December 10, 2024 • 52 mins
If you wanted to recreate Killer Tomatoes in 2024, could it happen?
In this special live recording from Comic-Con LA 2024, host Costa Dillon, alongside moderator Zak Shaffer and a dynamic panel of a toy maker, wrestler, and cult movie fanatic, dive deep into the world of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Discover how this quirky film rose to fame, the clever marketing that propelled it, and how VHS helped turn it into a beloved classic.
Zak Shaffer, host of Two Dollar Late Fee, shares his expertise on 80s pop culture and cult film production, providing insightful commentary on the evolution of cult cinema. This episode isn’t just a tribute to Attack of the Killer Tomatoes—it’s a celebration of everything that makes these films so unforgettable, from quirky merchandise to unexpected novelizations.
Whether you’re a long-time fan or just curious about what makes cult films tick, tune in for a fun and insightful look into these weird, wonderful movies. Grab your popcorn (and maybe a tomato), and join us for a juicy conversation about the films that refuse to be forgotten!
#CultCinema #ComicCon2024 #AttackoftheKillerTomatoes #FilmHistory #PopCulture #CultClassics #MovieLovers #Podcast
Don’t forget to follow and subscribe at OlasMedia.com
The key moments in this episode are:
00:00:01 - Introducing Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
00:03:02 - The Creation of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
00:08:02 - Impact of VHS and Muppet Babies
00:11:18 - The Cartoon and John Astin's Role
00:15:25 - Growing the Franchise
00:16:11 - Launching Exclusive Toys at Toy Tokyo
00:17:27 - Dr. Gangreen's Role and New Versions of Toys
00:18:56 - Promotion and Collaboration
00:19:39 - Philanthropy and Fundraising
00:20:07 - Spin-off Inspired Toys and Nostalgia
00:31:18 - Connection between video games and the cartoon
00:32:30 - Introduction of a new board game
00:34:18 - Tim Burton's connection to Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
00:35:58 - Behind-the-scenes of Puberty Love
00:38:08 - Potential for a new Attack of the Killer Tomatoes movie
00:46:10 - Cult Film Creation
00:48:08 - Inception of VHS and Cult Movies
00:49:08 - Helicopter Crash Incident
00:50:19 - Killer Tomatoes Podcast and Merchandise
00:51:55 - Guest Websites
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:01):
Olas media.
S2 (00:04):
Attacking the podcast world and based on the true legendary
cult classic Olas Media presents.
S3 (00:14):
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Somebody mentioned biscuits.
UU (00:19):
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. They'll beat you, bash you,
squish you, mash you up for brunch.
S3 (00:25):
How bad is it? Finish you off. Oh, sorry. I
definitely don't think it'll fly again. I'm not talking about that,
you Weiner. What about the tomatoes?
S4 (00:31):
You're listening to the attack of the Killer Tomatoes podcast.
This week, our fearless host Costa takes a bite out
of Comic-Con LA. He and Michael Polis joined a live
panel discussion led by $2 late fee legend Zak Schaffer. Envision
a toymaker, wrestler and podcaster walking into an exhibit hall.
They all catch up on the saucy secrets behind the
(00:52):
Killer Tomatoes franchise. From slicing into marketing tactics to peeling
back the rise of VHS and merch, this episode is
packed with tomato tastic fun. Let's dive into this juicy,
cultivated panel discussion already in progress.
UU (01:09):
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.
S5 (01:12):
You've never seen anything like it.
S6 (01:20):
And you've never seen anything like this panel yet. Give
yourselves a big round of applause. Come on. All right, um,
let me just pull this up right now. Thank you, everybody,
for joining us for the attack of the Killer Tomatoes
Celebration of Cult Cinema panel here at LA Comic-Con. Um,
I want to introduce the whole panel before we get
(01:40):
into the whole nitty gritty good stuff of this panel. First,
I'm going to start at the far end. He's a
brother of mine. He is my co-host on the wrestling
podcast Territory Marks. He is a wrestler and an actor. Paul. London. Everybody. Paul. London. Yay!
Another podcast. Brother of mine, Max Boyle from Ready to Retro.
(02:05):
All right, give it up for Max Boyle. And now
the creator of attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Costa, Dillon.
Big round of applause for Costa. And Michael Polis, who
is owns Atomic Toy Box Studios. Correct. All right. Got
that all out correctly. And he's got a lot of
(02:26):
fun surprises to talk about in regards to attack of
the Killer Tomatoes. Michael Polis, everybody. Hey. Gentlemen, thank you
so much for doing this. Oh, I'm Zach Schaffer. I
run $2 late fee podcasting after dark. 80 kids unite
territory marks. I think that's all the podcasts. I do
(02:46):
a lot of them. And thanks again to all this
media who has provided all the audio setup for us
to to do this awesome podcast and panel. Um, okay. So, Costa,
you're like the big deal here, right? Really? You are? Yes.
You're the creator of this franchise, this. This amazing franchise
(03:07):
that could these killer tomatoes. For those that don't know,
can you give, like, a brief synopsis of how all
this came to be?
S7 (03:17):
Uh, contrary to the posters and things, it's not a
horror documentary. It says it's a horror comedy musical. It's
actually a documentary. And it's true. Many people get that wrong. Um,
when when the film was first made, people weren't yet
(03:38):
afraid of GMO foods and Franken foods and stuff. So
we felt we needed to warn the world that you
do need to be afraid of your vegetables. Um, the
whole point of eating your vegetables is to eat them
before they eat you. Moms leave that second part off
(03:58):
because it scares kids and they won't go to bed.
So that's how it came about.
S6 (04:03):
It's amazing. And over 30 years ago. Um, sorry. And
what's what's crazy to me too, is that did you
expect this film to have the legs it had? No, it's.
S7 (04:15):
Made me, you know, hundreds of dollars, I think. You know,
I didn't. I expected it to be a thousandaire, but
it didn't quite make it that far. We made it.
But no, I never expected that anybody would even know
what it was a year later. Never mind 40 years
later or whatever it is.
S6 (04:35):
No, it's pretty phenomenal. I mean, and sincerely like I
from from the 70s and then into the 80s, I'm
going to show a trailer for return of the Killer
Tomatoes in just a moment to remind people of some
of the star studded celebrities that showed up in that film. Um,
but but I'm really fascinated by the fact that there's
(04:56):
a toy line, there's a video game, there's all these
things from a movie that could have been forgotten, but
it hasn't been.
S7 (05:04):
A lunchbox, a lunchbox.
S6 (05:06):
Holy cow. That was not scripted. That was not planned
at all.
S7 (05:11):
And a Game Boy. Yes.
S8 (05:12):
A lot of goodies in here. Oh my.
S6 (05:14):
Gosh. Okay. Yeah.
S7 (05:16):
So some really cool beach blankets, but they're too big
to bring.
S6 (05:19):
Oh, well, you know, we can win this. When LA
Comic-Con goes to Santa Monica, we can redo that. Michael.
And you're holding up a bib.
S9 (05:29):
Yeah, this is the apron in case you're the Killer
Tomatoes Cafe, which actually was a real cafe at one point.
I don't remember that. There was a open for a day. Oh,
it was a pop up in San Diego. In San Diego? Yeah,
San Diego Comic-Con, but we actually made Killer Tomato cafe aprons.
S6 (05:48):
Amazing. So, Michael, what is what was your.
S9 (05:51):
What am I doing here?
S6 (05:52):
What are you doing here? How did you get connected
to the attack of the killer tomatoes?
S9 (05:55):
So I was brought on to help produce new content
as well as to make stuff. Uh, with regard to
attack of the killer tomatoes. And that relationship started about
12 years ago. Ish. Even longer than that. What am
I saying? Probably like 2008, 2009. So yeah, we've been
(06:18):
working on new products as well as kind of working on, uh,
a new iteration. But we'll let Costa talk more about that.
S6 (06:28):
Yeah, we'll get into that in just a moment. Um, Paul,
do you remember the first time you saw tomatoes as
being something other than something you put on a pizza
or a sandwich? I mean, it would have been.
S10 (06:42):
Ketchup, right? Like, I mean, that would have been ketchup, too.
S6 (06:44):
Of course. Yeah.
S10 (06:46):
Um, I mean, I was curious. I mean, I do
remember my early McDonald days when they had a soul.
Did they ever have a soul? Uh, Roy Kroc. Um,
I was curious. When do you remember the moment? Because
I imagine you made this or this. This started to grow,
(07:07):
pun intended. And was there a phone call? Was there
somewhere where you felt like, God, this thing's got vines.
Like it's really. It's got legs. Okay, cool. But, you know,
we're really surprised you.
S7 (07:21):
Yes. We made this film. Uh, it was 23 years old.
My partners are 23 years old. And basically, because when
you're 23 years old, you feel like you can do
anything unless somebody tells you you can't. And so we
made a movie which is well known, cost less than $100,000. Um, and, uh,
(07:42):
then we tried to get theaters to show it, which
they did. That's awesome. And so dragons in those days
the and that kind of would have been it. Um,
except for the invention of these things. Yeah.
S6 (08:01):
Um, who's familiar with the VHS tape in this audience?
I think this is the right audience. Yeah.
S7 (08:08):
You look like you might be almost as old as me. The, um. Wow.
When videotapes those of you of the younger persuasion, when
videotapes first came out. Video, home video machines, the studios
did not want to make their movies available on video.
They were afraid it would hurt their box office market
(08:31):
and their ability to sell the films to television. And
so they refused to license their films. Um, when we
were approached, we said, heck yes. Right. And in those days,
video stores were still kind of rare. They actually were
in malls and things, and I think we were one
of the first hundred titles available, and they cost like
(08:53):
$120 because they never thought anybody would want to buy
a videotape. So they were priced for renting. Yeah. And
when people went to a video store and there wasn't
a whole lot to choose from yet, there's one of
the things you could choose from. So it started to
gain a second life because the people would were looking
(09:16):
for something they could rent and they could rent. Attack
of the Killer Tomatoes, um, which variety called one of the,
you know, ten best titles of movies of all time.
So it should have made a ten best movie to
go with the title. But, um, the title worked, and then, um, the, uh,
Fox Children's Network did a show called Muppet Babies, and
(09:39):
they used a clip from the film for a dream
sequence with Elmo was in it and and it was
it turned out to be a really popular episode of
Muppet Babies. So we got a approached to do a
second film, return of the Killer Tomatoes, which we were.
(10:00):
We had already done another movie called Happy Hour with
Rich Little and Jamie Farr. Tawny Kitaen also not well known. Um,
and we weren't interested in doing any more Killer Tomato movies.
We figured it was a one off, and this was
New World Pictures approached us, and then they used the
magic words. We'll pay you. Um, and so we said, okay,
(10:23):
we'll do a second movie, we'll do another Killer Tomato movie. And, um,
then we did a third one and the fourth one,
because once Fox had it, Fox um, did a cartoon
show on the Fox Children's Network. It was the first, uh,
cartoon show out of that network. And then we did
a third and fourth film for 20th Century Fox. So
(10:45):
it kind of grew out of those, those those origins.
It if it weren't for videotapes and probably Muppet Babies,
it probably would have died with a single film and
would have been some obscure thing that you rarely hear of. Wow.
S6 (11:00):
Wow. I mean, so Jim Henson and somebody trying to
revamp the film market, you know, combined, I guess, so
to speak. Um, Max was your first connection to attack
of the Killer Tomatoes, the cartoon or the video game? Absolutely.
S8 (11:14):
Yeah. So I was born in 1990. So I was
in that, you know, sweet spot. So, you know, especially
late 80s, early 90s, there was always those three things
that were marketed to every kid. It was cartoons, toys
and video games. And this franchise had it all. So,
you know, and in the cartoon was so weird. It
(11:34):
was so different and ahead of its time. Way ahead
of its time.
S6 (11:38):
Anybody out here? Have you ever seen the cartoon raise
your hand if you've seen the cartoon. All right. We'll
play a clip in a moment. In a moment.
S8 (11:43):
So, uh, kind of scary too, with, like, the the
tomatoes with the sharp teeth and things like that. So
it was awesome. It was a great time to be
a kid.
