 like 1970 or something, Stanley Kubrick said that his nightmare was that somebody would someday watch 2001 on a five-inch black and white TV screen.
00:36:22.480 --> 00:36:22.960
There you go.
00:36:23.199 --> 00:36:29.360
And and he he he didn't realize how pressing he was because uh that's exactly what happened.
00:36:30.079 --> 00:36:30.719
Yeah.
00:36:30.960 --> 00:36:32.719
And a couple of last questions.
00:36:32.880 --> 00:36:45.280
You don't have to name maybe five of them, but what looking back, like what were the top maybe three films that like really had an impact on you, like influentially to get into the game or to start writing?
00:36:45.360 --> 00:36:49.039
Like, what what really jumped jumped out at you as a kid or growing up?
00:36:49.199 --> 00:36:50.400
What did what did you say?
00:36:50.880 --> 00:36:56.159
Well, it certainly didn't influence my comedy, but to kill a mockingbird is a is a real favorite of mine.
00:36:56.320 --> 00:36:58.960
I just uh I really love that film.
00:36:59.679 --> 00:37:21.920
The um uh uh as a genre, the films of Buster Keaton and uh the Marks Brothers and Woody Allen before he started doing serious films, uh when he did Take the Money and Run and Um Bananas and Sleeper, the the absurdest comedy of those films had a big influence on me.
00:37:22.400 --> 00:37:29.119
And uh and then there was a series of uh really silly movies, English movies called the Carry On Series.
00:37:29.679 --> 00:37:36.880
And they're they're just full of really awful puns and and terrible um uh broad acting and so forth.
00:37:36.960 --> 00:37:48.639
But I I really liked the uh the the fact that uh these these were a repetitive series, it's just a different theme every time carry on camping, carry on Clio, and so forth.
00:37:48.880 --> 00:37:55.599
That they just the broad humor of it uh just kind of struck me as well, this is just absurd.
00:37:56.320 --> 00:37:58.320
And uh and that kind of struck me.
00:37:58.559 --> 00:37:58.800
Yeah.
00:37:59.039 --> 00:38:01.360
It's not great filmmaking, but it was fun to watch.
00:38:01.599 --> 00:38:02.960
Yeah, okay, okay.
00:38:03.360 --> 00:38:10.880
So with the the latest film, I did see on social media, has the premiere happened as of yet, or is it what what's the story of the comments?
00:38:11.599 --> 00:38:22.480
It's uh uh premiered in San Diego a couple weekends ago, and then we had a um kind of um red carpet event in in um uh Los Angeles last week.
00:38:22.719 --> 00:38:23.199
Yeah, okay.
00:38:23.360 --> 00:38:25.199
That's uh in New York this week.
00:38:25.280 --> 00:38:34.800
It's showing at a variety, it kind of fleck theaters, it's not a big rollout, um, but it's in um four theaters in New York and around New York City this weekend.
00:38:35.199 --> 00:38:38.559
And after a couple of weeks, Roland, where can people see the film?
00:38:38.880 --> 00:38:43.440
In in October, it will be available in video on demand, at least in the United States.
00:38:43.599 --> 00:38:51.280
I don't know what the foreign uh rollout plan is, but uh it will be a video on demand in October here.
00:38:51.599 --> 00:38:55.599
And then I I I know eventually it will be available in other countries.
00:38:55.920 --> 00:38:56.320
Yeah.
00:38:56.559 --> 00:38:58.559
Yeah, I really did like the the new film.
00:38:58.639 --> 00:39:03.599
Obviously, you had the the greedy vegetable corporation, then we had the tomatoes that were growing underwater.
00:39:03.760 --> 00:39:12.400
And what what I like about you know bringing back the strike force as well, it like with the all the films, they kind of they it all it all starts very subtly.
00:39:12.639 --> 00:39:25.119
It's all starts with like whispers and people that don't believe about these tomatoes that are coming out, but I really love how it all just kind of not right in your face, but it escalates at one point in the film where it just it's all out tomato war.
00:39:25.440 --> 00:39:28.639
I just really love how it all just kind of just wraps up.
00:39:28.719 --> 00:39:29.360
It's it's really cool.
00:39:29.440 --> 00:39:41.760
So I really did like the the first film, but I suppose in a closing point, Costa, what would you give advice on in terms of someone that's looking to write like films and stuff like that or get into the industry?
00:39:41.840 --> 00:39:50.480
Like looking back over all these decades, you've seen that many films, you've you've obviously done, you've created all these awesome cult classic films.
00:39:50.559 --> 00:39:56.719
Like, what advice would you give to a buddying filmmaker or writer to get into the game?
00:39:58.079 --> 00:40:00.559
Well, I would I would say try to be original.
00:40:00.719 --> 00:40:00.960
Yeah.
00:40:01.119 --> 00:40:07.360
The um it the so much um so much is derivative.
00:40:07.599 --> 00:40:11.920
And derivative films get made, there's no no question they do.
00:40:12.239 --> 00:40:24.159
But if you have some idea that's nobody else has done before, that that to me is is uh something you can feel good about.
00:40:24.480 --> 00:40:26.559
Uh it doesn't mean you're gonna get a film made.
00:40:26.639 --> 00:40:37.199
Uh the I think the Writers Guild registers something like 10,000 scripts a year, of which almost none of them actually get made, because most of the films that get made are are made through contracts.
00:40:37.280 --> 00:40:43.599
They don't they don't the the the anonymous films registered with the guild don't get made in the real movies.
00:40:44.000 --> 00:40:48.000
So it's a really, really tough business to make a feature film.
00:40:48.480 --> 00:40:55.440
Uh but if uh you you can come up with some some stories that are yours, you know.
00:40:55.519 --> 00:40:59.199
I feel I like writing what I write.
00:40:59.519 --> 00:41:10.719
And even the stuff that we discard, I probably wrote a I think we had like a three-hour script for this film and we had to start throwing stuff out because we got to get it down to 90 minutes.
00:41:10.880 --> 00:41:19.119
Yeah, but we we was a we would write it, we go, those that's funny, and then we go and really really had a hard time taking it out because we like that part.
00:41:19.440 --> 00:41:22.800
So uh it it was fun doing it.
00:41:22.880 --> 00:41:35.039
And if you're having fun writing whatever you're writing, even if it's a drama, if you enjoy writing it, then and if let's say it doesn't get made into a movie, it I don't think you wasted your time.
00:41:35.360 --> 00:41:35.840
Yep.
00:41:36.079 --> 00:41:37.679
Yep, now great advice.
00:41:37.920 --> 00:41:40.880
Well, Costa, thank you for coming on DMR as you can see.
00:41:40.960 --> 00:41:46.000
The tomatoes they did take over my studio and they've obviously taken well over your studio as well, mate.
00:41:46.239 --> 00:41:48.000
So look, keep keep doing what you're doing.
00:41:48.079 --> 00:41:49.679
What's what's up next for for Costa?
00:41:49.920 --> 00:41:52.559
Any any new projects after this, or you just run one round?
00:41:53.599 --> 00:41:54.559
Yeah, one at a time.
00:41:54.719 --> 00:41:58.159
We got this one's got to run its course first, and then we'll see what happens next.
00:41:58.400 --> 00:41:59.119
Yeah, that's good.
00:41:59.280 --> 00:41:59.679
That's good.
00:41:59.840 --> 00:42:00.960
Well, mate, thank you again.
00:42:01.039 --> 00:42:04.480
This will be edited over the next couple of weeks, and we'll we'll put it out on all the platforms.
00:42:04.960 --> 00:42:05.840
I'm looking forward to it.
00:42:05.920 --> 00:42:07.679
But you've been a great guest, so thank you for coming on.
00:42:08.320 --> 00:42:08.719
Appreciate it.
00:42:08.880 --> 00:42:09.119
Awesome.
00:42:09.760 --> 00:42:10.400
Have a good night, Costa.
00:42:10.719 --> 00:42:10.880
Thank you.
00:42:10.960 --> 00:42:11.360
See you, buddy.
00:42:11.519 --> 00:42:12.960
All right, bye-bye.
00:42:15.760 --> 00:42:16.960
Well, there you have it.
00:42:17.119 --> 00:42:18.960
Thank you, Costa Dylan.
00:42:19.039 --> 00:42:21.599
You've been a fantastic guest on DMR.
00:42:21.920 --> 00:42:26.000
Great work with all those films from the late 70s, right up until today.
