One of my favorite things about TROPIC THUNDER has been all the crazy offshoots from the film. There’s the official site for the fictional stars of the film – Tugg Speedman, Kirk Lazarus, Jeff Portnoy, and Kevin Sandusky – as well as the site for Danny McBride’s special effects master Cody Keith Underwood, the book the film within a film is based on and clinic that performed the skin pigmentation on Robert Downey, Jr.’s Kirk Lazarus.
But perhaps my favorite of all the TROPIC THUNDER spinoffs is the “Hearts of Darkness” style documentary RAIN OF MADNESS. They’ve been posting clips from the documentary on the official RAIN OF MADNESS site with Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Downey, Jr., Brandon T. Jackson, McBride and Jay Baruchel. Today we’re happy to bring you an exclusive first look at a clip from RAIN OF MADNESS featuring Nick Nolte as “Four Leaf” Tayback, the author whose book “Tropic Thunder” (the movie within TROPIC THUNDER) is based on.
SLAUGHTERHOUSE LIVE
It was with much anticipation today that I sat down with Army Sergeant John “Four Leaf” Tayback. The man’s harrowing account of valor in the face of death is at the very genesis of what brought Hollywood to Vietnam. I was eager to get a glimpse at his unique perspective.
Four Leaf dodged any question about the conflict, however, after a few minutes into our interview I changed course, and began to ask him about happier times. He began to speak freely of his time as a youth when he took work at a slaughterhouse. He went on and on.. at one point, I realized he had been talking about slaughterhouses for over two hours. Š I reluctantly surrendered my agenda.