S6 (11:52):
It was terrifying. I actually am going to show a
clip of just the opening bumper to the show, because,
and I want to show a trailer for the return
of the Killer Tomatoes, because I think that is worth
revisiting as well. Um, it was on Fox Kids. Welcome
to the Fun Zone.
S11 (12:09):
Now, Saturday morning on Fox starts with a slice and
dice attack of the killer tomatoes that snowball.
UU (12:17):
Meet the fresh crop of villainous veggies.
S5 (12:19):
Sounds good already.
UU (12:21):
Like tomato ketchup. Zoltan, I'm going to make a pizza
out of you. Catch the hottest action around or else
we tomato isms start your Saturday.
S11 (12:32):
Morning adventure with attack of the Killer Tomatoes on Fox.
S6 (12:36):
Um, yeah. So you obviously heard the voice of John Astin,
who did Doctor Gangrene, and John Astin, I think is
a very well known actor. And, um, can you talk
a little bit about how he got connected with.
S7 (12:54):
Well, we auditioned him. Okay. Uh, we also auditioned Danny
DeVito and staying, believe it or not.
S6 (13:00):
Um, not the wrestler. Sting. No. Okay. Just to make
sure we have a wrestling podcast.
S7 (13:05):
They read for gangrene, and we hired John because he
seemed right for the part. Danny DeVito wasn't as famous yet. Um,
sting was. He was a singer or something. Um, and, um.
And John Astin turned out to be great. I mean,
he he he made the part his I, I talked
to him every couple of weeks. He's like 94 years
(13:27):
old now, and he's still as sharp as ever and
and as smart as ever. He's a funny guy. Um,
but he made the made the part his own. He
did a great job. He he I think I asked
him on the podcast, you can listen to my podcast
at Killer tomatoes.com. Plug number one. Um, and um, yeah,
(13:47):
I asked him why he did it and he said,
you know, did his agent suggest he do it? And
he said, no, my agent told me not to do it,
but he liked it. He thought it was fun. So
he did it. Yeah. And and whenever I talked to him,
he always talks about what a great time he had.
Because it was in three of the films, plus the
cartoon show.
S6 (14:06):
Yeah. You, uh, he the cartoon like further the character development.
If you haven't seen it, it's worth checking out. The
quality is not good because it's on YouTube. And has
there ever been a discussion about trying to get that
out for a wider audience?
S7 (14:19):
No, we don't have the rights to that. So it's
owned by Fox and Disney.
S9 (14:24):
Yeah.
S7 (14:25):
No it was yeah Disney now but it was by
Marvel not the it's a different Marvel Studios than the
Marvel Studios that makes the films now. Right. Um, this
marvel went defunct and so I have no idea how
where the rights went. You know, these things are so confusing.
S9 (14:43):
We're in the middle of, you know, trying to have
those discussions about pulling those assets back. Okay. So, you.
S6 (14:51):
Know, fingers crossed. Yes.
S9 (14:53):
You know, it's it's it's a, you know, when another company,
when one company absorbs another company and they let a
lot of people go. Yeah. It's hard to it's hard
to find who the right people are sometimes. But we're
we're digging. We've been digging for a.
S6 (15:08):
Little while now. Well, speaking of maintaining the property, digging
and growing the property, you are in the process. And
you brought something with you to share. Growing the the franchise? Yeah. Um,
where is it going? Like, where do you what are
the next kind of plans stages with it?
S9 (15:28):
So we did a little experiment at San Diego Comic-Con.
It wasn't quite sure which was you brought. fabulously these
wonderful the.
S6 (15:37):
Original toys from the 90s. Yeah.
S9 (15:39):
So, uh, I tried to make some figures for San
Diego to see how they would do. We did the
OG tomato, which is kind of the one from the cover,
and then a second one called Red fool, which was, uh,
Deadpool kind of makeup. So this one is, uh, and
I think I'm hoping we have an image of it.
(15:59):
This one's coming out for New York Comic Con, which
is the tomato terror. The the mask actually comes off
so awesome. So you can see underneath, uh, in fact, uh,
toy toy Tokyo, which is a really wonderful big, uh,
in the collector space, is going to launch these for us.
(16:21):
They'll all be, uh, we've got spaces for autographs on
the back. Um, but we're going to do this at
Toy Tokyo at New York Comic Con, and I'm reserving
some on Atomic nerd, atomic nerd. Com so we'll have
a few of those. And in fact, uh, I haven't
told I haven't told Lev at Toy Tokyo this yet,
(16:43):
but I'm going to differentiate them. I think the, the
ones on the website, I'm going to put blood spatter
or tomato juice spatter, tomato juice on the mask. So
they'll be super cool.
S6 (16:53):
Very cool. Wow. So and I just had to say
too quickly in regards to the cartoon, uh, Tom Bray,
I believe, voiced the Wilbur Finletter. If you don't know
who Tom Bray is, for all you 80s television fans,
he was on a show called Riptide. He was the
nerdy guy on Riptide. He was also in Prince of
Darkness as well. And, uh, did does a wonderful version
(17:14):
of Wilbur Finletter. But that toy is so cool.
S9 (17:18):
Yeah. No. And in fact, uh, keep an eye out
for another version, uh, coming out at Designer con in November.
So we're, we're kind of continuing to perpetuate. We we've
done even more stuff we can talk about after too.
S6 (17:34):
Yeah, yeah. So. And what I love on the back
of this box is, is Doctor Gangrene in the middle,
because he's such a huge, integral part of the story. Uh,
originally in the original 1978 film. Right. Uh, that Doctor
Gangrene was, was not even like, like thought of yet, so.
S7 (17:53):
No, it was a new character for the second film. Right. Um.
And which is spelled g, r e e n. And
Fox kept getting it wrong because they didn't understand it
was a pun, was it not? Gangrene, the disease. But
it didn't matter. Right.
S6 (18:10):
Well, I think it's only gotten it's only festered and
gotten bigger as the.
UU (18:15):
Years have gone on. Um. Hey, this is a great
place to take a break. We'll be back with more
of the show right after this.
S4 (18:30):
Like we talk about in the show. There are a
lot that goes into a successful podcast more than just
pushing record. Whether you're new or seasoned, if you're looking
for someone to make your great show idea a reality,
then we've got your back. Check us out at Olson
Media.com and see how we can help you push record
on your next big project. The Dear San Diego podcast
(18:58):
is produced in collaboration with The Times of San Diego.
Repeatedly recognized by the San Diego Press Club, The Times
of San Diego delivers timely and transparent news to, for
and about America's finest city. To learn more on how
you can support this trusted source of information, visit Times
of San diego.com.
S12 (19:20):
Here's a cautionary tale. She who climbs the 20 foot
high diving board should be prepared mentally for what it
looks like at first glance down, we all should have
some idea of what it takes to plunge from new heights.
Unless you have someone who's willing to push you and
that can be dangerous. Join me on my podcast From
(19:40):
the Nest, where you can learn from other philanthropists journeys
through the world of fundraising before, during, or after you
jump into the pool. That's the From the Nest podcast
with Charity Jen. Follow and subscribe at Olas Media.com or
wherever you get your podcasts.
S4 (20:01):
Hey, we're joining the regular scheduled program already in progress.
S6 (20:07):
I love the fact that you are incorporating what looks
like a Jason Voorhees mask. Yeah. And the Deadpool as well.
Is there an idea to do more kind of spin
off inspired?
S9 (20:20):
Well, we're legally not allowed to say the. Sorry. No, no.
I'm sorry.
S6 (20:25):
Inspired by pro hockey player.
S9 (20:27):
Hockey player Jason Reeves.
S6 (20:29):
For the Calgary Flames, I believe.
S9 (20:31):
I believe you're correct, sir. Um, yeah. No, we're looking
at doing sort of crossover parody, kind of having some
fun with the characters. Um, we have a we're debating
a plain face, meaning it's just a tomato. Um, we
have some glow in the dark that we're playing around with.
(20:52):
And there's also one that, uh, we're talking about for
exhibit at Designer Con, which is about, yay big, about, uh,
12 inch tall. Um, and I'm blanking on his name now.
The eye patch. Um.
S6 (21:09):
Uh. Zoltan. Zoltan. Yeah.
S9 (21:11):
So it'll be Zoltan. Zoltan at San Diego. We're going
to have.
UU (21:15):
A big old, uh, prop version of him.
S6 (21:20):
Very cool, very cool.
S9 (21:22):
And that'll go on sale next year.
S6 (21:23):
Awesome. And by the way, for those of you in
the audience, we might have some giveaways at the end,
so you might want to stick around to the end
of the panel just letting you know keep you in
your seats.
S9 (21:32):
They lost those two people.
S6 (21:33):
Yeah, they had two people lost, unfortunately.
S7 (21:36):
And they have to be plastic because unlike a more
famous toy, Mr. Tomato Head didn't work. I mean, once
you punch a hole in it, you've had it.
S6 (21:46):
You know.
S7 (21:49):
It. Just don't hold up.
S6 (21:50):
Did you find that what was return of the killer
tomatoes and even wackier experience to go, like, even more wild?
S7 (21:59):
No. It wasn't. No. Well, the first film was just.
It was just, like I said, 323 year olds trying
to figure out how to make a movie, right? Um,
and it was a lot of run and gun. Um,
the skin of our teeth. We we actually didn't even
have a permit to film. We just put up a
(22:19):
camera and film. Wow.
S6 (22:21):
And can't do that nowadays.
S7 (22:22):
Yeah, I know, well, you absolutely cannot. So the second
film was much more professional. You know, it was it
was financed by New World Pictures. And we had, you know,
people who were professional crew and that sort of thing.
So it was a whole different experience. And plus we
knew a lot more about filmmaking, you know, ten years later.
And this was an era when you made film. Now,
(22:43):
of course, you don't make film. It's digital. But this
was actual film. The the first movie, when you make film, okay,
you young people in the audience film is the celluloid
tape material that you run through a camera and you
had to send it to a developer and they had
to process it, and he came back and it was
a negative. Then you had to process it to meet
(23:05):
what's called an answer print, which is a positive. And
then you would cut that and the editor, and then
they would go back to the negative and cut the
negative and paste it together. And then and that would
be made into positive films and sent to the theater.
That's an expensive and time consuming process. Right. Half the
cost of the first movie was the film. Wow. Um.
(23:25):
And the film processing. And today you don't have that.
The digital film is is the cheapest part of making
a movie. People make movies on iPhones, right? So it's
gone from being the most expensive part of low budget
filmmaking to the cheapest part of low budget filmmaking, to
the point where it's not even an issue anymore. Yeah.
S6 (23:44):
It reminds me a little bit. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.
The first one versus return reminds me a bit of
Phantasm from 1978 as well. And then Phantasm two, which
got this big budget, you know, and suddenly it's like, oh,
we can make a movie now. Right. I want to
show everybody the trailer for return of the Killer Tomatoes,
and we'll talk a little bit about that as well
and keep an eye out for a cameo.
S5 (24:06):
And years ago, a motion picture became the most notorious
cult movie of all time. Predictably, the French called it
a masterpiece. The name of this legend of cinema, the
attack of the Killer Colored tomatoes.
UU (24:22):
It was so stupid, so cheap, such a piece of
steaming dog fluff. You'd think it would have attracted horseflies.
Never an audience. Now get ready.
S5 (24:31):
To sit on your intelligence once again. They made the sequel,
The Return of the Killer Tomatoes. Guess what? It's a
lot better. It had to be. As you remember, ten
years ago, mankind was threatened with the greatest red menace
of all angry, merciless killer tomatoes. We were only saved
(24:52):
thanks to the heroism of a brave handful of untalented actors.
UU (24:56):
Are you Rob Lowe? Now they're back. This time we
shall not fail. A mad.
S5 (25:04):
Scientist.
S2 (25:05):
My tomatoes.
S13 (25:06):
Can be made to resemble any.
S5 (25:08):
One together with a yuppie pervert. Turn embittered, mean spirited
tomatoes into an army of psychotic neo-Nazi plant life. And
let's not forget the stunning hell spawned creation who just
might put out for the entire planet.
S14 (25:25):
Do you want to make love? I want it. I
also cook 815 international dishes and use all the popular
home appliances.
S5 (25:34):
You will see atrocities beyond belief.