00:42:26.159 --> 00:42:29.519
I've seen the new movie, as I mentioned during the interview.
00:42:29.599 --> 00:42:32.400
It's a great slapstick spoof comedy.
00:42:32.559 --> 00:42:34.719
So, watch out for that one.
00:42:34.800 --> 00:42:42.079
So, a reminder that DMR is part of the Audible Creators program, it's in conjunction with the Amazon Influencer program.
00:42:42.400 --> 00:42:44.000
So, what does that mean for you, the viewer?
00:42:44.239 --> 00:42:46.159
Well, there is a link in the show.
00:42:46.239 --> 00:42:53.199
You can jump on that link, it will take you over to Audible and you can start a 30-day free trial on behalf of DMR.
00:42:53.360 --> 00:43:01.519
Terms and conditions do apply if you do stick around past the 30 days, plenty of great titles in Audible's library.
00:43:01.679 --> 00:43:03.679
Make sure you check out that opportunity.
00:43:03.920 --> 00:43:10.079
So, we've got some amazing guests that are still lined up for the back end of 2026.
00:43:10.320 --> 00:43:12.079
We are very excited about it.
00:43:12.239 --> 00:43:19.679
So, stay tuned for plenty more interviews and I'm gonna be rolling out in a couple of weeks' time, and obviously into 2027.
00:43:19.760 --> 00:43:21.519
We're very excited about the momentum.
00:43:21.679 --> 00:43:25.920
So, as per usual, leaders on the menji.
00:43:26.960 --> 00:43:34.079
You've just experienced DMR, the red carpet treatment.
00:43:34.480 --> 00:43:37.599
Now, get your ass to the movies.
00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:08.320
Do you want to know what the ingredients are for the secret stores to maintain a cult comedy classic for almost five decades?
00:00:08.480 --> 00:00:15.759
Well, Costa Dylan squeezes all the juice out of his killer tomato journey here on DMR.
00:00:19.120 --> 00:00:21.199
So welcome back to DMR.
00:00:21.280 --> 00:00:23.039
Thank you for tuning back in as always.
00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:24.160
Much obliged.
00:00:24.320 --> 00:00:29.120
So today we've got a very special guest, which is Costa Dylan.
00:00:29.199 --> 00:00:36.079
So Costa is the creator and writer of the Killer Tomato franchise.
00:00:36.240 --> 00:00:42.000
So this franchise has been in operation since 1978.
00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:45.920
It's got several films that are out there in Movie Lamb.
00:00:46.159 --> 00:00:47.600
It's also got a podcast as well.
00:00:47.759 --> 00:00:52.320
It had a popular animated series in the early 90s as well.
00:00:52.399 --> 00:01:01.280
And now it's got the 2026 Attack of the Killer Tomatoes organic intelligence movie, which is just coming out.
00:01:01.359 --> 00:01:02.399
So buckle up.
00:01:02.479 --> 00:01:04.079
It's an amazing 40 minutes.
00:01:04.239 --> 00:01:05.040
Here we go.
00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:11.280
Welcome to DMR, Chewie's movie reviews.
00:01:12.159 --> 00:01:14.000
The red carpet.
00:01:19.439 --> 00:01:20.640
Enjoy the show.
00:01:20.879 --> 00:01:22.480
Welcome back to DMR.
00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:25.359
Thank you for tuning back in as always.
00:01:25.599 --> 00:01:32.879
And tonight we've got a very cool guest, the King of the Cult Classics, Mr.
00:01:33.120 --> 00:01:34.319
Costa Dylan.
00:01:34.400 --> 00:01:35.359
Welcome, sir.
00:01:35.920 --> 00:01:36.799
Thank you.
00:01:37.120 --> 00:01:39.200
Now you're calling from was it San Diego?
00:01:39.280 --> 00:01:40.480
Is it where is that where you're calling from?
00:01:40.640 --> 00:01:42.400
Yes, I'm in San Diego, California.
00:01:42.640 --> 00:01:43.680
How long have you been there for?
00:01:45.280 --> 00:01:49.920
Oh, this is uh where I went to uh uh high school.
00:01:50.159 --> 00:01:50.560
Yeah.
00:01:50.799 --> 00:01:58.239
And uh then I uh moved away and then came back and retired here about uh 11 years ago.
00:01:58.480 --> 00:01:59.040
There you go.
00:01:59.200 --> 00:01:59.680
There you go.
00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:04.560
Now you're back in the spotlight with the new Killer Tomato movie, correct?
00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:05.680
Yes.
00:02:06.079 --> 00:02:07.599
Very, very good, awesome.
00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:14.319
So let's go back in time to when all this started in 1978.
00:02:14.400 --> 00:02:18.879
But before we get to the actual movie, so did you grow up around that era?
00:02:19.120 --> 00:02:22.639
Whereabouts in the States did you grow up and what did you study and stuff like that?
00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:26.960
My dad was uh in the Marine Corps.
00:02:27.439 --> 00:02:30.400
So we lived in a few places in California.
00:02:30.800 --> 00:02:33.199
I was born in Connecticut, which is on the East Coast.
00:02:33.360 --> 00:02:33.680
Yep.
00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:37.680
Lived in a few places in California, lived in Nebraska, believe it or not.
00:02:37.840 --> 00:02:56.879
Okay, straight in the middle of the United States, and uh and then uh came to San Diego in uh seventh grade, uh stayed here through um high school, then uh went to college in California, and then I went to work for the National Park Service and worked in national parks all over the United States for 35 years.
00:02:57.199 --> 00:02:57.680
Wow.
00:02:57.840 --> 00:02:58.879
Wow, that's awesome.
00:02:59.120 --> 00:03:02.240
So what what did you do exactly in the the parks department?
00:03:02.319 --> 00:03:04.159
Did you what were your roles there?
00:03:04.719 --> 00:03:07.919
Uh I was for about half my career, I was a ranger.
00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:16.879
I did uh get led programs, did the law enforcement, search and rescue, firefighting, EMT, all that sort of thing.
00:03:16.960 --> 00:03:21.360
And then I was the superintendent of a few parks, that is the manager of a few parks.
00:03:21.599 --> 00:03:22.319
Okay, awesome.
00:03:22.400 --> 00:03:25.759
And you'll I'd imagine you would have seen some wildlife in that song.
00:03:26.560 --> 00:03:27.520
Uh yes.
00:03:27.919 --> 00:03:32.639
So definitely had wildlife, not uh not uh dangerous tomatoes, but lots of other wildlife.
00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:33.439
Yeah.
00:03:34.240 --> 00:03:40.240
Yeah, we've got um we've got a fair few uh killer species here in Australia, that's for sure.
00:03:40.400 --> 00:03:43.039
A lot of people joke about you know anything that here can kill you.
00:03:43.280 --> 00:03:48.080
Wouldn't say that's exact exactly true, but a lot of it, a lot of it is deadly.
00:03:48.240 --> 00:03:55.599
So I'm actually a uh a drone pilot and we're smacking in the middle of humpback whale season.
00:03:55.919 --> 00:03:59.039
So I go out and film all those amazing animals.
00:03:59.199 --> 00:04:13.360
That's a little bit quiet off of Sydney at the moment because they're all up in Queensland in the warmer waters, but then they start to migrate back down to Antarctica, and then this is when they start doing all their tricks and jumps out of the water and breaches and all that stuff.
00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:16.240
So yeah, it's it's it's a pretty cool site.
00:04:16.560 --> 00:04:17.040
Nice.
00:04:17.199 --> 00:04:17.680
Yeah.
00:04:17.920 --> 00:04:19.759
So let's go back to the 70s.
00:04:19.839 --> 00:04:26.879
So that that era is was pretty risque in terms of things that were coming out in terms of like horror movies.
00:04:27.040 --> 00:04:28.639
Obviously, you had the the Exorcist.
00:04:28.720 --> 00:04:31.360
I think the Exorcist was early 70s, 71.
00:04:31.439 --> 00:04:31.920
Is that correct?
00:04:32.079 --> 00:04:32.879
Somewhere in there, yeah.
00:04:32.959 --> 00:04:33.839
I don't know exactly.
00:04:34.319 --> 00:04:36.639
Did you go and see that when it first came out?
00:04:36.959 --> 00:04:38.079
No, no, okay.
00:04:38.319 --> 00:04:39.360
I don't like horror films.
