This is your introduction to Dark Lord Rob's American Entropy Productions, an unimaginably thrilling endeavor which is dedicated to bringing some of the wildest films imaginable to shambling cinematic life!
American Entropy Productions exists to produce movies that are wild flights of the imagination, that aim to entertain, enlighten and enliven; to make indie films that deliver the Hollywood kick without the pandering blandardization that we've all come to know and detest.
The philosophy behind American Entropy Productions is both deceptively simple and ridiculously complex: Great films don't have to cost great sums. Or, another way: we make drive-in films for the 21st century. Just as the great drive-in classics (good and bad) of the 50's and 60's were often made on shoestring budget with untried actors and crew (many of whom went on to awards and fame) so too will American Entropy set forth with more guts than financing and innovate, and electrify, and make films of great artistry and entertainment value; films that reflect the quirky, literate, rock 'n' roll mindset of head visioneer Dark Lord Rob, the "Electric Kool-Aid Corman", the "Hallucinogenic Hitchcock", the "Psychedelic Disney".
Utilizing techniques and processes developed during the filming of The Miskatonic Acid Test, currently in post-production, Dark Lord Rob plans to move forward with what would be to anyone else an insanely ambitious production slate that calls for no fewer than Thirty-Six separate feature-length projects over the next 4 - 5 years - possibly more! Gutsy? Hell yeah!
And what projects! The American Entropy imminent production slate can only be described as... mind gobbling? epiphanetic? scrumdiliumptious? Words fail me. so see for yourself. You have nothing to lose but your mind (and possibly your soul, and maybe some spare change).
So strap yourself in and venture forth... our OS is Chaos and the future starts tomorrow!
Visit The Miskatonic Acid Test's Official Website
As a public service to fans of music and movies everywhere, Dark Lord Rob has unearthed a "lost" Elvis movie! Back in the trippy sixties the Colonel was hot to have Elvis hop on the current trends; the result was Elvis in Wonderland, a visionary psychedelic odyssey that was shelved when the King realized that, "hey, this is about drugs and stuff!" after it was finished. Believe it! Elvis in Wonderland will feature a multitude of cool trippy visuals, zany characters from within and without Lewis Carrol's wigged-out classic novels, and a wacked-out soundtrack that imagines "what would the Stones' Their Satanic Majesties Request sound like in the hands of the King?" Like nothing you've heard before would be our guess. DLR envisions this as a cross between Viva Las Vegas and Alice in Acidland - only even more deranged!
Preview an excert from the script.
An ambitious exploration of the myth and legend of Jim Morrison, The Passion of St. Jim is a projected trilogy of loosely interrelated features that have a whack at ol' Jimbo from different angles. The first, currently titled
Read part of St. Jim
Yikes! Another ultra-ambitious multi-tiered extravaganza! Taking more than a little advantage of Dark Lord Rob's extraordinary physical resemblance to George Harrison, the Trundlementia Project explores the career of a slightly - no, extremely - no, close-to-actionably Beatlesque quartet. The first, tentatively titled Please, Mister Shadow will be a live-action romp with a bold concept - this is the movie that the Beatles would have made between "Help" and "Magical Mystery Tour", an extrapolation of Revolver-era Beatles into cinematic realms heretofore unexplored. Its follow-up, Sea of Dreams, based on DLR's novel, will be a combination of live action, animation, and puppetry and take its predecessor one step forward into 1967 as the Trundles set off on a zany Tolkienesque quest. Third in the series, currently Untitled, will be a fully animated Trundles adventure in the "Yellow Submarine" mode. Further Trundles projects may also come down the pike. One of the most exciting aspects of the Trundlemania project will be the creation of the soundtracks to the movies... Dark Lord Rob is determined to deliver Beatlesque songs that move beyond mere pastiche, beyond mere echo... songs that will come close to giving fans the "lost" Beatles records they've dreamed about. Wish him luck!
Read part of the novel Sea of Dreams.
Poor Henry David Thoreau! His every attempt at pondside solitude is thwarted by a steady stream of wacky neighbors in one of Dark Lord Rob's signature "lit-coms" where the greats of literature are subjected to the ignominies of seventies-style TV situation comedy! Zaniness ensues as the exasperated Waldenite is subjected to unwanted visits by the likes of Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allen Poe, and the ever-annoying Walt Whitman ("Hello, Whitman!").
Read an excerpt here!
Read a Dark Force adventure here!