UU (25:37):
I can see what you can't see. Your feet. Do
the words fat cow mean anything to you? You will
see how producers extracted special favors from certain.
S5 (25:46):
Well endowed performers.
UU (25:49):
It's got more laughs than out of Africa.
S5 (25:52):
It's gayer than kiss of the Spider Woman.
UU (25:55):
Hello. The girl of my dreams is available. See, you
wouldn't believe.
S5 (26:03):
What she can do with six milk.
S11 (26:04):
Bottles and a tuning fork. The return of.
S15 (26:08):
The killer tomatoes. It's definitely a learning experience.
S6 (26:16):
That was George Clooney in a smaller role. Um, that
film actually got a Blu ray release on arrow, right? Uh,
a beautiful.
S7 (26:28):
It has a Blu ray release, right?
S6 (26:29):
Yeah. So.
S7 (26:31):
I mean.
S6 (26:32):
It's got it.
S8 (26:32):
All.
S6 (26:33):
The ultimate pitch, man. Right here. Yeah.
S7 (26:36):
You can't, um, let me get my, uh, props here. Yeah,
they're all available on this old format called DVD. Um,
or you can get them pirated on on line, you know,
and which I don't make any money.
S6 (26:52):
To make that. Do you make money off?
S7 (26:54):
You can still buy these toys on eBay for, like,
$200 or something.
S6 (26:58):
And you still have it in the box. Wow. Okay. Amazing.
S7 (27:01):
Ridiculous amount of money. Um, and there's even for some
reason I don't remember why Disney had us make this
director's edition, which we shot. Um, extra stuff. Um, just
baloney Stop saying, you know, this was left out of
the original on the cutting room floor. It's not stuff
we've shot new, but I don't remember why they did it.
(27:22):
And they and they and they. It came with a
tomato seed packet.
S6 (27:25):
Wait, so you shot footage? We shot extra.
S7 (27:28):
Footage. And then the joke was it was lost. You know,
his director's cut, but it was never in the original
thing in the first place. Amazing. And and then one
of the scenes is in some foreign language because we
said we couldn't find the original piece. So. But it's
actually a pretty good film. This is really hard to
find because it's never been out on DVD.
S6 (27:46):
Well, I think one of the beautiful things about your
franchise is how smart, like how kind of tongue in
cheek and ahead of its time it was, especially the cartoon.
It's true.
S7 (27:56):
I am really smart.
S6 (27:57):
You are? Yes. That's why we have you here. Um.
S10 (28:00):
Was it always tomatoes? Was it because it's, like, cheap
and it's easy to get and I.
S7 (28:05):
Yes. It was always tomatoes. I wish it wasn't because
if celery would have been easier to work with. It
was really hard to make six foot Sweet tomatoes. Um, but, uh,
but that's what it always was from the beginning. Wow.
S6 (28:20):
Um, Michael, this. What is this franchise mean to you?
I mean, obviously, you're making toys off of it now, but,
you know.
S9 (28:29):
You know, it's it's definitely weird. Um, it's definitely, uh,
but fun. It's different than anything that I've ever worked on.
So I've worked on some, you know, weird things from.
S6 (28:45):
Tell people.
S9 (28:45):
What you've worked on. Uh, so I was at Universal Studios.
I worked on stuff like Land Before Time, uh, babe.
Then I went and worked at Muppets for years. I
worked on, uh, mirrormask. Like Neil Gaiman's first movie. Um.
And then I worked on Yo Gabba Gabba. So, like, uh, preschool,
I produced that.
S6 (29:04):
That was a party in my tummy.
S9 (29:05):
There's a party so yummy. Yeah. And, um, but this
was just kind of like a fun and quirky and
weird and, um, I think that, I don't know, I didn't,
I didn't I was a little bit young when it
came out to go see it in theater, but, uh,
(29:26):
but I did end up seeing it on probably this
format VHS.
S6 (29:31):
Yes.
S9 (29:32):
Uh, and it stuck with me. And the thing that
the thing that's most endearing to me is it is
the movie that everybody knows the title to. Almost everybody
has heard the song, but very few people have actually seen.
S6 (29:47):
Yeah.
S9 (29:47):
Which is kind of funny.
S6 (29:48):
Yeah, yeah. Unlike, you know, something, I don't know, I
think of when you think of cult films like Toxic
Avenger or, you know, uh, Basket Case, you said for
one or The Room, I think is a very popular
cult film now, but attack of the Killer Tomatoes like
you don't. Well, you should see it first of all.
But you don't need to see it to know immediately
(30:10):
what the concept is all about right. Um, I have
to ask you, Costa, uh, in the the cartoon version
of attack of the Killer Tomatoes, there's a reoccurring character
that pops up and he just shouts tomatoes! Was that.
Are you familiar with that character?
S7 (30:27):
Yeah, it's patterned after the guy in the library.
S6 (30:30):
Yeah. Okay. From the first film.
S7 (30:32):
Which is me.
S6 (30:33):
Okay. Yes. I love that.
S7 (30:35):
But I didn't get to do anything for the cartoon show.
I didn't get to. That wasn't me in the cartoon show.
S6 (30:40):
Okay. So we're not going to talk about the cartoon anymore. But, Max,
you would. And now Costa brought out. I believe there's
a Gameboy in that lunch box.
S8 (30:49):
Yes.
S6 (30:49):
Did you play the video game?
S8 (30:51):
I played the NES one. Okay. So has anybody played
the NES game of Know the Killer Tomatoes? No, nobody.
All right. The game is 15 minutes long. There's like
five stages, and it's basically you're just jumping up and
down and you're squishing tomatoes and that's pretty much it.
(31:13):
But it's it's memorable if you're like, if you want
to impress somebody, just put on, you know, put on
the NES game and beat it in 15 minutes, so.
S6 (31:21):
Well, and then the Sega game is connected to the cartoon.
I mean, they're both connected to the cartoon, which is
so great about it.
S8 (31:26):
Yeah, but and then the game, the Game Boy one's
a little different though. Yes. Yeah. You had the Game
Boy one, right?
S6 (31:32):
Game boy still have the Game Boy version and you
could save on that, I believe. I'm not trying to recall, but, uh,
it had excerpts like kind of excerpts from the from
the cartoon. It felt very connected to it. So, Michael,
did you ever play the Game Boy game or the
Nintendo game?
S9 (31:48):
I did not play the Game Boy game. However, one
of the things that we're working on is a board game. Oh. So, um,
we ended up showing, uh, game pieces at San Diego Comic-Con,
and I apologize for not bringing images of those, But
the idea is it's a modular game system where you can,
(32:13):
by the attack of the Killer Tomatoes game and you're
basically playing tomatoes against the military. Okay. That's awesome. And
then but you can buy a module for Mars Attacks.
So you could have the Martians fighting tomatoes, or you
could have we have a Garbage Pail Kids license, so
we could do a Garbage Pail Kids versus tomatoes versus Martians,
(32:36):
captain Action license. So we could do that. I mean,
so it's it's kind of this cool thing we're going
to launch initially with Mars attacks in February. So yeah,
tomatoes will come after that.
S6 (32:46):
So you have the Mars attacks license as well. And
I believe Rocketeer is that.
S9 (32:51):
And the Rocketeer. Yes. Yes. So so it's and the
idea was it's like a fun casual game. And you
won't have to spend 20 hours in your dining room
table filled with stuff getting yelled at, but you could
play it in like 30 or 40 minutes. And the
cool part is that the board itself is modular. So
(33:12):
it's it's almost like a deck of cards that you
lay out for each game. So there are millions of
different iterations. Yeah. Um, but it's it's super fun. It's
been game tested for about a year now, and, um,
we've been getting really, I mean, really great reviews. In fact, uh,
I'll say a buddy of mine who worked with this guy,
(33:33):
Gary Gygax, who created, uh, Dungeons and Dragons. Yeah, he
is one of the guys who helped game test it.
So very cool. Gave it a thumbs up.
S6 (33:43):
So that's another exclusive for us. Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Outside
of San Diego Comic-Con?
S9 (33:48):
Yeah, well, I just put them out. I didn't really
tell anyone what it was just to see if people
would be interested. And they were all like, where can
I buy those? So the idea is like, if you
want to just collect the figures themselves, it's it's a
tomato about the size of a golf ball on a tomato.
Tomato can. Okay. Yep. Um, so you could just collect them,
(34:09):
or you can play.
S6 (34:10):
Wow, that sounds great. I mean, so, Costa, did you
envision that a mars attacks would be connected to attack
of the Killer Tomatoes?
S7 (34:18):
Yeah. Tim Burton stole our ending. Um.
S9 (34:22):
He did.
S6 (34:22):
Please tell. Tell us the ending.
S7 (34:24):
If you haven't seen her. Attack of the Killer tomatoes. Um,
and I think.
S6 (34:28):
There's two people.
S7 (34:29):
At the end. We play Puberty Love, which was a really.
You know, it's supposed to be a horrendous version of, um,
Donny Osmond's song, which is redundant.
S6 (34:39):
And Donny. Donny Osmond sang a song called no. It's supposed.
S7 (34:41):
To be a spoof of Donny Osmond's.
S6 (34:43):
Puppy Love.
S7 (34:44):
Yes. And it makes the tomatoes shrink and they stomp
on them. So while we're watching Mars Attacks and what
happens at the end, they play a really bad song
and it's true. And the and the Martians explode and
it's like, hey, wait a minute, you know? Yeah. Where
Tim Burton got that idea, you know? And if you
haven't heard puberty Love It is a bad song. Well.
S6 (35:06):
It's funny you say that.
S7 (35:07):
It's supposed to be a bad song because. Are you
going to play Puberty love?
S9 (35:09):
I am going to play puberty love. Oh, please.
S7 (35:11):
Cover your ears.
S9 (35:12):
Be careful.
S7 (35:12):
Everybody cover.
S6 (35:13):
Your ears.
UU (35:16):
Turn on the record player. Cover your ears. Everyone needs
to be loud. There's nothing like puberty. Most insulting to
me me me me me me me me me me.
(35:39):
Me me me. Me me me me me me me.
S6 (35:58):
It's amazing how you were able to shoot that scene
and make those tomatoes look so tiny.
S7 (36:05):
Those were six foot tomatoes. And their final appearance, they
broke during the scene.
S6 (36:10):
Did you did you write puberty, love?
S7 (36:12):
I wrote puberty love. I didn't write the lyrics. Okay.
The composer of the film, a man named Gordon Goodwin,
he was at this time a student at Cal State Northridge. And.
And since that time he's had a career in film.
He won a Grammy Award for arranging the soundtrack to
(36:33):
The Incredibles. He won another Grammy Award for I Can't
Remember What Else. He won a couple of Emmy Awards.
So he's had a really successful career and we got
him as a college student. The the singer in Puberty
Love is Fu Cameron, who was the drummer for Soundgarden
and Pearl jam. Oh, wow. Um, and the guy that
(36:55):
did the explosions for that battle scene did the explosions
for Star Wars. He came straight from Star Wars to
our film. So, you know, there's a lot of people
that a lot more successful than me came out of
killer tomatoes.
S6 (37:11):
Well, you know, Roger Corman helped discover, you know, Jim Cameron,
and that's people, right? So you can take credit for
discovering these people. Um, I want to make sure we
have questions from the audience. If anybody has questions, we
got about ten more minutes before we wrap up, and
we have a little fun trivia contest for those. And
we might have some prizes. Um, so you have a
(37:34):
book there on your, on the, on the table here,
the novelization versions? Yes. There's two different versions, okay.
S7 (37:41):
Trade paperback and mass market paperback, and this one's autographed. Autographed.
Who autographed it? I don't know. Oh I did.
S6 (37:47):
Oh. So, Costa, where are we going? To see another
attack of the Killer Tomatoes movie.
S7 (37:54):
We are working towards that end. Um, there we are
in negotiations now, and with any luck, we hope we
can have an announcement by the end of the year. Wow.
S6 (38:05):
Again, exclusive. Exclusive. You're only getting exclusives here at LA
Comic Con with, uh, with our panel. Um, any chance
you'll cast Paul as a wrestler in the, uh.
S7 (38:17):
You know, you never can tell.
S10 (38:19):
I'm more of a mustard guy. I must admit. Seriously.
I really prefer it.