00:04:43.920 --> 00:04:46.399
You know, killer tomatoes are comedies, they're not horror films.
00:04:47.199 --> 00:04:47.439
Exactly.
00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:48.879
I don't like horror films.
00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:52.240
Is it class as a comedy horror?
00:04:52.319 --> 00:04:53.199
It kind of is, isn't it?
00:04:53.279 --> 00:04:54.560
Or just flat out looks like that.
00:04:54.720 --> 00:04:56.160
Yeah, that's that's what people call it.
00:04:56.240 --> 00:05:02.639
But the original intent was to was to spoof Japanese monster movies rather than horror movies.
00:05:02.879 --> 00:05:11.600
Kaji movies, you know, like yeah, you know, Godzilla and Martha and all those um movies of the of the sixties.
00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:12.319
Yep.
00:05:12.560 --> 00:05:14.639
And uh that was the idea.
00:05:14.720 --> 00:05:21.040
Uh and it's always amused me that somehow we got clumped in with horror because we we've never been in that genre ever.
00:05:22.160 --> 00:05:31.040
Well, it's funny, like I remember like someone was I was born in 1985, and basically I lived pretty much in the the video store as a kid and memory serves.
00:05:31.279 --> 00:05:40.879
I think my next door neighbor was the manager of a local video store, and I remember having the Killer Tomato VHS tapes in my collection.
00:05:40.959 --> 00:05:49.360
I think it might have been the the third one or the the fourth film where the ladies like on the back of the on the Oh that's coach meals in France, yeah.
00:05:49.519 --> 00:05:49.920
Yeah, yeah.
00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:51.360
I vividly remember that.
00:05:51.920 --> 00:05:57.199
And I saw the I saw the new trailer come out and it just the nostalgia hit me big time.
00:05:57.360 --> 00:05:59.839
And then your PR firm approached me.
00:05:59.920 --> 00:06:00.480
I'm like, what?
00:06:00.639 --> 00:06:02.560
I said to my wife, Jessica go, check this out.
00:06:02.639 --> 00:06:03.439
This is insane.
00:06:03.600 --> 00:06:06.560
This is like again, it felt like out of a movie.
00:06:06.639 --> 00:06:09.199
So anyway, so let's go to 1978.
00:06:09.279 --> 00:06:11.600
So you're the creator of Killer Smart.
00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:14.560
You're a co-writer, or you you you came up with the idea?
00:06:14.800 --> 00:06:15.680
Run me back through.
00:06:16.160 --> 00:06:25.199
Well, I had a uh um friends that started making films with in high school, just little um amateur films.
00:06:25.360 --> 00:06:32.399
In those days, we had what were called super A cameras, you know, long before video, long before uh digital.
00:06:32.800 --> 00:06:47.360
And we would make uh films that um you know starred our friends and relatives because that way when we went to show the movies and charge people a dollar, the uh friends and relatives would give you the dollar so they could go see themselves.
00:06:47.920 --> 00:06:51.279
Uh pretty much paid for the um the processing cost.
00:06:51.439 --> 00:06:51.600
Yeah.
00:06:51.920 --> 00:07:01.360
The uh uh idea for Killer Tomatoes was uh looking for something to do for a student film.
00:07:01.439 --> 00:07:02.639
We had a a film class.
00:07:02.800 --> 00:07:11.519
That's our only my only film training is I had one class in college and needed a to have a film for the class.
00:07:11.759 --> 00:07:21.519
And we uh, you know, like I came up with this idea, let's make fun of uh these low budget Japanese monster movies, because as far as we know, nobody'd ever done that before.
00:07:21.680 --> 00:07:22.000
Yep.
00:07:22.160 --> 00:07:25.920
And uh it was an original idea, so we said let's go with our original idea.
00:07:26.079 --> 00:07:36.480
We made a little five-minute, ten-minute film for that class, and but and then what five years later, six years later, we decided to actually make a real movie out of it.
00:07:36.639 --> 00:07:42.560
We needed to expand a two-page script to a 90-page script, um, but that's what we ended up with.
00:07:42.879 --> 00:07:43.839
Yeah, okay, cool.
00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:53.759
So the last couple of days I've been hard at work studying the first two films, and I've just literally an hour or two ago finished the latest one as well.
00:07:54.079 --> 00:07:57.839
So when it when it came out in 78, where was it shown?
00:07:58.000 --> 00:07:59.439
Where was that originally shown?
00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:00.240
Was it in theaters?
00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:03.839
Well, in those days, yeah, it's the only place you could show a movie in those days.
00:08:03.920 --> 00:08:06.160
There was no home video, it hadn't been invented yet.
00:08:06.319 --> 00:08:06.560
Yeah.
00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:17.199
So unless you managed to sell your film to television, and that was still uh a tough, tough trip, it was shown in movie theaters and drive-in theaters.
00:08:17.439 --> 00:08:20.480
And uh eventually it did show up on television.
00:08:20.560 --> 00:08:28.160
Uh, it was bought by somebody or other, because I I remember seeing it in TV listings that you could watch it on TV.
00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:30.720
Uh but uh it that's yeah, that was it.
00:08:30.800 --> 00:08:32.000
It was shown in movie theaters.
00:08:32.240 --> 00:08:33.600
It would have been cool to see the drive-in.
00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:38.159
So it's just such a it reminded me of when I watched the first one.
00:08:38.240 --> 00:08:46.720
Obviously, in the 70s, you've got that 70s feel to it, but it kind of reminded me of that same spoof style of like the naked gun, because I grew up with that style of movie as well.
00:08:46.879 --> 00:08:50.159
So and what which came after us, yeah.
00:08:50.320 --> 00:08:50.960
Well, that's right.
00:08:51.120 --> 00:08:51.440
That's right.
00:08:51.600 --> 00:08:52.080
It did, didn't it?
00:08:52.240 --> 00:08:52.480
That's right.
00:08:52.799 --> 00:08:58.320
And then you had the the second one and the third one, um, and then obviously the new one with Liam Neeson, then which was quite a good instalment.
00:08:58.559 --> 00:08:59.440
I quite like the new one.
00:08:59.519 --> 00:09:03.360
But so what was the initial feedback when the first one dropped?
00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:08.399
So how had it had it all did people go, This is awesome, this is hilarious?
00:09:08.639 --> 00:09:10.240
Did they go, what's going on here?
00:09:10.559 --> 00:09:12.720
You tell me how was the initial feedback?
00:09:13.519 --> 00:09:28.240
Uh I think uh Steve Peace, uh uh, you know, my partners likes to say he one of the one of the people, the exhibitors we showed it to uh just turned to us and said, Why don't you just take all your money and put it on black in Las Vegas?
00:09:30.240 --> 00:09:32.960
It just it uh it did not go over well.
00:09:33.039 --> 00:09:34.559
Um people didn't understand it.
00:09:34.799 --> 00:09:40.080
The the fact that it was low budget, how they thought it um and it looks low budget.
00:09:40.159 --> 00:09:48.559
Uh the um we made it for less than$100,000, which in even today's US dollars would be less than$400,000.
00:09:49.360 --> 00:09:52.399
Nobody makes a feature film for$400,000 today.
00:09:52.960 --> 00:10:03.120
And so it um it not having any stars in it being such an odd film, it it did not get a lot of attention.
00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:06.879
It was it was tough to get anybody to agree to show it.
00:10:07.200 --> 00:10:15.840
So um it was it was not uh something we we kind of put it out there and uh we thought that was it.
00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:21.039
We were done with it and went on to s think about making some other kind of movie.
00:10:21.279 --> 00:10:21.919
Yep.
00:10:22.240 --> 00:10:31.440
So when did it obviously the next one I'll get to that in a second, but when did it kind of catch on that like within that 10-year period between the first and second film?
00:10:31.519 --> 00:10:32.639
Like when did it catch on?
00:10:32.720 --> 00:10:40.639
Did it start becoming a bit of a cult classic thereafter '78, like mid-70s, like when did it start to get a bit of momentum, I suppose?
00:10:40.960 --> 00:10:46.000
Well, a few a few things kind of came together that were uh serendipitous.
00:10:46.080 --> 00:11:18.000
So one is that uh a a couple of brothers, Michael and Harry Medved, decided to do a book called uh The Worst Uh Film Festival, and actually have a film festival about the Worst Film Festival, which they um had uh various um low budget and old movies that they would go to big cities like New York and Chicago and and have these this film festival, and we were they asked us if we would be in it and we said sure.