In the quiet bywaters of southern Maine, something strange lurks in an abandoned mill by the edge of a derelict river. What became of occult-obsessed teenaged genius Billy Butler? What could be the meaning of the strange symbols scrawled in chalk on the floor of a room in the sub-basement, or of this strange piece of grafitti: "H.P. Lovecraft was Right"? And what was the horrible thing seen by young Jimmy Scolera on the day his friend Frank DuFresne disappeared? Based on Dark Lord Rob's novel,The Abomination will be a genuinely scary Stephen King-meets-Lovecraft horror movie, shot in atmospheric black-and-white with an attept at a genuinely unnerving Val Lewton sort of feel... Lovecraft done right, a film to make your hair stand on end as your mind falls to its knees...
Read part of the novel here!
Read an excert from the script here!
Bwa Haw Haw - It's what you've always wanted... a Horror version of Hee Haw! (No, the Groovy Goolies don't count). Actually, it's a little bit more ambitious than that... Laugh-in, Monty Python, and Benny Hill style sketches and blackouts, all with a Classic Horror spin... plus musical guests! If you think this is just an excuse for DLR to exercise his love of horror movies and his ability to write cool horror-rock songs (in surf, psych, garage and folk styles no less!) then you're totally right!
Syvia Plath's Laff Shack - The dour poetess hosts a zany variety show featuring music and comedic skits. Join Sylvia and her guests for an hour of laff shack fun! This week featuring the nutty stand-up comedy of Jean-Paul Sartre, the amazing prestidigitation of Ayn Rand, and musical group the Howlin' Ginsbergs! More lit-com insanity. Read script excerpt here.
Me 'n Aleistair - Yet more litcom insanity! What happens when your very best friend in the world is the Ghost of Alistair Crowley? Zaniness, that's what! It's, like, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir plus The Courtship of Eddie's Father plus My Favorite Martian plus it's Aleistair Friggin Crowley for Frig's sake! We're all going to Hell for this.
Read script excerpt here.
The Lennon/McCartney Code - a companion piece to Dire Wolf, this movie pits Dark Lord Rob's Dark Force against a weird Beatles-centered cult who have discovered the hidden secrets of the Mersey ouevre.
Secret Marijuana Action Movie - Top secret for now, sorry!
Here be Wytches - Broadway comes to American Entropy, takes a look around, and runs screaming into the night! Here Be Wytches is a musical comedy set in the wiccan community of Salem, Massachusetts. Hope those folks have a sense of humor, or I'm gonna be dodging hexes for decades! Read a script excerpt here.
Everything I Know I Learned From Dead Rock Stars - A slight variation on the "Litcom" concept, bringing musicians into the mix. Little Jimmy Whitamore is guided through all of life's little trials by Dead Rock Stars, who appear when called from his Magic CD player. And, of course, always on hand to offer guidance is Jimmy's guardian angel, the Ghost of Jerry Garcia... Read an excerpt here.
Mary Pynchot Meyer: A Rock Opera and Rabbit Cubed - Two feature-length rock-opera explorations of the JFK assassination and its LSD connections, based on as-true-as-we-can-ever-know stories. In the first, a Washington socialite, wife of high-ranked CIA officer, spends an evening exploring inner vistas with President John F. Kennedy (Mary Meyer was a friend of Timothy Leary who intimated that she intended to turn someone very powerful on to LSD; shortly after his death she also was murdered under mysterious circumstances and her diary was stolen and destroyed by the then-head of the Agency. Years later it was revealed that she had indeed been a lover of JFK. Two plus two=?) The second, Rabbit Cubed takes a look at Lee Harvey Oswald 's hypothetical encounter with LSD-25 at the hands of Air Force scientists (Oswald was stationed at Atsugi Air base in Japan, which was one of only two places where the USAF held LSD experiments, and was there at the proper time). Exciting stuff, and perfect subjects for off-the-wall psychedelic filmmaking.
Mister Rogerz' Goddam Hippie Neighbors - The wild adventures of the titular stoners, who live right next to the land of Make Believe (naturally) and interact with crazed puppets and famous people. One reader called the first script "The funniest f***ing thing I've read all year!" Imagine a smarter Cheech and Chong, or a more family-friendly (!) Furry Freak Brothers, crossed with Sid and Marty Croft and you begin to get the idea... or let's say the idea begins to take effect... and the walls start swirling... Read an excerpt here
Think Hard - The rather odd title of this derives from DLR's original intention, which was to make a sort of philosophical remake of "Die Hard!", pitting an intelligent Deadhead against the intellectual terrorism of the literati at a Manhattan soiree. Sort of like psychedelic Noel Coward, or Dorothy Parker meets Peter Sellers' The Party (go track down a copy); Manhattan wittery versus Deadhead grooviness (guess who wins in the end!) Takes place in real time in one set. Very cost-effective. Read an excerpt here.