S6 (38:24):
Paul. You were. You were. We were talking a little
bit about before we came up here. You were talking
a little bit about the return of the killer tomatoes.
There was an actor that stood out to you, and
you're like, oh, this guy was uncredited as.
S10 (38:34):
Yeah. Dana Ashbrook. Yeah.
S7 (38:36):
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
S10 (38:37):
I was like, that's awesome.
S7 (38:39):
Yeah. And what was he in?
S10 (38:40):
Well, I just I remember him from waxworks. That was
like where I first saw he was in Twin Peaks
as well.
S7 (38:46):
He was in Twin Peaks, and he was uncredited in
our film because he was the he was a cousin
of one of our, uh, one of the people who
make the films. Oh, yeah.
S10 (38:56):
Yeah. So that was really cool.
S6 (38:57):
And return of the Living Dead, part two. Yeah. Wow. Yeah.
I'm just going to put that out there. Um, okay.
So does anybody have any questions before we.
S7 (39:05):
I just want to say this novelization was written two
years ago by Jeff Strand. So it is still things
are still alive. And you can buy this, um, you know,
look for it online. It's sold on Amazon. But he
novelized the story. And just another example of something that
doesn't die. This guy that's.
S6 (39:22):
A relic just.
S7 (39:22):
Approached us, and he's put out a killer tomato perfume.
And I got to tell you, wow, it smells like
tomatoes in a garden. It does not smell like you
want to smell. If you. I mean, if that's the
smell you're going for, it's it. I mean, it's really
(39:44):
amazing how they captured it, but I don't know who
would want to wear it. That is.
S6 (39:48):
So amazing.
S7 (39:48):
If you want to try it before you leave today,
I'll let you try it. But it'll take three days
to wash off. So I'm just gonna. I'm just gonna
warn you. You know.
S6 (39:59):
We have any volunteers.
S7 (40:00):
It's. It's a heck of a volunteer. Aroma.
S10 (40:03):
Did you ever get any hate letters from Heinz? Or, like,
you know, like threatening letters from. I made a.
S7 (40:08):
Deal with Heinz.
S10 (40:09):
Okay. Even better.
S7 (40:11):
But we haven't. It's hard to get a company that
makes a tomato product. Want something? That's. That's called killer. Well,
they want their food product.
S6 (40:21):
You know, that's a great question. But I also have
to point out this is a big box. And for
those of you that are not familiar with the VHS
collectors of yore, uh, this is a clamshell big box.
This is amazing. The the quality of this, the presentation.
S9 (40:38):
It's a nice presentation.
S7 (40:38):
They also made a candle.
S6 (40:40):
So does it smell like a pizza? Yeah, I.
S7 (40:42):
Have no no smell. It doesn't. It smells like.
S9 (40:45):
Earth. Earthy.
S7 (40:46):
It's very earthy smelling.
S9 (40:48):
Do you want to smell like dirt? Yeah.
S7 (40:49):
It's not like dirt.
S6 (40:51):
I mean, attack the killer tomatoes Needs a tomato worm. Well,
they did do tomato worms on the cartoon in Africa. Um, okay,
so we have about ten more minutes. We're starting to
wrap up. Does anybody have any questions before? Oh, yes. Please.
In the audience.
UU (41:04):
Um, one of my favorite parts in return of the
Killer Tomatoes. That always cracked me up when I first
saw the film in middle school. Was the super obvious
product placement.
S16 (41:15):
Like, stop.
UU (41:16):
The film or whatever. Can you talk a little bit
about that? Was that always sure to be like a
full parody or like, was it for like budget purposes?
S7 (41:24):
Well, the return of the Killer Tomatoes. Killer tomato movie
is about something else. The first film is about spoofing bad,
you know, cheap horror films, and the second one is
about film making and sequels and and so forth. The
third one is about detective shows, and the fourth one
is about Americans really bad perspective of the rest of
(41:44):
the world. Killer Tomatoes Eat France, which is the best film,
by the way? Um, it stars Mark price from The who,
played Skippy on Family Ties and Miss Universe, who at
that time, Angela Visser, who fell asleep on my shoulder
on the plane on the way to Paris. And I
didn't move for two hours because Miss Universe was sleeping
(42:05):
on my shoulder. Um, but so the joke was product
placement was so obvious then. I mean, Superman two is
the one I got it from because it's so obvious.
And Superman two and but nobody would pay us because
we weren't, you know, famous enough. But they gave us
the stuff. So we got cases of moosehead beer and
cases of Nestle's Crunch and and so forth, which, you know,
(42:26):
we had to stop the crew and the actors from
eating before the film was over because we we needed
them as props. And yeah, in that scene, we stopped
the film. And George Clooney and I have a conversation
about product placement and and if you watch the film carefully,
everything up to that point, all the products in it
are generic and they're all generic products. And after that,
(42:47):
everything is a brand product. After that. It's just sometimes,
you know, we weren't making a film for TV. You
didn't do that in those days. You made films for
big screens and for TV. Now you have to show
close ups so that you can. You won't miss something,
but because you see it on a small screen, you
don't see those nuances. But yeah, that's that was the
whole joke.
S6 (43:08):
In middle school. You saw that in middle school. That's awesome.
So does anybody else have any questions? Yes. We'll do
it in the front and then in the back.
UU (43:16):
Go ahead. Um, when you saw this movie, was it
a group of friends? How old were you guys? How
are you finding? I mean, just, uh.
S7 (43:28):
Well, yeah, there's three of us that formed this company,
and we started making films in high school. Just super
eight movies. And we would show them, you know, in
high school auditoriums for a dollar or whatever. And, um,
we entered one and won third place in the national
Kodak Teenage Film Festival, which doesn't exist anymore. And so
(43:50):
we we then started our own film company. And again
you got to things are so different. Back in the 70s,
we used to film high school and college football games,
and we bought our own film processor and processed the
film and delivered the film to coaches the next day.
So we had a functioning film, um, studio, so to speak.
(44:13):
When we decided to try and make a feature film,
we had, we knew filmmaking A to Z. We literally
shot it and processed it ourselves. So, um, we we
knew how to make film, but we had, um, I
don't have formal training in filmmaking. I didn't go to
(44:34):
film school, but we were making these amateur films, and
I just got the idea of something, you know, absurd, um,
to take on bad Horror films. Bad. Especially bad Japanese
horror films at the time. And Killer Tomatoes is like
the first thing that popped into my head because it
just seemed ridiculous. And I brought it to the other
(44:58):
guys and said, what do you think? And they all
they all said, yeah, you know, because it's original. Um,
and so we went with it.
S9 (45:05):
It's awesome when you think about it. Like, you wouldn't
have airplane, you wouldn't have Sharknado, you wouldn't have. There
are all these films that would not exist if it
wasn't for snakes.
S6 (45:18):
On a plane. Yeah.
S9 (45:19):
Troll two.
S10 (45:20):
When we were.
S7 (45:21):
Doing. Sure.
S6 (45:22):
Sure.
S7 (45:22):
When we were doing, we we we processed the sound
at Glen. Glen sound, which also doesn't exist anymore. Big,
big sound house in in LA. And, um, you had
these piles of boxes from the tapes, the reel to
reel tapes that you use to record sound in movies.
And they all on the side of the box said
attack of the Killer Tornadoes because it was clear that no,
(45:45):
somebody who worked at the studio, the sound department, figured
there can't be tomatoes. It must be wrong. Yeah, and.
S6 (45:51):
They made a.
S7 (45:52):
Mistake. The tornados got.
S6 (45:55):
Time for one more question, right? Yeah.
S16 (45:57):
I got a question. So it's two parter number one.
UU (46:00):
There's a, you know, a film website called Rotten Tomatoes.
Any relation? Number one. Number two.
S16 (46:05):
I've always been fascinated with cult films and why something
had come to cult film. And you've mentioned a couple
other snakes on a plane, and some of them mentioned
Cocaine Bear. You know, those are all movies that try
to be a cult film, and you can't try to
be a real cult. So the ones you mentioned, The
Toxic Avenger, is a great example. The Rocky Horror Picture Show,
these are the kind of naturally became. Yeah, this is
(46:28):
something I, as a film student, I've always been really
enamored with. So why why is that the killer tomatoes?
I mean, is it because it was one of 100.
S7 (46:36):
You could.
S16 (46:36):
Get? I mean, yeah, but is there any other reason
you could think why it caught on?
S7 (46:39):
Well, the first part of your question, Rotten Tomatoes. Yeah.
We have considered suing him because, you know, our tomatoes
are red and their tomatoes are red, and, you know,
pretty close. Their tomatoes squish. Our tomatoes squish. There's a
lot of similarities there. Um, but no, we don't we're
not connected. Um, the I don't think I think if
you try to intentionally make a cult film, you'll fail
(47:02):
because it's like you're trying too hard. The audience decides
what's a cult film, not the people who make it.
And when we made this first film, um, there really
wasn't any such thing as a cult film yet. Um,
Rocky Horror was not a thing yet. Um, and Little
Shop of Horrors kind of was the original the original movie?
(47:23):
The non, you know, the non-musical movie kind of was and,
and a few other things from the 50s, but because
these didn't exist. Um, the only place you saw movies
was if your TV station decided to put it on
or if you had a revival house theater around you,
which they're almost all gone now, so. Yeah, right. That's
(47:46):
the midnight showing. So it was hard to have a
market for something called a cult film because they there
was no place to see them, and they really became
a thing when you could see it at home. But yeah,
certainly we did not intend to make a cult movie.
We intended to be 1000 hours.
S6 (48:07):
Well, you brought up a really good point. I think
this connects with it, the inception of VHS and video
stores and word of mouth and collecting. And you got
to go check out this movie. I made a bootleg
of it. Next thing you know, it gets passed on.
And prior to Killer Tomatoes, we didn't have that. And
now there's everything streaming, everything's digital, there's everything's accessible. But
80s and 90s, that's where the cult movies, I think
(48:29):
really took place, 70s as well, you know, the inception
of VHS stores, video stores and whatnot.
S7 (48:35):
But how many of you actually have seen the first film? Oh,
what do you know? Good for you.
S6 (48:41):
You're now 100 there?
S7 (48:42):
Yes. I think it's sort of well known that the
helicopter crash was a real helicopter crash. Um, and what
happens is, again, this is an example of we didn't
know how to make movies. Um, we put the actors
on a helicopter, and we found out later you don't
actually do that. You. You put stunt people in a helicopter,
and after it lands, you stage the actors on it
and have them get off. Um, we were too dumb
(49:04):
to know that. So we put, um, the actors. Jack Riley,
who was at the time it was famous for being
on the Bob Newhart Show and the shower, and the
pilot clipped the tail rotor when he was landing. And
when you clip the tail rotor on a helicopter, it
starts to gyroscope. Oh, jeez. Um, because the tail rotor,
(49:25):
which goes the opposite way, gives us the stability. And
and so it crashed and and, um, what can happen
is the rotor will flip the helicopter over because it's
so strong and people can be seriously injured or killed.
But this pilot was an experienced pilot and he cut
the engine before it hit the ground. So the rotor
(49:47):
was dead. It just broke. It didn't. And the helicopter
burned into a little lump of plastic and steel. But
the actors weren't seriously injured. And, um. Um. The helicopter
cost more than the movie by far. The person that
we had borrowed it from was somebody we knew. We
(50:10):
didn't rent it. They were loaning it to us for free. Um,
which I turned out to be a really expensive favor.
And and as I said earlier, we do have a podcast.
Killer Tomatoes. Com at Killer tomatoes.com the Killer Tomatoes podcast,
where I interview people who have, um, are fans of
(50:31):
the film. Um, are peripherally connected are more actors in
the film. And if you want to listen to the podcasts,
we put a new one out every few weeks and
you can listen to some really great stories from the
people who are connected with the film. Yeah.
S6 (50:54):
Yeah. And really quickly, go ahead. Michael. Yeah.
S9 (50:56):
If you're looking for the merch, if you go to
Atomic nerd.com, we had, uh, we, we sold out at
San Diego. We did skateboard decks. Uh, really cool. Super cool. Yeah.
In fact, all the Teamsters were trying to buy them
before the show opened. They were coming by. It was
pretty awesome. So we're going to replenish some of those
(51:18):
in November. Great. We have posters, and we're going to
have some of these guys up in November as well.