00:11:18.159 --> 00:11:22.720
And that that garnered attention being in that film festival.
00:11:23.200 --> 00:11:27.200
Then secondarily, videotape was invented, ta-da, and V CRs.
00:11:27.440 --> 00:11:30.960
Yeah, and people could uh bring movies home.
00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:39.360
And the big studios in those in the early days of VCR did not want to release their movies on video.
00:11:39.759 --> 00:11:48.559
They they thought it would um undermine their market for television sales and for um repeat showings and theaters and so forth.
00:11:48.799 --> 00:11:55.679
So uh a lot of a lot of studios refused to allow their titles to to go to videotape.
00:11:55.759 --> 00:11:55.919
Yeah.
00:11:56.080 --> 00:11:57.440
We said, what the heck?
00:11:58.480 --> 00:12:04.399
So here you are in the early days of video stores, and you go in a video store and maybe there's a hundred titles in there and we're one of them.
00:12:04.480 --> 00:12:04.799
Yeah.
00:12:05.039 --> 00:12:19.440
And and and the the the cover art is is so between the title itself and the cover art, which is um iconic now, uh people would pick it up and say, uh, you know what what's that all about?
00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:27.600
And then thirdly, um weirdly enough, there was a television cartoon called Muppet Babies based on the Muppets.
00:12:27.679 --> 00:12:28.000
Yep.
00:12:28.240 --> 00:12:33.600
And in in one of the episodes, Elmo has a dream about being attacked by the killer tomatoes.
00:12:33.679 --> 00:12:35.840
Oh, and they used clips from the film.
00:12:36.080 --> 00:12:41.039
And it turned out to be a very popular episode of Muppet Babies.
00:12:41.120 --> 00:12:41.440
Yep.
00:12:41.679 --> 00:12:52.799
And so all of those three these things kind of came together to make a uh studio say to us, Well, are you interested in doing another killer tomato movie 10 years after the fact?
00:12:53.039 --> 00:12:55.440
And we said basically, you know, no.
00:12:55.679 --> 00:12:58.080
We we sort of saw it as a one-off thing.
00:12:58.399 --> 00:13:05.440
We were we'd already made another film in between, and we were uh working on script for a a a third type of comedy.
00:13:05.759 --> 00:13:10.320
And but you know, when they stepped forward and agree to finance it, well, that changes everything.
00:13:10.399 --> 00:13:15.200
So it's like, okay, now we got you're gonna say you're gonna finance the movie, we'll do it.
00:13:15.279 --> 00:13:18.159
And and that's how Return of the Killer Tomatoes came about.
00:13:18.480 --> 00:13:19.440
Yeah, awesome, awesome.
00:13:19.600 --> 00:13:21.759
So just a few notes on the on the first one.
00:13:21.919 --> 00:13:30.559
So the things that really stuck out in me were like the small boardroom scene, the helicopter scene, the the parachute man is a running theme on each of the of the movies.
00:13:30.799 --> 00:13:35.360
You got the undercover t uh tomato agent, and there was a note in there about bombing New York.
00:13:35.440 --> 00:13:38.720
And I remember this, I think they said that well, the tomatoes aren't in New York.
00:13:38.799 --> 00:13:40.720
And said, Well, you just gotta bomb it anyway.
00:13:44.720 --> 00:13:45.600
I thought that was great.
00:13:46.080 --> 00:13:51.039
Yeah, and the and the reporter says, uh, you know, isn't a reporter back from the Middle East yet?
00:13:51.200 --> 00:13:54.159
He's still handling that, and it's like the joke still works.
00:13:54.960 --> 00:13:57.039
100% still works, 100%.
00:13:57.759 --> 00:14:03.200
So then oh, that was uh the I think the movies are just under an hour and a half, the the original one.
00:14:03.279 --> 00:14:05.840
So then fast forward to 1988.
00:14:06.080 --> 00:14:12.000
So yeah, you've got uh George Clooney in the second one, which he look he looks like an absolute baby in that, doesn't he?
00:14:12.399 --> 00:14:13.120
Oh, it was.
00:14:13.279 --> 00:14:17.440
It was it he he'd only done one other film, which was he did his small part in.
00:14:17.600 --> 00:14:17.759
Yep.
00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:21.600
So this was the the first time he was in a lead role in a film.
00:14:21.759 --> 00:14:22.080
Yeah.
00:14:22.159 --> 00:14:23.679
Uh he was largely unknown.
00:14:23.840 --> 00:14:24.879
I didn't know who he was.
00:14:25.120 --> 00:14:30.000
He he he was actually on a television show that I didn't watch called Facts of Life.
00:14:30.240 --> 00:14:34.960
Uh but but uh it was more of a a show that girls watched.
00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:36.960
So we didn't know it.
00:14:37.039 --> 00:14:41.279
Um we we hired him because it was audition and uh thought he was great.
00:14:41.600 --> 00:14:42.159
Yeah, good.
00:14:42.240 --> 00:14:43.200
Yeah, it's good stuff.
00:14:43.279 --> 00:14:45.919
I I find both of them, all of them very, very funny.
00:14:46.080 --> 00:14:54.480
So a few of the standout scenes in that movie was the tomato sauce at the start of the movie where they got the pizzas and the there's no sauce allowed at all.
00:14:54.639 --> 00:15:07.200
I like that that aftermath is well obviously 10 years later, and you got him working in the pizza joint, and then I caught on to it, I don't know if a lot of people would, where he flips the dough in the air and it lands on his head at the end of the movie.
00:15:07.279 --> 00:15:15.679
I thought it was such a brilliant little thing that well the the the the the premise of that film was to make fun of sequels and filmmaking.
00:15:15.759 --> 00:15:20.879
Yeah so we make fun of product placement, we make fun of first and third real payoffs, yeah.
00:15:21.039 --> 00:15:29.919
Um FT, which was a direct um reference to ET because you know the the cute little character you think it dies and it comes back, you know.
00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:37.279
It was so it was so um trite, you know, very um kind of thing that you see uh a trope you see in movies.
00:15:37.360 --> 00:15:45.840
And so we were trying to to to make fun of these these things that are common in in uh films and common in in sequels.
00:15:45.919 --> 00:15:49.039
The theme song, the lyrics of the theme song is all about sequels.
00:15:49.200 --> 00:15:49.360
Yeah.
00:15:49.759 --> 00:15:51.919
You have to listen to the theme, the lyrics of that.
00:15:52.159 --> 00:15:54.960
So Ft, is that is that stand for furry tomato, fuzzy tomato?
00:15:55.440 --> 00:15:57.039
Yes, yeah, fuzzy tom fuzzy tomato, yeah.
00:15:57.279 --> 00:15:57.840
Fuzzy tomato.
00:15:57.919 --> 00:16:01.600
And then you've also got the the character Tara Tara, Tara, is that right?
00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:04.879
She's a tomato uh tomato woman, I think it is.
00:16:05.039 --> 00:16:07.519
Yes, and then yes, the mad scientist.
00:16:07.600 --> 00:16:11.679
Now he was I couldn't grab his name, didn't have a chance to get, but was he did he play Gomez?
00:16:12.240 --> 00:16:13.600
Yes, John Aston.
00:16:13.759 --> 00:16:14.240
Yeah, right.
00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:15.200
How old was that?
00:16:15.279 --> 00:16:18.559
Yes, he played Gomez in the television Adams family.
00:16:18.639 --> 00:16:22.080
He's been acting since West Side's story in 1959.
00:16:23.039 --> 00:16:26.159
He he has a long lot of credits to his name.
00:16:26.240 --> 00:16:28.879
Yeah, yeah, very, very familiar face when I was watching.
00:16:29.039 --> 00:16:31.279
I was like, wow, that guy's been a hell of a lot of stuff.
00:16:31.440 --> 00:16:33.759
So so the second one was was very solid.
00:16:33.840 --> 00:16:39.600
So let's let's go over how that was basically seen in out there in movie land.
00:16:39.759 --> 00:16:42.879
Like how what was the second one, the sequel feedback on that?
00:16:43.519 --> 00:16:48.080
Well, it was much better because as we like to say, it was a quote real movie.
00:16:48.240 --> 00:16:57.279
By that time, we had 10 years of uh experience under our belts, we had was a more solid story, we had much more money.
00:16:57.440 --> 00:17:03.279
Yeah, um, we could we had more professional actors, uh, we had uh better lighting.