The Adventures of Nietzsche Man - Great Zarathustra! Another litcom! Each week the will-powered superhero battles the weak and criminal! This feature is a compilation of the three-part episode "Rampage of the Randroids", where NM has to protect philanthropist Irish rock star Bozo ("It's pronounced 'Bozzo'") from robots and self-interested supervillains.
McTaggart - Part Seinfeld, part Larry Sanders, all radical... a sitcom-style adventure starring a stand-up comic... only McTaggart is a blisteringly radical political comic in the Carlin/Maher/Bill Hicks mode... only even more nastily cynical. The movie details his handlers' attempts to keep him from getting censored/arrested/them fired, as he takes on the contented and powerful.
By winter 2008 we will begin developing much larger-budgeted projects; we'll still be working at a fraction of Hollywood's budgets but the films will be bigger, bigger, BIGGER. Some of the projects from this phase will include:
Count Dracula: Superspy -Action-packed fun as Dark Lord Rob combines two venerable 60's filmic genres, spy movies and Hammer horror! Gadgets, babes, guns, blood and Transylvanian wit! Read part of the script here!
Keeper: A Mastiff's Tale - To shake things up a bit, this is a literate family film a la "The Secret Garden". It's the generally true story of Emily Bronte and her mastiff, Keeper, and it's a tale that flips the standard "Old Yeller" format on its head; the dog doesn't die, everybody else does! Read DLR's novella The Saga of Keeper- it doesn't take long.
Spacedog - an exciting animated space adventure based on DLR's longest-running online serial. A trio of "talking" dogs and an alien teenager dodge both the Galactic empire and the reptilian Garlakki in this Heinleinesque space opera. Read the novel Spacedog.
Doctor Hoffman's Magical Bicycle Ride - based on a true story, this animated psychedelic rock opera telling through wacked-out visuals what (may have) happened when Dr. Albert Hoffman tested a new substance he'd developed called "LSD-25" by taking an (unintentionally) large dose and biking home from his lab. Inspired by the sounds of early Pink Floyd. Read a novella version here.
Li'l Kafka - Anarchic satire detailing one intelligent youngster's battles with the fascistic idiocy of the American public school system, where nail clippers, aspirin, and free thought are all dangerous contraband.
Deadhead 2097 - Science-Fiction adventures in the year 102 A.J. (After Jerry), a future where the Deadhead lifestyle has become a society unto itself, an Utopia at odds with the fundamentalist state of New Jerusalem. Based on DLR's novel.
A Wizard on the Edge of Time - A fantasy adventure inspired by Yes and Uriah Heep album covers!?! Tolkien by way of 70's progressive rock! Read DLR's novel here (actually, there) to see how it works.
Raiders of the Lost Chord -
Just what the title promises; an action-adventure with cosmic overtones, and a background in the psychedelic rock of the 60's. I won't tell much more and spoil things; suffice to say that it's going to be exciting and insane! Read the novel to find out more!
Dark Lord Rob's Mind Commandos - It's psychedelic Tom Clancy, it's "24"on mescaline as Dark Lord Rob's intrepid team of psychenauts utilize the latest in psychedelic advances to travel the inner realm and battle various threats to humanity. First adventure: the Mind Commandos are called togetether to stop an assasination attempt - on God! Read more in the novel.
Deathmarked- A two-fisted action/thriller about a young man who, by doing the right thing at the wrong time, places himself square in the sights of an underground cabal of serial killers, one with tentacles that seem to stretch into every corner of society. For survival he learns the tricks of a guerilla fighter, and soon the hunters are the hunted... it's a seat-edge tale that manages to deliver a substantial amount of speculative modern history as well; you'll never look at your neighbors the same way again! Read an excerpt from the novel version here.
Steel and Fire - an allegorical biker/western that'll play out as a wild combination of Roger Corman and Sergio Leone. Read the script.
A Song for the God of Robots - Another rock opera; this time, an allegory about the dawning of android consciousness, with a soundtrack influenced by Space Rock greats like Hawkwind.
Crawford and Davis: Detectives - A fun alternative-universe noir comedy where failed acress Bette Davis and Joan Crawford have teamed up to solve crimes in 1930's Hollywood. Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy ride...
The Dark Festival - a Ray Bradbury-influenced dark fanstasy; every year the Shadow People gather for the titular festival, in a place that exists nowhere and is only accesible through the dim reaches of darkened closets and the shadows beneath the cellar stairs. It's a party the Addam's Family would be proud of... Read an excerpt from the novel.
Halloween People - an adventure/quest story set in a world of perpetual Halloween, albiet one that's more Tolkien than Tim Burton. Read an exceprt from the novel.
Trasker: To the Stars! - finally, a grand Space Opera in the style of classic Star Trek. Read an excerpt from the novel.
Wow.