S6 (51:24):
Awesome. Atomic nerd.com. Okay. And then attack of the killer tomatoes.com.
S7 (51:31):
Tomatoes.com.
S6 (51:31):
Killer tomatoes.com. Hey I want to thank everybody for coming
out to our panel. Thank you so much for coming.
Check out all the links. Uh, this will be on
the Killer Tomato podcast, uh, very soon and go to
$2 late fee will have that as well. $2 late fee.
Com and ready to retro.com as well. And uh territory
marks.com as well. Thank you guys so much for joining us.
(51:54):
And thank you. Have a great day.
S2 (51:57):
Thanks for listening to attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Be
sure to follow and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts.
To read the blog associated with this episode, visit Olas Media.com.
This episode was produced in studios located in San Diego,
California and Tijuana, Baja California. Creative director Ulises Breton, sound
engineer Alan Glasper Pina Alvarez is co-producer, serving as executive
(52:21):
producer and co-founder is Jake Polk, and Chad Pease is
president and co-founder. Olas media is an IVC media company.
S1 (52:32):
O Los media.
Olas media.
S2 (00:04):
Attacking the podcast world and based on the true legendary
cult classic Olas Media presents.
S3 (00:14):
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Somebody mentioned biscuits.
UU (00:19):
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. They'll beat you, bash you,
squish you, mash you up for brunch.
S3 (00:25):
How bad is it? Finish you off. Oh, sorry. I
definitely don't think it'll fly again. I'm not talking about that,
you Weiner. What about the tomatoes?
S4 (00:31):
You're listening to the attack of the Killer Tomatoes podcast.
This week, our fearless host Costa takes a bite out
of Comic-Con LA. He and Michael Polis joined a live
panel discussion led by $2 late fee legend Zak Schaffer. Envision
a toymaker, wrestler and podcaster walking into an exhibit hall.
They all catch up on the saucy secrets behind the
(00:52):
Killer Tomatoes franchise. From slicing into marketing tactics to peeling
back the rise of VHS and merch, this episode is
packed with tomato tastic fun. Let's dive into this juicy,
cultivated panel discussion already in progress.
UU (01:09):
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.
S5 (01:12):
You've never seen anything like it.
S6 (01:20):
And you've never seen anything like this panel yet. Give
yourselves a big round of applause. Come on. All right, um,
let me just pull this up right now. Thank you, everybody,
for joining us for the attack of the Killer Tomatoes
Celebration of Cult Cinema panel here at LA Comic-Con. Um,
I want to introduce the whole panel before we get
(01:40):
into the whole nitty gritty good stuff of this panel. First,
I'm going to start at the far end. He's a
brother of mine. He is my co-host on the wrestling
podcast Territory Marks. He is a wrestler and an actor. Paul. London. Everybody. Paul. London. Yay!
Another podcast. Brother of mine, Max Boyle from Ready to Retro.
(02:05):
All right, give it up for Max Boyle. And now
the creator of attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Costa, Dillon.
Big round of applause for Costa. And Michael Polis, who
is owns Atomic Toy Box Studios. Correct. All right. Got
that all out correctly. And he's got a lot of
(02:26):
fun surprises to talk about in regards to attack of
the Killer Tomatoes. Michael Polis, everybody. Hey. Gentlemen, thank you
so much for doing this. Oh, I'm Zach Schaffer. I
run $2 late fee podcasting after dark. 80 kids unite
territory marks. I think that's all the podcasts. I do
(02:46):
a lot of them. And thanks again to all this
media who has provided all the audio setup for us
to to do this awesome podcast and panel. Um, okay. So, Costa,
you're like the big deal here, right? Really? You are? Yes.
You're the creator of this franchise, this. This amazing franchise
(03:07):
that could these killer tomatoes. For those that don't know,
can you give, like, a brief synopsis of how all
this came to be?
S7 (03:17):
Uh, contrary to the posters and things, it's not a
horror documentary. It says it's a horror comedy musical. It's
actually a documentary. And it's true. Many people get that wrong. Um,
when when the film was first made, people weren't yet
(03:38):
afraid of GMO foods and Franken foods and stuff. So
we felt we needed to warn the world that you
do need to be afraid of your vegetables. Um, the
whole point of eating your vegetables is to eat them
before they eat you. Moms leave that second part off
(03:58):
because it scares kids and they won't go to bed.
So that's how it came about.
S6 (04:03):
It's amazing. And over 30 years ago. Um, sorry. And
what's what's crazy to me too, is that did you
expect this film to have the legs it had? No, it's.
S7 (04:15):
Made me, you know, hundreds of dollars, I think. You know,
I didn't. I expected it to be a thousandaire, but
it didn't quite make it that far. We made it.
But no, I never expected that anybody would even know
what it was a year later. Never mind 40 years
later or whatever it is.
S6 (04:35):
No, it's pretty phenomenal. I mean, and sincerely like I
from from the 70s and then into the 80s, I'm
going to show a trailer for return of the Killer
Tomatoes in just a moment to remind people of some
of the star studded celebrities that showed up in that film. Um,
but but I'm really fascinated by the fact that there's
(04:56):
a toy line, there's a video game, there's all these
things from a movie that could have been forgotten, but
it hasn't been.
S7 (05:04):
A lunchbox, a lunchbox.
S6 (05:06):
Holy cow. That was not scripted. That was not planned
at all.
S7 (05:11):
And a Game Boy. Yes.
S8 (05:12):
A lot of goodies in here. Oh my.
S6 (05:14):
Gosh. Okay. Yeah.
S7 (05:16):
So some really cool beach blankets, but they're too big
to bring.
S6 (05:19):
Oh, well, you know, we can win this. When LA
Comic-Con goes to Santa Monica, we can redo that. Michael.
And you're holding up a bib.
S9 (05:29):
Yeah, this is the apron in case you're the Killer
Tomatoes Cafe, which actually was a real cafe at one point.
I don't remember that. There was a open for a day. Oh,
it was a pop up in San Diego. In San Diego? Yeah,
San Diego Comic-Con, but we actually made Killer Tomato cafe aprons.
S6 (05:48):
Amazing. So, Michael, what is what was your.
S9 (05:51):
What am I doing here?
S6 (05:52):
What are you doing here? How did you get connected
to the attack of the killer tomatoes?
S9 (05:55):
So I was brought on to help produce new content
as well as to make stuff. Uh, with regard to
attack of the killer tomatoes. And that relationship started about
12 years ago. Ish. Even longer than that. What am
I saying? Probably like 2008, 2009. So yeah, we've been
(06:18):
working on new products as well as kind of working on, uh,
a new iteration. But we'll let Costa talk more about that.
S6 (06:28):
Yeah, we'll get into that in just a moment. Um, Paul,
do you remember the first time you saw tomatoes as
being something other than something you put on a pizza
or a sandwich? I mean, it would have been.
S10 (06:42):
Ketchup, right? Like, I mean, that would have been ketchup, too.
S6 (06:44):
Of course. Yeah.
S10 (06:46):
Um, I mean, I was curious. I mean, I do
remember my early McDonald days when they had a soul.
Did they ever have a soul? Uh, Roy Kroc. Um,
I was curious. When do you remember the moment? Because
I imagine you made this or this. This started to grow,
(07:07):
pun intended. And was there a phone call? Was there
somewhere where you felt like, God, this thing's got vines.
Like it's really. It's got legs. Okay, cool. But, you know,
we're really surprised you.
S7 (07:21):
Yes. We made this film. Uh, it was 23 years old.
My partners are 23 years old. And basically, because when
you're 23 years old, you feel like you can do
anything unless somebody tells you you can't. And so we
made a movie which is well known, cost less than $100,000. Um, and, uh,
(07:42):
then we tried to get theaters to show it, which
they did. That's awesome. And so dragons in those days
the and that kind of would have been it. Um,
except for the invention of these things. Yeah.
S6 (08:01):
Um, who's familiar with the VHS tape in this audience?
I think this is the right audience. Yeah.
S7 (08:08):
You look like you might be almost as old as me. The, um. Wow.
When videotapes those of you of the younger persuasion, when
videotapes first came out. Video, home video machines, the studios
did not want to make their movies available on video.
They were afraid it would hurt their box office market
(08:31):
and their ability to sell the films to television. And
so they refused to license their films. Um, when we
were approached, we said, heck yes. Right. And in those days,
video stores were still kind of rare. They actually were
in malls and things, and I think we were one
of the first hundred titles available, and they cost like
(08:53):
$120 because they never thought anybody would want to buy
a videotape. So they were priced for renting. Yeah. And
when people went to a video store and there wasn't
a whole lot to choose from yet, there's one of
the things you could choose from. So it started to
gain a second life because the people would were looking
(09:16):
for something they could rent and they could rent. Attack
of the Killer Tomatoes, um, which variety called one of the,
you know, ten best titles of movies of all time.
So it should have made a ten best movie to
go with the title. But, um, the title worked, and then, um, the, uh,
Fox Children's Network did a show called Muppet Babies, and
(09:39):
they used a clip from the film for a dream
sequence with Elmo was in it and and it was
it turned out to be a really popular episode of
Muppet Babies. So we got a approached to do a
second film, return of the Killer Tomatoes, which we were.
(10:00):
We had already done another movie called Happy Hour with
Rich Little and Jamie Farr. Tawny Kitaen also not well known. Um,
and we weren't interested in doing any more Killer Tomato movies.
We figured it was a one off, and this was
New World Pictures approached us, and then they used the
magic words. We'll pay you. Um, and so we said, okay,
(10:23):
we'll do a second movie, we'll do another Killer Tomato movie. And, um,
then we did a third one and the fourth one,
because once Fox had it, Fox um, did a cartoon
show on the Fox Children's Network. It was the first, uh,
cartoon show out of that network. And then we did
a third and fourth film for 20th Century Fox. So
(10:45):
it kind of grew out of those, those those origins.
It if it weren't for videotapes and probably Muppet Babies,
it probably would have died with a single film and
would have been some obscure thing that you rarely hear of. Wow.
S6 (11:00):
Wow. I mean, so Jim Henson and somebody trying to
revamp the film market, you know, combined, I guess, so
to speak. Um, Max was your first connection to attack
of the Killer Tomatoes, the cartoon or the video game? Absolutely.
S8 (11:14):
Yeah. So I was born in 1990. So I was
in that, you know, sweet spot. So, you know, especially
late 80s, early 90s, there was always those three things
that were marketed to every kid. It was cartoons, toys
and video games. And this franchise had it all. So,
you know, and in the cartoon was so weird. It
(11:34):
was so different and ahead of its time. Way ahead
of its time.
S6 (11:38):
Anybody out here? Have you ever seen the cartoon raise
your hand if you've seen the cartoon. All right. We'll
play a clip in a moment. In a moment.
S8 (11:43):
So, uh, kind of scary too, with, like, the the
tomatoes with the sharp teeth and things like that. So
it was awesome. It was a great time to be
a kid.
S6 (11:52):
It was terrifying. I actually am going to show a
clip of just the opening bumper to the show, because,
and I want to show a trailer for the return
of the Killer Tomatoes, because I think that is worth
revisiting as well. Um, it was on Fox Kids. Welcome
to the Fun Zone.
S11 (12:09):
Now, Saturday morning on Fox starts with a slice and
dice attack of the killer tomatoes that snowball.
UU (12:17):
Meet the fresh crop of villainous veggies.
S5 (12:19):
Sounds good already.
UU (12:21):
Like tomato ketchup. Zoltan, I'm going to make a pizza
out of you. Catch the hottest action around or else
we tomato isms start your Saturday.
S11 (12:32):
Morning adventure with attack of the Killer Tomatoes on Fox.
S6 (12:36):
Um, yeah. So you obviously heard the voice of John Astin,
who did Doctor Gangrene, and John Astin, I think is
a very well known actor. And, um, can you talk
a little bit about how he got connected with.
S7 (12:54):
Well, we auditioned him. Okay. Uh, we also auditioned Danny
DeVito and staying, believe it or not.
S6 (13:00):
Um, not the wrestler. Sting. No. Okay. Just to make
sure we have a wrestling podcast.