00:17:03.679 --> 00:17:09.039
It it just was uh it wasn't as amateurish a film as the original was.
00:17:09.200 --> 00:17:09.519
Yeah.
00:17:09.759 --> 00:17:20.240
And it it um it just played a lot better because it it it didn't re require that kind of cult status, it stood up on its own.
00:17:20.559 --> 00:17:20.880
Yep.
00:17:21.119 --> 00:17:34.319
And that's when like the 80s was a lot of I know you you don't classify this as uh a horror movie per se, but that's when a lot of slasher films were coming out as well, and like a lot of the VHS obviously was in its peak to a degree.
00:17:34.640 --> 00:17:43.279
So the distribution of that, so that went straight to the movies and the VHS and then all that kind of stuff as well, the all the normal Ron of the Mill stuff.
00:17:43.440 --> 00:17:43.839
Right, yeah.
00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:47.039
So it was in the theaters and then it went to videotape, yes.
00:17:47.279 --> 00:17:49.039
Yeah, okay, okay, cool.
00:17:49.279 --> 00:17:58.319
So then moving forward, you got a couple of years later, which was in 1990, with the the cartoon series, is that right?
00:17:58.799 --> 00:17:59.680
Right, right.
00:17:59.839 --> 00:18:01.279
I do remember, I do remember that.
00:18:01.359 --> 00:18:07.279
I remember that I was I might have been a bit young, I'm not gonna be at five years old, but I do remember seeing that on TV here in Australia.
00:18:07.359 --> 00:18:08.880
So run me through that.
00:18:09.039 --> 00:18:10.720
How long did that one go for?
00:18:11.599 --> 00:18:12.640
For two years.
00:18:12.880 --> 00:18:19.519
Uh it was it was the um the fledgling Fox Children's Network, it was called.
00:18:19.759 --> 00:18:23.680
Uh Fox not being a major network yet.
00:18:23.839 --> 00:18:29.519
They they were a new network, and this was their Saturday morning uh lineup.
00:18:29.759 --> 00:18:32.720
And so we were in the original Saturday morning lineup.
00:18:33.200 --> 00:18:43.279
The um uh cartoon show ran for two years, and then I think it got displaced by uh mighty more than Power Rangers took our time slot.
00:18:43.599 --> 00:18:46.240
Um and and so that was that was that.
00:18:46.400 --> 00:18:58.720
But it it it continued, you know, the concept, and uh Fox uh financed two movies um based on the uh um cartoon show.
00:18:58.799 --> 00:19:06.720
Uh that so the third and fourth movies were also from from 20th century Fox because they had been invested in the cartoon show.
00:19:06.960 --> 00:19:07.680
Yep, nice.
00:19:07.920 --> 00:19:11.039
So that revolves us into 1991.
00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:13.839
We've got to the Killer's Mano's strike back.
00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:28.559
So run I didn't have a chance to watch that one recently, but run me through the plot of that particular one and also No, it's it's kind of hard to explain, but it's it's it's premises kind of you know making fun of detectives movies, man.
00:19:29.039 --> 00:19:35.359
Uh the the um we we we throw in a little um Indiana Jones stuff in it.
00:19:35.839 --> 00:19:44.880
We have the Temple of Food and uh a few other things going on in there, just kind of um you know, wackiness of of stuff.
00:19:45.279 --> 00:19:45.759
Yeah.
00:19:46.079 --> 00:19:53.359
And that's when uh around that time, it might have been a little bit earlier than that, it was the Gremlins 2 when it came out.
00:19:53.519 --> 00:19:57.119
So were you a fan of all those genres as well, that style of movie?
00:19:57.519 --> 00:19:59.359
Yeah, I liked Gremlins, yeah.
00:19:59.519 --> 00:20:09.599
Uh and uh the um uh the we we we look for inspiration.
00:20:10.160 --> 00:20:13.440
None of the killer tomato movies are really quote about killer tomatoes.
00:20:13.519 --> 00:20:16.160
They're a way just to make uh light of something else.
00:20:16.559 --> 00:20:18.799
So uh tomatoes are like the vehicle.
00:20:18.960 --> 00:20:24.400
So we watch some of those films in order to figure out what we want to uh spoof in our own film.
00:20:24.640 --> 00:20:25.440
Yeah, exactly.
00:20:25.599 --> 00:20:54.079
Yeah, I was my son, I've got uh he's almost six, so he's five and a half, and he's starting to get into really starting getting into films at the moment, and I'm kind of keeping him around the PG status film that I don't want to go too hard too too quick or get into the M-rated stuff, but we started watching Gremlins 2 the other day, and I'm looking back at that style of movie and the puppetry and the animatronics, especially the second one, it's it's immaculate, like just it looks like unbelievable.
00:20:54.160 --> 00:21:06.400
And I just I just feel that I think it's a little bit of a lost art, especially nowadays with how heavy CGI comes into things, as opposed to like how it was back in the 80s and the 90s.
00:21:06.480 --> 00:21:08.480
What what are your what are your thoughts on that?
00:21:08.799 --> 00:21:19.839
Well, we do um is it we do um strive for PG, we want a film that families and adults can see because most comedies are are R-rated, you know.
00:21:20.319 --> 00:21:26.960
I I think Melper makes funny comedies, but they're mostly R-rated and full of lots of swearing and so forth.
00:21:27.039 --> 00:21:27.920
And we didn't want that.
00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:31.920
We wanted to make sure that families could could see things.
00:21:32.160 --> 00:21:35.920
And the practical effects are I think part of our hallmark.
00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:44.960
So even the new film, the one that's just out now, um Attack of the Killer Tomatoes Organic Intelligence, is a film with practical effects in it.
00:21:45.359 --> 00:22:02.319
We have real tomatoes, we have um um uh imitation tomatoes, we have puppet tomatoes, uh uh we have uh three foot uh manufactured tomatoes, and we do have some CGI tomatoes that But we have the full full range there.
00:22:05.279 --> 00:22:05.680
Yeah.
00:22:05.839 --> 00:22:11.039
And I think that's where the kind of the magic is when you can kind of blend both of them together.
00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:20.400
For instance, like when you've got films like you know Jurassic Park, which it did have CGI in it, but it also had the animatronics, and it just worked very, very well.
00:22:20.640 --> 00:22:26.960
So yeah, hopefully they can start bringing that kind of stuff back into film these days, the animatronics.
00:22:27.039 --> 00:22:29.279
And I did pick that up in the latest film as well.
00:22:29.519 --> 00:22:31.359
So keep doing what you're doing there.
00:22:31.440 --> 00:22:31.759
It's good.
00:22:31.920 --> 00:22:34.160
So we've got here, that was 1991.
00:22:34.319 --> 00:22:36.160
Then we're going over into Europe.
00:22:36.400 --> 00:22:40.079
So they've got 92 with the the Killer Tomatoes Eat France.
00:22:40.160 --> 00:22:40.799
Is that right?
00:22:41.039 --> 00:22:41.440
Yes.
00:22:41.599 --> 00:22:41.839
Yep.
00:22:41.920 --> 00:22:42.400
So it was that.
00:22:42.559 --> 00:22:43.519
Yeah, and that was fun.
00:22:43.680 --> 00:22:44.319
Yep.
00:22:44.640 --> 00:23:07.279
Well, the premise of that film is just um we decided to, you know, take the um broad themes of fairy tales and uh the questionable knowledge that some Americans have of Europe and European history and play to the stereotypes of what somebody might think uh France was like.
00:23:07.599 --> 00:23:12.880
And uh um so we we do we do have a lot of fun.
00:23:13.119 --> 00:23:28.240
Um we don't we don't see it as making fun of France or French people, but the perspectives that uh some Americans who are not um I would guess I use the word enlightened uh think France is like.
00:23:28.480 --> 00:23:28.799
Yeah.
00:23:29.200 --> 00:23:38.000
So so uh it was it was certainly not intended to uh disparage the uh France in any way, but but it rather the American image of France.
00:23:38.240 --> 00:23:39.359
Yeah, yeah, good stuff.
00:23:39.440 --> 00:23:42.720
I'll have to go back and watch the ones uh haven't so haven't seen in a while.
00:23:42.960 --> 00:23:48.400
So moving forward, so that was in the 90s, so you've also got quite a large like fan base.
00:23:48.640 --> 00:23:51.519
So what what's the fan base consist of these days?