S7 (13:05):
They read for gangrene, and we hired John because he
seemed right for the part. Danny DeVito wasn't as famous yet. Um,
sting was. He was a singer or something. Um, and, um.
And John Astin turned out to be great. I mean,
he he he made the part his I, I talked
to him every couple of weeks. He's like 94 years
(13:27):
old now, and he's still as sharp as ever and
and as smart as ever. He's a funny guy. Um,
but he made the made the part his own. He
did a great job. He he I think I asked
him on the podcast, you can listen to my podcast
at Killer tomatoes.com. Plug number one. Um, and um, yeah,
(13:47):
I asked him why he did it and he said,
you know, did his agent suggest he do it? And
he said, no, my agent told me not to do it,
but he liked it. He thought it was fun. So
he did it. Yeah. And and whenever I talked to him,
he always talks about what a great time he had.
Because it was in three of the films, plus the
cartoon show.
S6 (14:06):
Yeah. You, uh, he the cartoon like further the character development.
If you haven't seen it, it's worth checking out. The
quality is not good because it's on YouTube. And has
there ever been a discussion about trying to get that
out for a wider audience?
S7 (14:19):
No, we don't have the rights to that. So it's
owned by Fox and Disney.
S9 (14:24):
Yeah.
S7 (14:25):
No it was yeah Disney now but it was by
Marvel not the it's a different Marvel Studios than the
Marvel Studios that makes the films now. Right. Um, this
marvel went defunct and so I have no idea how
where the rights went. You know, these things are so confusing.
S9 (14:43):
We're in the middle of, you know, trying to have
those discussions about pulling those assets back. Okay. So, you.
S6 (14:51):
Know, fingers crossed. Yes.
S9 (14:53):
You know, it's it's it's a, you know, when another company,
when one company absorbs another company and they let a
lot of people go. Yeah. It's hard to it's hard
to find who the right people are sometimes. But we're
we're digging. We've been digging for a.
S6 (15:08):
Little while now. Well, speaking of maintaining the property, digging
and growing the property, you are in the process. And
you brought something with you to share. Growing the the franchise? Yeah. Um,
where is it going? Like, where do you what are
the next kind of plans stages with it?
S9 (15:28):
So we did a little experiment at San Diego Comic-Con.
It wasn't quite sure which was you brought. fabulously these
wonderful the.
S6 (15:37):
Original toys from the 90s. Yeah.
S9 (15:39):
So, uh, I tried to make some figures for San
Diego to see how they would do. We did the
OG tomato, which is kind of the one from the cover,
and then a second one called Red fool, which was, uh,
Deadpool kind of makeup. So this one is, uh, and
I think I'm hoping we have an image of it.
(15:59):
This one's coming out for New York Comic Con, which
is the tomato terror. The the mask actually comes off
so awesome. So you can see underneath, uh, in fact, uh,
toy toy Tokyo, which is a really wonderful big, uh,
in the collector space, is going to launch these for us.
(16:21):
They'll all be, uh, we've got spaces for autographs on
the back. Um, but we're going to do this at
Toy Tokyo at New York Comic Con, and I'm reserving
some on Atomic nerd, atomic nerd. Com so we'll have
a few of those. And in fact, uh, I haven't
told I haven't told Lev at Toy Tokyo this yet,
(16:43):
but I'm going to differentiate them. I think the, the
ones on the website, I'm going to put blood spatter
or tomato juice spatter, tomato juice on the mask. So
they'll be super cool.
S6 (16:53):
Very cool. Wow. So and I just had to say
too quickly in regards to the cartoon, uh, Tom Bray,
I believe, voiced the Wilbur Finletter. If you don't know
who Tom Bray is, for all you 80s television fans,
he was on a show called Riptide. He was the
nerdy guy on Riptide. He was also in Prince of
Darkness as well. And, uh, did does a wonderful version
(17:14):
of Wilbur Finletter. But that toy is so cool.
S9 (17:18):
Yeah. No. And in fact, uh, keep an eye out
for another version, uh, coming out at Designer con in November.
So we're, we're kind of continuing to perpetuate. We we've
done even more stuff we can talk about after too.
S6 (17:34):
Yeah, yeah. So. And what I love on the back
of this box is, is Doctor Gangrene in the middle,
because he's such a huge, integral part of the story. Uh,
originally in the original 1978 film. Right. Uh, that Doctor
Gangrene was, was not even like, like thought of yet, so.
S7 (17:53):
No, it was a new character for the second film. Right. Um.
And which is spelled g, r e e n. And
Fox kept getting it wrong because they didn't understand it
was a pun, was it not? Gangrene, the disease. But
it didn't matter. Right.
S6 (18:10):
Well, I think it's only gotten it's only festered and
gotten bigger as the.
UU (18:15):
Years have gone on. Um. Hey, this is a great
place to take a break. We'll be back with more
of the show right after this.
S4 (18:30):
Like we talk about in the show. There are a
lot that goes into a successful podcast more than just
pushing record. Whether you're new or seasoned, if you're looking
for someone to make your great show idea a reality,
then we've got your back. Check us out at Olson
Media.com and see how we can help you push record
on your next big project. The Dear San Diego podcast
(18:58):
is produced in collaboration with The Times of San Diego.
Repeatedly recognized by the San Diego Press Club, The Times
of San Diego delivers timely and transparent news to, for
and about America's finest city. To learn more on how
you can support this trusted source of information, visit Times
of San diego.com.
S12 (19:20):
Here's a cautionary tale. She who climbs the 20 foot
high diving board should be prepared mentally for what it
looks like at first glance down, we all should have
some idea of what it takes to plunge from new heights.
Unless you have someone who's willing to push you and
that can be dangerous. Join me on my podcast From
(19:40):
the Nest, where you can learn from other philanthropists journeys
through the world of fundraising before, during, or after you
jump into the pool. That's the From the Nest podcast
with Charity Jen. Follow and subscribe at Olas Media.com or
wherever you get your podcasts.
S4 (20:01):
Hey, we're joining the regular scheduled program already in progress.
S6 (20:07):
I love the fact that you are incorporating what looks
like a Jason Voorhees mask. Yeah. And the Deadpool as well.
Is there an idea to do more kind of spin
off inspired?
S9 (20:20):
Well, we're legally not allowed to say the. Sorry. No, no.
I'm sorry.
S6 (20:25):
Inspired by pro hockey player.
S9 (20:27):
Hockey player Jason Reeves.
S6 (20:29):
For the Calgary Flames, I believe.
S9 (20:31):
I believe you're correct, sir. Um, yeah. No, we're looking
at doing sort of crossover parody, kind of having some
fun with the characters. Um, we have a we're debating
a plain face, meaning it's just a tomato. Um, we
have some glow in the dark that we're playing around with.
(20:52):
And there's also one that, uh, we're talking about for
exhibit at Designer Con, which is about, yay big, about, uh,
12 inch tall. Um, and I'm blanking on his name now.
The eye patch. Um.
S6 (21:09):
Uh. Zoltan. Zoltan. Yeah.
S9 (21:11):
So it'll be Zoltan. Zoltan at San Diego. We're going
to have.
UU (21:15):
A big old, uh, prop version of him.
S6 (21:20):
Very cool, very cool.
S9 (21:22):
And that'll go on sale next year.
S6 (21:23):
Awesome. And by the way, for those of you in
the audience, we might have some giveaways at the end,
so you might want to stick around to the end
of the panel just letting you know keep you in
your seats.
S9 (21:32):
They lost those two people.
S6 (21:33):
Yeah, they had two people lost, unfortunately.
S7 (21:36):
And they have to be plastic because unlike a more
famous toy, Mr. Tomato Head didn't work. I mean, once
you punch a hole in it, you've had it.
S6 (21:46):
You know.
S7 (21:49):
It. Just don't hold up.
S6 (21:50):
Did you find that what was return of the killer
tomatoes and even wackier experience to go, like, even more wild?
S7 (21:59):
No. It wasn't. No. Well, the first film was just.
It was just, like I said, 323 year olds trying
to figure out how to make a movie, right? Um,
and it was a lot of run and gun. Um,
the skin of our teeth. We we actually didn't even
have a permit to film. We just put up a
(22:19):
camera and film. Wow.
S6 (22:21):
And can't do that nowadays.
S7 (22:22):
Yeah, I know, well, you absolutely cannot. So the second
film was much more professional. You know, it was it
was financed by New World Pictures. And we had, you know,
people who were professional crew and that sort of thing.
So it was a whole different experience. And plus we
knew a lot more about filmmaking, you know, ten years later.
And this was an era when you made film. Now,
(22:43):
of course, you don't make film. It's digital. But this
was actual film. The the first movie, when you make film, okay,
you young people in the audience film is the celluloid
tape material that you run through a camera and you
had to send it to a developer and they had
to process it, and he came back and it was
a negative. Then you had to process it to meet
(23:05):
what's called an answer print, which is a positive. And
then you would cut that and the editor, and then
they would go back to the negative and cut the
negative and paste it together. And then and that would
be made into positive films and sent to the theater.
That's an expensive and time consuming process. Right. Half the
cost of the first movie was the film. Wow. Um.
(23:25):
And the film processing. And today you don't have that.
The digital film is is the cheapest part of making
a movie. People make movies on iPhones, right? So it's
gone from being the most expensive part of low budget
filmmaking to the cheapest part of low budget filmmaking, to
the point where it's not even an issue anymore. Yeah.
S6 (23:44):
It reminds me a little bit. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.
The first one versus return reminds me a bit of
Phantasm from 1978 as well. And then Phantasm two, which
got this big budget, you know, and suddenly it's like, oh,
we can make a movie now. Right. I want to
show everybody the trailer for return of the Killer Tomatoes,
and we'll talk a little bit about that as well
and keep an eye out for a cameo.
S5 (24:06):
And years ago, a motion picture became the most notorious
cult movie of all time. Predictably, the French called it
a masterpiece. The name of this legend of cinema, the
attack of the Killer Colored tomatoes.
UU (24:22):
It was so stupid, so cheap, such a piece of
steaming dog fluff. You'd think it would have attracted horseflies.
Never an audience. Now get ready.
S5 (24:31):
To sit on your intelligence once again. They made the sequel,
The Return of the Killer Tomatoes. Guess what? It's a
lot better. It had to be. As you remember, ten
years ago, mankind was threatened with the greatest red menace
of all angry, merciless killer tomatoes. We were only saved
(24:52):
thanks to the heroism of a brave handful of untalented actors.
UU (24:56):
Are you Rob Lowe? Now they're back. This time we
shall not fail. A mad.
S5 (25:04):
Scientist.
S2 (25:05):
My tomatoes.
S13 (25:06):
Can be made to resemble any.
S5 (25:08):
One together with a yuppie pervert. Turn embittered, mean spirited
tomatoes into an army of psychotic neo-Nazi plant life. And
let's not forget the stunning hell spawned creation who just
might put out for the entire planet.
S14 (25:25):
Do you want to make love? I want it. I
also cook 815 international dishes and use all the popular
home appliances.
S5 (25:34):
You will see atrocities beyond belief.
UU (25:37):
I can see what you can't see. Your feet. Do
the words fat cow mean anything to you? You will
see how producers extracted special favors from certain.
S5 (25:46):
Well endowed performers.
UU (25:49):
It's got more laughs than out of Africa.
S5 (25:52):
It's gayer than kiss of the Spider Woman.
UU (25:55):
Hello. The girl of my dreams is available. See, you
wouldn't believe.
S5 (26:03):
What she can do with six milk.
S11 (26:04):
Bottles and a tuning fork. The return of.
S15 (26:08):
The killer tomatoes. It's definitely a learning experience.
S6 (26:16):
That was George Clooney in a smaller role. Um, that
film actually got a Blu ray release on arrow, right? Uh,
a beautiful.
S7 (26:28):
It has a Blu ray release, right?
S6 (26:29):
Yeah. So.
S7 (26:31):
I mean.
S6 (26:32):
It's got it.
S8 (26:32):
All.
S6 (26:33):
The ultimate pitch, man. Right here. Yeah.
S7 (26:36):
You can't, um, let me get my, uh, props here. Yeah,
they're all available on this old format called DVD. Um,
or you can get them pirated on on line, you know,
and which I don't make any money.
S6 (26:52):
To make that. Do you make money off?
S7 (26:54):
You can still buy these toys on eBay for, like,
$200 or something.
S6 (26:58):
And you still have it in the box. Wow. Okay. Amazing.
S7 (27:01):
Ridiculous amount of money. Um, and there's even for some
reason I don't remember why Disney had us make this
director's edition, which we shot. Um, extra stuff. Um, just
baloney Stop saying, you know, this was left out of
the original on the cutting room floor. It's not stuff
we've shot new, but I don't remember why they did it.
(27:22):
And they and they and they. It came with a
tomato seed packet.
S6 (27:25):
Wait, so you shot footage? We shot extra.
S7 (27:28):
Footage. And then the joke was it was lost. You know,
his director's cut, but it was never in the original
thing in the first place. Amazing. And and then one
of the scenes is in some foreign language because we
said we couldn't find the original piece. So. But it's
actually a pretty good film. This is really hard to
find because it's never been out on DVD.
S6 (27:46):
Well, I think one of the beautiful things about your
franchise is how smart, like how kind of tongue in
cheek and ahead of its time it was, especially the cartoon.
It's true.
S7 (27:56):
I am really smart.
S6 (27:57):
You are? Yes. That's why we have you here. Um.
S10 (28:00):
Was it always tomatoes? Was it because it's, like, cheap
and it's easy to get and I.
S7 (28:05):
Yes. It was always tomatoes. I wish it wasn't because
if celery would have been easier to work with. It
was really hard to make six foot Sweet tomatoes. Um, but, uh,
but that's what it always was from the beginning. Wow.
S6 (28:20):
Um, Michael, this. What is this franchise mean to you?
I mean, obviously, you're making toys off of it now, but,
you know.
S9 (28:29):
You know, it's it's definitely weird. Um, it's definitely, uh,
but fun. It's different than anything that I've ever worked on.
So I've worked on some, you know, weird things from.
S6 (28:45):
Tell people.
S9 (28:45):
What you've worked on. Uh, so I was at Universal Studios.
I worked on stuff like Land Before Time, uh, babe.
Then I went and worked at Muppets for years. I
worked on, uh, mirrormask. Like Neil Gaiman's first movie. Um.
And then I worked on Yo Gabba Gabba. So, like, uh, preschool,
I produced that.
S6 (29:04):
That was a party in my tummy.
S9 (29:05):
There's a party so yummy. Yeah. And, um, but this
was just kind of like a fun and quirky and
weird and, um, I think that, I don't know, I didn't,
I didn't I was a little bit young when it
came out to go see it in theater, but, uh,
(29:26):
but I did end up seeing it on probably this
format VHS.
S6 (29:31):
Yes.
S9 (29:32):
Uh, and it stuck with me. And the thing that
the thing that's most endearing to me is it is
the movie that everybody knows the title to. Almost everybody
has heard the song, but very few people have actually seen.
S6 (29:47):
Yeah.
S9 (29:47):
Which is kind of funny.
S6 (29:48):
Yeah, yeah. Unlike, you know, something, I don't know, I
think of when you think of cult films like Toxic
Avenger or, you know, uh, Basket Case, you said for
one or The Room, I think is a very popular
cult film now, but attack of the Killer Tomatoes like
you don't. Well, you should see it first of all.
But you don't need to see it to know immediately
(30:10):
what the concept is all about right. Um, I have
to ask you, Costa, uh, in the the cartoon version
of attack of the Killer Tomatoes, there's a reoccurring character
that pops up and he just shouts tomatoes! Was that.
Are you familiar with that character?
S7 (30:27):
Yeah, it's patterned after the guy in the library.
S6 (30:30):
Yeah. Okay. From the first film.
S7 (30:32):
Which is me.
S6 (30:33):
Okay. Yes. I love that.
S7 (30:35):
But I didn't get to do anything for the cartoon show.
I didn't get to. That wasn't me in the cartoon show.
S6 (30:40):
Okay. So we're not going to talk about the cartoon anymore. But, Max,
you would. And now Costa brought out. I believe there's
a Gameboy in that lunch box.
S8 (30:49):
Yes.
S6 (30:49):
Did you play the video game?
S8 (30:51):
I played the NES one. Okay. So has anybody played
the NES game of Know the Killer Tomatoes? No, nobody.
All right. The game is 15 minutes long. There's like
five stages, and it's basically you're just jumping up and
down and you're squishing tomatoes and that's pretty much it.
(31:13):
But it's it's memorable if you're like, if you want
to impress somebody, just put on, you know, put on
the NES game and beat it in 15 minutes, so.
S6 (31:21):
Well, and then the Sega game is connected to the cartoon.
I mean, they're both connected to the cartoon, which is
so great about it.
S8 (31:26):
Yeah, but and then the game, the Game Boy one's
a little different though. Yes. Yeah. You had the Game
Boy one, right?
S6 (31:32):
Game boy still have the Game Boy version and you
could save on that, I believe. I'm not trying to recall, but, uh,
it had excerpts like kind of excerpts from the from
the cartoon. It felt very connected to it. So, Michael,
did you ever play the Game Boy game or the
Nintendo game?
S9 (31:48):
I did not play the Game Boy game. However, one
of the things that we're working on is a board game. Oh. So, um,
we ended up showing, uh, game pieces at San Diego Comic-Con,
and I apologize for not bringing images of those, But
the idea is it's a modular game system where you can,
(32:13):
by the attack of the Killer Tomatoes game and you're
basically playing tomatoes against the military. Okay. That's awesome. And
then but you can buy a module for Mars Attacks.
So you could have the Martians fighting tomatoes, or you
could have we have a Garbage Pail Kids license, so
we could do a Garbage Pail Kids versus tomatoes versus Martians,
(32:36):
captain Action license. So we could do that. I mean,
so it's it's kind of this cool thing we're going
to launch initially with Mars attacks in February. So yeah,
tomatoes will come after that.
S6 (32:46):
So you have the Mars attacks license as well. And
I believe Rocketeer is that.
S9 (32:51):
And the Rocketeer. Yes. Yes. So so it's and the
idea was it's like a fun casual game. And you
won't have to spend 20 hours in your dining room
table filled with stuff getting yelled at, but you could
play it in like 30 or 40 minutes. And the
cool part is that the board itself is modular. So
(33:12):
it's it's almost like a deck of cards that you
lay out for each game. So there are millions of
different iterations. Yeah. Um, but it's it's super fun. It's
been game tested for about a year now, and, um,
we've been getting really, I mean, really great reviews. In fact, uh,
I'll say a buddy of mine who worked with this guy,
(33:33):
Gary Gygax, who created, uh, Dungeons and Dragons. Yeah, he
is one of the guys who helped game test it.
So very cool. Gave it a thumbs up.
S6 (33:43):
So that's another exclusive for us. Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Outside
of San Diego Comic-Con?
S9 (33:48):
Yeah, well, I just put them out. I didn't really
tell anyone what it was just to see if people
would be interested. And they were all like, where can
I buy those? So the idea is like, if you
want to just collect the figures themselves, it's it's a
tomato about the size of a golf ball on a tomato.
Tomato can. Okay. Yep. Um, so you could just collect them,
(34:09):
or you can play.
S6 (34:10):
Wow, that sounds great. I mean, so, Costa, did you
envision that a mars attacks would be connected to attack
of the Killer Tomatoes?
S7 (34:18):
Yeah. Tim Burton stole our ending. Um.
S9 (34:22):
He did.
S6 (34:22):
Please tell. Tell us the ending.
S7 (34:24):
If you haven't seen her. Attack of the Killer tomatoes. Um,
and I think.
S6 (34:28):
There's two people.
S7 (34:29):
At the end. We play Puberty Love, which was a really.
You know, it's supposed to be a horrendous version of, um,
Donny Osmond's song, which is redundant.
S6 (34:39):
And Donny. Donny Osmond sang a song called no. It's supposed.
S7 (34:41):
To be a spoof of Donny Osmond's.
S6 (34:43):
Puppy Love.
S7 (34:44):
Yes. And it makes the tomatoes shrink and they stomp
on them. So while we're watching Mars Attacks and what
happens at the end, they play a really bad song
and it's true. And the and the Martians explode and
it's like, hey, wait a minute, you know? Yeah. Where
Tim Burton got that idea, you know? And if you
haven't heard puberty Love It is a bad song. Well.
S6 (35:06):
It's funny you say that.
S7 (35:07):
It's supposed to be a bad song because. Are you
going to play Puberty love?
S9 (35:09):
I am going to play puberty love. Oh, please.
S7 (35:11):
Cover your ears.
S9 (35:12):
Be careful.
S7 (35:12):
Everybody cover.
S6 (35:13):
Your ears.
UU (35:16):
Turn on the record player. Cover your ears. Everyone needs
to be loud. There's nothing like puberty. Most insulting to
me me me me me me me me me me.
(35:39):
Me me me. Me me me me me me me.
S6 (35:58):
It's amazing how you were able to shoot that scene
and make those tomatoes look so tiny.
S7 (36:05):
Those were six foot tomatoes. And their final appearance, they
broke during the scene.
S6 (36:10):
Did you did you write puberty, love?
S7 (36:12):
I wrote puberty love. I didn't write the lyrics. Okay.
The composer of the film, a man named Gordon Goodwin,
he was at this time a student at Cal State Northridge. And.
And since that time he's had a career in film.
He won a Grammy Award for arranging the soundtrack to
(36:33):
The Incredibles. He won another Grammy Award for I Can't
Remember What Else. He won a couple of Emmy Awards.
So he's had a really successful career and we got
him as a college student. The the singer in Puberty
Love is Fu Cameron, who was the drummer for Soundgarden
and Pearl jam. Oh, wow. Um, and the guy that
(36:55):
did the explosions for that battle scene did the explosions
for Star Wars. He came straight from Star Wars to
our film. So, you know, there's a lot of people
that a lot more successful than me came out of
killer tomatoes.
S6 (37:11):
Well, you know, Roger Corman helped discover, you know, Jim Cameron,
and that's people, right? So you can take credit for
discovering these people. Um, I want to make sure we
have questions from the audience. If anybody has questions, we
got about ten more minutes before we wrap up, and
we have a little fun trivia contest for those. And
we might have some prizes. Um, so you have a
(37:34):
book there on your, on the, on the table here,
the novelization versions? Yes. There's two different versions, okay.
S7 (37:41):
Trade paperback and mass market paperback, and this one's autographed. Autographed.
Who autographed it? I don't know. Oh I did.
S6 (37:47):
Oh. So, Costa, where are we going? To see another
attack of the Killer Tomatoes movie.
S7 (37:54):
We are working towards that end. Um, there we are
in negotiations now, and with any luck, we hope we
can have an announcement by the end of the year. Wow.
S6 (38:05):
Again, exclusive. Exclusive. You're only getting exclusives here at LA
Comic Con with, uh, with our panel. Um, any chance
you'll cast Paul as a wrestler in the, uh.
S7 (38:17):
You know, you never can tell.
S10 (38:19):
I'm more of a mustard guy. I must admit. Seriously.
I really prefer it.
S6 (38:24):
Paul. You were. You were. We were talking a little
bit about before we came up here. You were talking
a little bit about the return of the killer tomatoes.
There was an actor that stood out to you, and
you're like, oh, this guy was uncredited as.
S10 (38:34):
Yeah. Dana Ashbrook. Yeah.
S7 (38:36):
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
S10 (38:37):
I was like, that's awesome.
S7 (38:39):
Yeah. And what was he in?
S10 (38:40):
Well, I just I remember him from waxworks. That was
like where I first saw he was in Twin Peaks
as well.
S7 (38:46):
He was in Twin Peaks, and he was uncredited in
our film because he was the he was a cousin
of one of our, uh, one of the people who
make the films. Oh, yeah.
S10 (38:56):
Yeah. So that was really cool.
S6 (38:57):
And return of the Living Dead, part two. Yeah. Wow. Yeah.
I'm just going to put that out there. Um, okay.
So does anybody have any questions before we.
S7 (39:05):
I just want to say this novelization was written two
years ago by Jeff Strand. So it is still things
are still alive. And you can buy this, um, you know,
look for it online. It's sold on Amazon. But he
novelized the story. And just another example of something that
doesn't die. This guy that's.