00:23:51.599 --> 00:23:54.960
Like what have you what have you seen out there with the Killer Tomato land?
00:23:55.519 --> 00:24:00.960
Well, it's yeah, uh we we just finished uh uh San Diego Comic Con.
00:24:01.119 --> 00:24:06.880
Yep, which we we we go there um that's the second year in a row we had a panel there.
00:24:07.039 --> 00:24:07.200
Okay.
00:24:07.519 --> 00:24:15.599
We often have uh merchandise there, but the second year in a row we did a panel, and uh it was uh probably 800.
00:24:15.839 --> 00:24:18.880
The room we were in probably held 800, and we were pretty much full.
00:24:19.519 --> 00:24:22.960
So there was quite a quite a fan base of people at Comic-Con.
00:24:23.279 --> 00:24:23.680
Yep.
00:24:23.920 --> 00:24:30.160
And uh we we we hear from people through various means.
00:24:30.240 --> 00:24:46.559
So there definitely is a fan base, which is still just kind of amazes me because you don't think of uh we don't uh we didn't make uh films for the purpose of uh becoming uh a cult film.
00:24:46.880 --> 00:24:47.839
Those things just happen.
00:24:48.160 --> 00:24:48.400
Yep.
00:24:48.559 --> 00:24:53.839
And I I was I was interviewed uh when we were doing the fur the battle scene in the first film.
00:24:53.920 --> 00:25:02.079
This San Diego uh TV station asked me what our hopes were for the film, and I said our goal is to become thousandaires.
00:25:03.440 --> 00:25:04.480
That's a great answer.
00:25:04.960 --> 00:25:07.119
That's about all we can hope for at the time, you know.
00:25:07.359 --> 00:25:10.720
And I think we did become thousandaires, so it worked.
00:25:11.200 --> 00:25:14.720
Well we were a bit of a bit of money back then, so in the in the 70s, so for sure.
00:25:14.799 --> 00:25:14.960
Right.
00:25:15.359 --> 00:25:15.920
That's cool.
00:25:16.160 --> 00:25:34.960
So moving forward here, so what would you how would you say like with a cult classic like outlasting a lot of other films, like especially multiple decades from the 70s up until now, and then you might have a few films that get maybe one, two, maybe three movies, you're or you're into multiple movies.
00:25:35.200 --> 00:25:43.440
Like how would you describe like how this kind of theme, Killer Tomatoes, has kind of outlasted some of the the bigger name films?
00:25:43.519 --> 00:25:45.519
What what would you what are your thoughts around that?
00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:49.200
Well, probably I think that yeah, the title has a lot to do with it.
00:25:49.359 --> 00:25:54.640
We we we we I often say it's the um best known least seen film in the world.
00:25:55.119 --> 00:25:57.359
People know the title, but they've never seen the movie.
00:25:57.519 --> 00:25:57.759
Yeah.
00:25:57.920 --> 00:26:06.160
And and uh I think some people because of the title, it keeps bringing in new people going, you know, I've heard of that film and I've never gotten around to watch it.
00:26:06.319 --> 00:26:07.920
I'm I think I'm gonna watch it.
00:26:08.160 --> 00:26:18.079
And and that that's uniqueness, the the title and the concept, it makes it stand out from other stuff.
00:26:18.400 --> 00:26:24.799
And uh secondarily, I think that it um it it's still universal humor.
00:26:24.960 --> 00:26:26.720
It's not a lot of topical humor.
00:26:26.880 --> 00:26:32.640
You don't it's not the humor isn't stuck in 1978 or or 1991.
00:26:33.119 --> 00:26:42.799
So you can watch it without having to guess what those references are, who they're talking about or something, because there's very little topical humor in it.
00:26:42.880 --> 00:26:50.319
It it stays irrelevant, so it makes it easier for the audience of any age to keep up with it because of that.
00:26:50.480 --> 00:26:53.759
Sort of like you know, I I love the Marx Brothers.
00:26:53.839 --> 00:26:57.440
I was influenced by watching Marx Brothers.
00:26:57.839 --> 00:27:00.000
And theirs are like half and half.
00:27:00.079 --> 00:27:08.079
It's it's there's topical humor and that and if you understand the time, it's funnier than if you don't understand the time.
00:27:08.480 --> 00:27:11.759
And we we're um kind of like that.
00:27:11.839 --> 00:27:18.160
You there's some a little bit that you have to understand the time, but most of it you don't need to understand the time at all to get it.
00:27:18.880 --> 00:27:20.079
Yeah, yeah, 100%.
00:27:20.400 --> 00:27:24.160
I I kind of picked up that on on the new film as well when I watched it today.
00:27:24.400 --> 00:27:29.359
So and moving forward with like social media game and and podcasting.
00:27:29.440 --> 00:27:32.319
So is it's got its own podcast now, is that correct?
00:27:32.799 --> 00:27:36.960
Yes, I I have some podcasts up uh killer tomatoes.com.
00:27:37.119 --> 00:27:37.440
Yep.
00:27:37.680 --> 00:27:39.279
And which you can listen to.
00:27:39.359 --> 00:27:49.519
Um I've interviewing interviewed a number of people associated with the films over the years, all four of the previous films over the years on the podcast.
00:27:49.839 --> 00:27:58.000
And the um uh right now then we as we said, killer tomatoes.com has a lot of lot of stuff on it.
00:27:58.640 --> 00:28:02.000
And uh we have an Instagram account that you can follow.
00:28:02.240 --> 00:28:08.319
So we're we're up to up to uh the modern age in that regard.
00:28:08.480 --> 00:28:10.160
I don't manage the Instagram stuff.
00:28:10.240 --> 00:28:14.559
We have another younger group of people than me that do that, but yeah.
00:28:14.880 --> 00:28:15.440
Yep.
00:28:15.680 --> 00:28:20.319
And the social actually it was pretty cool to see in the new film the the social media aspect.
00:28:20.400 --> 00:28:24.000
I think there's uh an influencer on there with he's getting all the likes and stuff when he's filming.
00:28:24.240 --> 00:28:27.440
So run me through the new one.
00:28:27.519 --> 00:28:38.720
So what what I've found, especially the last couple of days, like watching from 1978 until 2026, the evolution of the film and the comedy and whatnot.
00:28:38.880 --> 00:28:49.200
So I won't go into too many spoilers because it's it's very, very fresh, but run the audience through about what they can expect in organic intelligence this time around.
00:28:49.839 --> 00:29:08.559
Well, we you said earlier you introduced me as the uh um creator of the killer tomatoes, and I kind of like to think I'm more like the uh discoverer of the killer tomatoes because the f the first film uh we reveal was never really a comedy.
00:29:08.640 --> 00:29:10.000
It was actually a documentary.
00:29:10.319 --> 00:29:24.160
And uh we've been trying to warn people for almost 50 years that uh there are killer tomatoes out there and they're dangerous, and that you know, it it's sort of like uh, you know, Watson and Crick didn't invent DNA, they discovered it.
00:29:24.240 --> 00:29:27.680
I'm like, you know, I'm the Watson and Crick of uh Killer Tomatoes.
00:29:27.839 --> 00:29:44.559
I I found them and discovered them, and I expect a Nobel Prize for it because uh that's the premise of the of the film, is the characters in the film have made this discovery that the original film was in fact a documentary and that the government had been covering it up.
00:29:45.039 --> 00:30:08.240
And uh they they reveal that uh to the world that the first film was uh a warning and that uh killer tomatoes have always been around causing havoc and they still are around and they have to have uh uh somebody um trying to uh watch out and save humankind from the nefarious tomatoes.
00:30:08.559 --> 00:30:09.920
Yep, yep.
00:30:10.240 --> 00:30:18.480
So with the characters that are in the new one, are there any original cast members that are still around or are they in this particular movie?
00:30:18.880 --> 00:30:19.519
Only two.
00:30:19.599 --> 00:30:20.720
Uh John Aston.
00:30:20.960 --> 00:30:22.160
Yep, what is he playing?
00:30:22.480 --> 00:30:24.319
His voice, his voice is in the film.
00:30:24.480 --> 00:30:28.160
Okay, so he's he he continues to pay uh Professor Gangrene.
00:30:28.480 --> 00:30:36.319
Yep, as he's 95 years old, so uh he wasn't able to be in the film in person, but we were able to use his voice, and me.
00:30:36.400 --> 00:30:37.519
I'm the only other person.