S6 (39:22):
A relic just.
S7 (39:22):
Approached us, and he's put out a killer tomato perfume.
And I got to tell you, wow, it smells like
tomatoes in a garden. It does not smell like you
want to smell. If you. I mean, if that's the
smell you're going for, it's it. I mean, it's really
(39:44):
amazing how they captured it, but I don't know who
would want to wear it. That is.
S6 (39:48):
So amazing.
S7 (39:48):
If you want to try it before you leave today,
I'll let you try it. But it'll take three days
to wash off. So I'm just gonna. I'm just gonna
warn you. You know.
S6 (39:59):
We have any volunteers.
S7 (40:00):
It's. It's a heck of a volunteer. Aroma.
S10 (40:03):
Did you ever get any hate letters from Heinz? Or, like,
you know, like threatening letters from. I made a.
S7 (40:08):
Deal with Heinz.
S10 (40:09):
Okay. Even better.
S7 (40:11):
But we haven't. It's hard to get a company that
makes a tomato product. Want something? That's. That's called killer. Well,
they want their food product.
S6 (40:21):
You know, that's a great question. But I also have
to point out this is a big box. And for
those of you that are not familiar with the VHS
collectors of yore, uh, this is a clamshell big box.
This is amazing. The the quality of this, the presentation.
S9 (40:38):
It's a nice presentation.
S7 (40:38):
They also made a candle.
S6 (40:40):
So does it smell like a pizza? Yeah, I.
S7 (40:42):
Have no no smell. It doesn't. It smells like.
S9 (40:45):
Earth. Earthy.
S7 (40:46):
It's very earthy smelling.
S9 (40:48):
Do you want to smell like dirt? Yeah.
S7 (40:49):
It's not like dirt.
S6 (40:51):
I mean, attack the killer tomatoes Needs a tomato worm. Well,
they did do tomato worms on the cartoon in Africa. Um, okay,
so we have about ten more minutes. We're starting to
wrap up. Does anybody have any questions before? Oh, yes. Please.
In the audience.
UU (41:04):
Um, one of my favorite parts in return of the
Killer Tomatoes. That always cracked me up when I first
saw the film in middle school. Was the super obvious
product placement.
S16 (41:15):
Like, stop.
UU (41:16):
The film or whatever. Can you talk a little bit
about that? Was that always sure to be like a
full parody or like, was it for like budget purposes?
S7 (41:24):
Well, the return of the Killer Tomatoes. Killer tomato movie
is about something else. The first film is about spoofing bad,
you know, cheap horror films, and the second one is
about film making and sequels and and so forth. The
third one is about detective shows, and the fourth one
is about Americans really bad perspective of the rest of
(41:44):
the world. Killer Tomatoes Eat France, which is the best film,
by the way? Um, it stars Mark price from The who,
played Skippy on Family Ties and Miss Universe, who at
that time, Angela Visser, who fell asleep on my shoulder
on the plane on the way to Paris. And I
didn't move for two hours because Miss Universe was sleeping
(42:05):
on my shoulder. Um, but so the joke was product
placement was so obvious then. I mean, Superman two is
the one I got it from because it's so obvious.
And Superman two and but nobody would pay us because
we weren't, you know, famous enough. But they gave us
the stuff. So we got cases of moosehead beer and
cases of Nestle's Crunch and and so forth, which, you know,
(42:26):
we had to stop the crew and the actors from
eating before the film was over because we we needed
them as props. And yeah, in that scene, we stopped
the film. And George Clooney and I have a conversation
about product placement and and if you watch the film carefully,
everything up to that point, all the products in it
are generic and they're all generic products. And after that,
(42:47):
everything is a brand product. After that. It's just sometimes,
you know, we weren't making a film for TV. You
didn't do that in those days. You made films for
big screens and for TV. Now you have to show
close ups so that you can. You won't miss something,
but because you see it on a small screen, you
don't see those nuances. But yeah, that's that was the
whole joke.
S6 (43:08):
In middle school. You saw that in middle school. That's awesome.
So does anybody else have any questions? Yes. We'll do
it in the front and then in the back.
UU (43:16):
Go ahead. Um, when you saw this movie, was it
a group of friends? How old were you guys? How
are you finding? I mean, just, uh.
S7 (43:28):
Well, yeah, there's three of us that formed this company,
and we started making films in high school. Just super
eight movies. And we would show them, you know, in
high school auditoriums for a dollar or whatever. And, um,
we entered one and won third place in the national
Kodak Teenage Film Festival, which doesn't exist anymore. And so
(43:50):
we we then started our own film company. And again
you got to things are so different. Back in the 70s,
we used to film high school and college football games,
and we bought our own film processor and processed the
film and delivered the film to coaches the next day.
So we had a functioning film, um, studio, so to speak.
(44:13):
When we decided to try and make a feature film,
we had, we knew filmmaking A to Z. We literally
shot it and processed it ourselves. So, um, we we
knew how to make film, but we had, um, I
don't have formal training in filmmaking. I didn't go to
(44:34):
film school, but we were making these amateur films, and
I just got the idea of something, you know, absurd, um,
to take on bad Horror films. Bad. Especially bad Japanese
horror films at the time. And Killer Tomatoes is like
the first thing that popped into my head because it
just seemed ridiculous. And I brought it to the other
(44:58):
guys and said, what do you think? And they all
they all said, yeah, you know, because it's original. Um,
and so we went with it.
S9 (45:05):
It's awesome when you think about it. Like, you wouldn't
have airplane, you wouldn't have Sharknado, you wouldn't have. There
are all these films that would not exist if it
wasn't for snakes.
S6 (45:18):
On a plane. Yeah.
S9 (45:19):
Troll two.
S10 (45:20):
When we were.
S7 (45:21):
Doing. Sure.
S6 (45:22):
Sure.
S7 (45:22):
When we were doing, we we we processed the sound
at Glen. Glen sound, which also doesn't exist anymore. Big,
big sound house in in LA. And, um, you had
these piles of boxes from the tapes, the reel to
reel tapes that you use to record sound in movies.
And they all on the side of the box said
attack of the Killer Tornadoes because it was clear that no,
(45:45):
somebody who worked at the studio, the sound department, figured
there can't be tomatoes. It must be wrong. Yeah, and.
S6 (45:51):
They made a.
S7 (45:52):
Mistake. The tornados got.
S6 (45:55):
Time for one more question, right? Yeah.
S16 (45:57):
I got a question. So it's two parter number one.
UU (46:00):
There's a, you know, a film website called Rotten Tomatoes.
Any relation? Number one. Number two.
S16 (46:05):
I've always been fascinated with cult films and why something
had come to cult film. And you've mentioned a couple
other snakes on a plane, and some of them mentioned
Cocaine Bear. You know, those are all movies that try
to be a cult film, and you can't try to
be a real cult. So the ones you mentioned, The
Toxic Avenger, is a great example. The Rocky Horror Picture Show,
these are the kind of naturally became. Yeah, this is
(46:28):
something I, as a film student, I've always been really
enamored with. So why why is that the killer tomatoes?
I mean, is it because it was one of 100.
S7 (46:36):
You could.
S16 (46:36):
Get? I mean, yeah, but is there any other reason
you could think why it caught on?
S7 (46:39):
Well, the first part of your question, Rotten Tomatoes. Yeah.
We have considered suing him because, you know, our tomatoes
are red and their tomatoes are red, and, you know,
pretty close. Their tomatoes squish. Our tomatoes squish. There's a
lot of similarities there. Um, but no, we don't we're
not connected. Um, the I don't think I think if
you try to intentionally make a cult film, you'll fail
(47:02):
because it's like you're trying too hard. The audience decides
what's a cult film, not the people who make it.
And when we made this first film, um, there really
wasn't any such thing as a cult film yet. Um,
Rocky Horror was not a thing yet. Um, and Little
Shop of Horrors kind of was the original the original movie?
(47:23):
The non, you know, the non-musical movie kind of was and,
and a few other things from the 50s, but because
these didn't exist. Um, the only place you saw movies
was if your TV station decided to put it on
or if you had a revival house theater around you,
which they're almost all gone now, so. Yeah, right. That's
(47:46):
the midnight showing. So it was hard to have a
market for something called a cult film because they there
was no place to see them, and they really became
a thing when you could see it at home. But yeah,
certainly we did not intend to make a cult movie.
We intended to be 1000 hours.
S6 (48:07):
Well, you brought up a really good point. I think
this connects with it, the inception of VHS and video
stores and word of mouth and collecting. And you got
to go check out this movie. I made a bootleg
of it. Next thing you know, it gets passed on.
And prior to Killer Tomatoes, we didn't have that. And
now there's everything streaming, everything's digital, there's everything's accessible. But
80s and 90s, that's where the cult movies, I think
(48:29):
really took place, 70s as well, you know, the inception
of VHS stores, video stores and whatnot.
S7 (48:35):
But how many of you actually have seen the first film? Oh,
what do you know? Good for you.
S6 (48:41):
You're now 100 there?
S7 (48:42):
Yes. I think it's sort of well known that the
helicopter crash was a real helicopter crash. Um, and what
happens is, again, this is an example of we didn't
know how to make movies. Um, we put the actors
on a helicopter, and we found out later you don't
actually do that. You. You put stunt people in a helicopter,
and after it lands, you stage the actors on it
and have them get off. Um, we were too dumb
(49:04):
to know that. So we put, um, the actors. Jack Riley,
who was at the time it was famous for being
on the Bob Newhart Show and the shower, and the
pilot clipped the tail rotor when he was landing. And
when you clip the tail rotor on a helicopter, it
starts to gyroscope. Oh, jeez. Um, because the tail rotor,
(49:25):
which goes the opposite way, gives us the stability. And
and so it crashed and and, um, what can happen
is the rotor will flip the helicopter over because it's
so strong and people can be seriously injured or killed.
But this pilot was an experienced pilot and he cut
the engine before it hit the ground. So the rotor
(49:47):
was dead. It just broke. It didn't. And the helicopter
burned into a little lump of plastic and steel. But
the actors weren't seriously injured. And, um. Um. The helicopter
cost more than the movie by far. The person that
we had borrowed it from was somebody we knew. We
(50:10):
didn't rent it. They were loaning it to us for free. Um,
which I turned out to be a really expensive favor.
And and as I said earlier, we do have a podcast.
Killer Tomatoes. Com at Killer tomatoes.com the Killer Tomatoes podcast,
where I interview people who have, um, are fans of
(50:31):
the film. Um, are peripherally connected are more actors in
the film. And if you want to listen to the podcasts,
we put a new one out every few weeks and
you can listen to some really great stories from the
people who are connected with the film. Yeah.
S6 (50:54):
Yeah. And really quickly, go ahead. Michael. Yeah.
S9 (50:56):
If you're looking for the merch, if you go to
Atomic nerd.com, we had, uh, we, we sold out at
San Diego. We did skateboard decks. Uh, really cool. Super cool. Yeah.
In fact, all the Teamsters were trying to buy them
before the show opened. They were coming by. It was
pretty awesome. So we're going to replenish some of those
(51:18):
in November. Great. We have posters, and we're going to
have some of these guys up in November as well.
S6 (51:24):
Awesome. Atomic nerd.com. Okay. And then attack of the killer tomatoes.com.
S7 (51:31):
Tomatoes.com.
S6 (51:31):
Killer tomatoes.com. Hey I want to thank everybody for coming
out to our panel. Thank you so much for coming.
Check out all the links. Uh, this will be on
the Killer Tomato podcast, uh, very soon and go to
$2 late fee will have that as well. $2 late fee.
Com and ready to retro.com as well. And uh territory
marks.com as well. Thank you guys so much for joining us.
(51:54):
And thank you. Have a great day.
S2 (51:57):
Thanks for listening to attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Be
sure to follow and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts.
To read the blog associated with this episode, visit Olas Media.com.
This episode was produced in studios located in San Diego,
California and Tijuana, Baja California. Creative director Ulises Breton, sound
engineer Alan Glasper Pina Alvarez is co-producer, serving as executive
(52:21):
producer and co-founder is Jake Polk, and Chad Pease is
president and co-founder. Olas media is an IVC media company.
S1 (52:32):
O Los media.
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