00:30:37.680 --> 00:30:39.440
I'm the only person that's been in all five.
00:30:39.680 --> 00:30:41.839
Are you in the cameo in the library?
00:30:42.079 --> 00:30:42.400
Yes.
00:30:42.720 --> 00:30:43.279
I thought so.
00:30:44.400 --> 00:30:50.319
I'm also uh one of the one of the pilots on the aircraft carrier wearing a leather jacket.
00:30:50.559 --> 00:31:01.119
Yeah, I I saw that when you you scream out the word or whisper the word tomato and you get actually hammered with it must be pretty cool to if star in your own movie as a cameo.
00:31:01.759 --> 00:31:02.640
Yeah, it's fun.
00:31:02.799 --> 00:31:13.119
Yeah, it's it's uh um I I used when we used to do screenings, I used to uh tell people if you could spot every time I'm in a movie, I'll give you a prize.
00:31:13.440 --> 00:31:18.000
Because uh I'm in I'm in I show up more often than they they realize.
00:31:18.960 --> 00:31:26.319
So obviously we we've been heavy on the the tomato theme, but you did mention you were working on some other films back in the 80s, is that right?
00:31:26.400 --> 00:31:27.359
Or what was it?
00:31:27.519 --> 00:31:34.240
Yeah, we did a film uh goes by two different names, Happy Hour, Sour Grapes, because the distributor changed the name.
00:31:34.480 --> 00:31:40.000
And it was uh a comedy with um uh Rich Little and Jamie Farr.
00:31:40.160 --> 00:31:59.519
And the idea of the the film was some uh an inventor has uh invented a product that if whatever you put it in becomes addictive, and he's a real do-gooder, so he wants to put it in toothpaste so kids will brush their teeth, and it gets stolen by a big uh corporation that puts it in beer.
00:31:59.839 --> 00:32:09.200
And uh so pretty soon everybody in the country is uh addicted to beer, and the drinking age gets lowered to six, and um and everything's out of control.
00:32:09.839 --> 00:32:21.119
The the problem with the film is the studio that we were working with kept demanding changes to the story to the point that we we just felt like, well, they've lost lost the plot.
00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:28.880
It isn't the the satire that we started with got kind of got lost as they kept making changes.
00:32:28.960 --> 00:32:37.440
So it was a it was a disappointing experience in in filmmaking and having an external entity um making changes.
00:32:37.759 --> 00:32:40.720
Fortunately, we didn't have that with any of the Killer Tomato movies.
00:32:40.799 --> 00:32:45.039
We've been able to make them the way we wanted them uh without that kind of interference.
00:32:45.359 --> 00:32:46.559
Yeah, okay.
00:32:46.799 --> 00:32:56.079
And another question as well, because you've been around for many decades with obviously starting in the 70s, and then you had VHS as well.
00:32:56.319 --> 00:33:04.079
Now obviously people get still go to the movies, but then you had the the rise of like DVD and then Blu-ray, now 4K, now streaming.
00:33:04.240 --> 00:33:09.279
Like, where do you see the future of film?
00:33:09.440 --> 00:33:20.559
Because like here in Australia, like whilst I don't go to premieres on Thursday nights or Friday nights because I'm 41 and my young dad, I got two kids, and it it really depends on the the movie as well.
00:33:20.720 --> 00:33:34.640
Like sometimes you'll go in there and the movie will be here, it will be like maybe 80% filled in terms of the cinema, and then other times you'll go there on a Sunday afternoon, and it'll be like 15% filled, you know what I mean, in terms of ticket sales.
00:33:34.720 --> 00:33:42.240
Like, where do you see film evolving because of all the different styles of what you has come over the last couple of decades?
00:33:42.880 --> 00:33:55.599
Well, it's a it's a sad thing that uh people mostly choose to watch films at home now because uh there are a number of things that go with the film viewing experience in a theater.
00:33:55.759 --> 00:33:55.920
Yeah.
00:33:56.160 --> 00:34:08.239
One is that uh and uh is it's a thing the filmmakers know that maybe the average person doesn't quite grasp, is that at home you are bigger than the screen.
00:34:08.400 --> 00:34:10.559
In a movie theater, the screen is bigger than you.
00:34:10.880 --> 00:34:11.440
Great point.
00:34:11.679 --> 00:34:21.679
And that's that makes for a different feeling when you're looking at a picture that's bigger than you are, and you physically have to move your head left and right to watch it.
00:34:21.920 --> 00:34:24.480
Whereas a television at home, you just stare at it.
00:34:24.800 --> 00:34:28.800
Um you don't have to move move, there's no interaction with the screen.
00:34:28.960 --> 00:34:38.880
Yeah, secondarily, comedies always do better with a crowd because uh laughter is contagious and people fear each other.
00:34:39.440 --> 00:34:48.880
And watching a comedy in a theater uh with other people is going to be much more fun than watching a comedy just by yourself at home.
00:34:49.199 --> 00:34:57.920
And uh when when we first started, the the mantra was you never want to show a comedy in a drive-in because of the same thing.
00:34:58.000 --> 00:35:00.960
You'd have three, four people in the car maybe um laughing.
00:35:01.039 --> 00:35:03.119
You couldn't hear the laughter in all the other cars.
00:35:03.519 --> 00:35:09.440
Now it's of course we don't have drive-ins really, but it's the same premise of watching a comedy at home.
00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:19.679
It it might be funny and you might love it, but it still won't be as funny as if there were a hundred and fifty other people around you watching it at the same time and laughing at the same time.
00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:20.320
Yeah.
00:35:20.480 --> 00:35:25.199
It's it's regrettable that people don't get up and go out to the movies.
00:35:25.280 --> 00:35:27.119
They they sit and wait and watch it at home.
00:35:27.440 --> 00:35:28.320
They're missing something.
00:35:28.559 --> 00:35:29.199
Yeah, you're right.
00:35:29.280 --> 00:35:34.480
There's there's some films that they come out and you look at them and go, okay, I'll wait for Shrewman.
00:35:34.559 --> 00:35:44.159
But then there's others where you're like, no, no, no, I have to get in the car, I have to go and buy that ticker stuff, get my popcorn, and sit down and 100% watch it.
00:35:44.400 --> 00:36:02.320
Like, obviously, there's some big films that are coming out towards the end of the year, which is Avengers Doomsday, and you've also got June part three as well, and those those are things, and those are films that you you can't watch it for the first time, or I think anyway, for the first time on just a normal streaming.
00:36:02.559 --> 00:36:06.000
So you can if you want, but yeah, those are spectacle films, without a doubt.
00:36:06.239 --> 00:36:09.920
Spectacle films are the other kind of film that you don't want to watch at home.
00:36:10.880 --> 00:36:22.320
Way back in I think 19 like 1970 or something, Stanley Kubrick said that his nightmare was that somebody would someday watch 2001 on a five-inch black and white TV screen.
00:36:22.480 --> 00:36:22.960
There you go.
00:36:23.199 --> 00:36:29.360
And and he he he didn't realize how pressing he was because uh that's exactly what happened.
00:36:30.079 --> 00:36:30.719
Yeah.
00:36:30.960 --> 00:36:32.719
And a couple of last questions.
00:36:32.880 --> 00:36:45.280
You don't have to name maybe five of them, but what looking back, like what were the top maybe three films that like really had an impact on you, like influentially to get into the game or to start writing?
00:36:45.360 --> 00:36:49.039
Like, what what really jumped jumped out at you as a kid or growing up?
00:36:49.199 --> 00:36:50.400
What did what did you say?
00:36:50.880 --> 00:36:56.159
Well, it certainly didn't influence my comedy, but to kill a mockingbird is a is a real favorite of mine.
00:36:56.320 --> 00:36:58.960
I just uh I really love that film.
00:36:59.679 --> 00:37:21.920
The um uh uh as a genre, the films of Buster Keaton and uh the Marks Brothers and Woody Allen before he started doing serious films, uh when he did Take the Money and Run and Um Bananas and Sleeper, the the absurdest comedy of those films had a big influence on me.
00:37:22.400 --> 00:37:29.119
And uh and then there was a series of uh really silly movies, English movies called the Carry On Series.
00:37:29.679 --> 00:37:36.880
And they're they're just full of really awful puns and and terrible um uh broad acting and so forth.
00:37:36.960 --> 00:37:48.639
But I I really liked the uh the the fact that uh these these were a repetitive series, it's just a different theme every time carry on camping, carry on Clio, and so forth.
00:37:48.880 --> 00:37:55.599
That they just the broad humor of it uh just kind of struck me as well, this is just absurd.
00:37:56.320 --> 00:37:58.320
And uh and that kind of struck me.
00:37:58.559 --> 00:37:58.800
Yeah.
00:37:59.039 --> 00:38:01.360
It's not great filmmaking, but it was fun to watch.
00:38:01.599 --> 00:38:02.960
Yeah, okay, okay.
00:38:03.360 --> 00:38:10.880
So with the the latest film, I did see on social media, has the premiere happened as of yet, or is it what what's the story of the comments?
00:38:11.599 --> 00:38:22.480
It's uh uh premiered in San Diego a couple weekends ago, and then we had a um kind of um red carpet event in in um uh Los Angeles last week.
00:38:22.719 --> 00:38:23.199
Yeah, okay.
00:38:23.360 --> 00:38:25.199
That's uh in New York this week.
00:38:25.280 --> 00:38:34.800
It's showing at a variety, it kind of fleck theaters, it's not a big rollout, um, but it's in um four theaters in New York and around New York City this weekend.
00:38:35.199 --> 00:38:38.559
And after a couple of weeks, Roland, where can people see the film?
00:38:38.880 --> 00:38:43.440
In in October, it will be available in video on demand, at least in the United States.
00:38:43.599 --> 00:38:51.280
I don't know what the foreign uh rollout plan is, but uh it will be a video on demand in October here.
00:38:51.599 --> 00:38:55.599
And then I I I know eventually it will be available in other countries.
00:38:55.920 --> 00:38:56.320
Yeah.
00:38:56.559 --> 00:38:58.559
Yeah, I really did like the the new film.
00:38:58.639 --> 00:39:03.599
Obviously, you had the the greedy vegetable corporation, then we had the tomatoes that were growing underwater.
00:39:03.760 --> 00:39:12.400
And what what I like about you know bringing back the strike force as well, it like with the all the films, they kind of they it all it all starts very subtly.
00:39:12.639 --> 00:39:25.119
It's all starts with like whispers and people that don't believe about these tomatoes that are coming out, but I really love how it all just kind of not right in your face, but it escalates at one point in the film where it just it's all out tomato war.
00:39:25.440 --> 00:39:28.639
I just really love how it all just kind of just wraps up.
00:39:28.719 --> 00:39:29.360
It's it's really cool.
00:39:29.440 --> 00:39:41.760
So I really did like the the first film, but I suppose in a closing point, Costa, what would you give advice on in terms of someone that's looking to write like films and stuff like that or get into the industry?
00:39:41.840 --> 00:39:50.480
Like looking back over all these decades, you've seen that many films, you've you've obviously done, you've created all these awesome cult classic films.
00:39:50.559 --> 00:39:56.719
Like, what advice would you give to a buddying filmmaker or writer to get into the game?
00:39:58.079 --> 00:40:00.559
Well, I would I would say try to be original.
00:40:00.719 --> 00:40:00.960
Yeah.
00:40:01.119 --> 00:40:07.360
The um it the so much um so much is derivative.
00:40:07.599 --> 00:40:11.920
And derivative films get made, there's no no question they do.
00:40:12.239 --> 00:40:24.159
But if you have some idea that's nobody else has done before, that that to me is is uh something you can feel good about.
00:40:24.480 --> 00:40:26.559
Uh it doesn't mean you're gonna get a film made.
00:40:26.639 --> 00:40:37.199
Uh the I think the Writers Guild registers something like 10,000 scripts a year, of which almost none of them actually get made, because most of the films that get made are are made through contracts.
00:40:37.280 --> 00:40:43.599
They don't they don't the the the anonymous films registered with the guild don't get made in the real movies.
00:40:44.000 --> 00:40:48.000
So it's a really, really tough business to make a feature film.
00:40:48.480 --> 00:40:55.440
Uh but if uh you you can come up with some some stories that are yours, you know.
00:40:55.519 --> 00:40:59.199
I feel I like writing what I write.
00:40:59.519 --> 00:41:10.719
And even the stuff that we discard, I probably wrote a I think we had like a three-hour script for this film and we had to start throwing stuff out because we got to get it down to 90 minutes.
00:41:10.880 --> 00:41:19.119
Yeah, but we we was a we would write it, we go, those that's funny, and then we go and really really had a hard time taking it out because we like that part.
00:41:19.440 --> 00:41:22.800
So uh it it was fun doing it.
00:41:22.880 --> 00:41:35.039
And if you're having fun writing whatever you're writing, even if it's a drama, if you enjoy writing it, then and if let's say it doesn't get made into a movie, it I don't think you wasted your time.
00:41:35.360 --> 00:41:35.840
Yep.
00:41:36.079 --> 00:41:37.679
Yep, now great advice.
00:41:37.920 --> 00:41:40.880
Well, Costa, thank you for coming on DMR as you can see.
00:41:40.960 --> 00:41:46.000
The tomatoes they did take over my studio and they've obviously taken well over your studio as well, mate.
00:41:46.239 --> 00:41:48.000
So look, keep keep doing what you're doing.
00:41:48.079 --> 00:41:49.679
What's what's up next for for Costa?
00:41:49.920 --> 00:41:52.559
Any any new projects after this, or you just run one round?
00:41:53.599 --> 00:41:54.559
Yeah, one at a time.
00:41:54.719 --> 00:41:58.159
We got this one's got to run its course first, and then we'll see what happens next.
00:41:58.400 --> 00:41:59.119
Yeah, that's good.
00:41:59.280 --> 00:41:59.679
That's good.
00:41:59.840 --> 00:42:00.960
Well, mate, thank you again.
00:42:01.039 --> 00:42:04.480
This will be edited over the next couple of weeks, and we'll we'll put it out on all the platforms.
00:42:04.960 --> 00:42:05.840
I'm looking forward to it.
00:42:05.920 --> 00:42:07.679
But you've been a great guest, so thank you for coming on.
00:42:08.320 --> 00:42:08.719
Appreciate it.
00:42:08.880 --> 00:42:09.119
Awesome.
00:42:09.760 --> 00:42:10.400
Have a good night, Costa.
00:42:10.719 --> 00:42:10.880
Thank you.
00:42:10.960 --> 00:42:11.360
See you, buddy.
00:42:11.519 --> 00:42:12.960
All right, bye-bye.
00:42:15.760 --> 00:42:16.960
Well, there you have it.
00:42:17.119 --> 00:42:18.960
Thank you, Costa Dylan.
00:42:19.039 --> 00:42:21.599
You've been a fantastic guest on DMR.
00:42:21.920 --> 00:42:26.000
Great work with all those films from the late 70s, right up until today.
00:42:26.159 --> 00:42:29.519
I've seen the new movie, as I mentioned during the interview.
00:42:29.599 --> 00:42:32.400
It's a great slapstick spoof comedy.
00:42:32.559 --> 00:42:34.719
So, watch out for that one.
00:42:34.800 --> 00:42:42.079
So, a reminder that DMR is part of the Audible Creators program, it's in conjunction with the Amazon Influencer program.
00:42:42.400 --> 00:42:44.000
So, what does that mean for you, the viewer?
00:42:44.239 --> 00:42:46.159
Well, there is a link in the show.
00:42:46.239 --> 00:42:53.199
You can jump on that link, it will take you over to Audible and you can start a 30-day free trial on behalf of DMR.
00:42:53.360 --> 00:43:01.519
Terms and conditions do apply if you do stick around past the 30 days, plenty of great titles in Audible's library.
00:43:01.679 --> 00:43:03.679
Make sure you check out that opportunity.
00:43:03.920 --> 00:43:10.079
So, we've got some amazing guests that are still lined up for the back end of 2026.
00:43:10.320 --> 00:43:12.079
We are very excited about it.
00:43:12.239 --> 00:43:19.679
So, stay tuned for plenty more interviews and I'm gonna be rolling out in a couple of weeks' time, and obviously into 2027.
00:43:19.760 --> 00:43:21.519
We're very excited about the momentum.
00:43:21.679 --> 00:43:25.920
So, as per usual, leaders on the menji.
00:43:26.960 --> 00:43:34.079
You've just experienced DMR, the red carpet treatment.
00:43:34.480 --> 00:43:37.599
Now, get your ass to the movies.
