‘Cult-Tastic’: Roger Corman & Julia Corman Open Up Vault For New Docuseries

EXCLUSIVE: Shout! Factory TV will launch a 13-part digital docuseries called Cult-Tastic: Tales from the Trenches with Roger and Julie Corman that premieres Nov. 15 on Shout Factory TV’s Amazon Prime Video Channel and via Roku Channel’s Premium Subscription.

Created, written and co-produced by Ashley Sidaway and Robert Sidaway, Cult-Tastic features new, extensive, and in-depth interviews and represents the first docuseries from Shout! Factory TV. The subject matter is a rich and vivid one: Roger and Julie Corman and their seven decades as trailblazing indie filmmakers.

One of the most prolific producers in cinema history, Roger Corman is known as the Pope of Pop Culture and the King of the Cult Film after producing more than 350 films and directing 60 more, among them Machine Gun Kelly, A Bucket of Blood, X: The Man with X-Ray Eyes, Bloody Mama and Frankenstein Unbound. Roger Corman was honored with the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2009.

Julie Corman, the former Chair of the Graduate Film Department at NYU, has an industry career that spans five decades, first as a producer alongside Roger Corman at New World Productions, and then later as co-founder and Executive Vice President of the couple’s production banner, New Horizons Pictures Corporation.

Known for their acute ability to recognize young talent, the greatest legacy of the Cormans is as an early and frequently essential springboard for a vast legion of producers, directors, writers, and actors who went on to stellar careers.

That list includes Jack Nicholson, James Cameron, Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard, Bryan Cranston, William Shatner, Martin Sheen, Joe Dante, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tommy Lee Jones, Angie Dickenson, Will Ferrell, and Sandra Bullock, among many others. The docuseries features footage from more than 130 films from the Corman film library

“It makes total sense to be Shout! Factory TV’s first original streaming series,” Roger and Julie Corman said in a joint statement to Deadline. “Over the course of seven decades, we have had the great fortune to work on incredible independent film productions with some of the most distinguished actors, writers, and filmmakers of our time. Shout! Factory TV is the perfect place to share our memories, allowing us to bring our stories to life and share them with a passionate audience. Shout! Factory TV’s focus on cult classic film and TV programming makes them the perfect home for this rich history of independent film.”

Cult-Tastic will sit beside an extensive collection of Corman cult classics available across Shout! Factory TV’s platforms. Films discussed in the series — genre gems like Battle Beyond the Stars, Suburbia and Caged Heat, and horror favorites such as The Slumber Party Massacre, The Wasp Woman and Forbidden World — are also available in their entirety on Shout! Factory TV.

“After having worked with the Cormans for nearly a decade, we are thrilled to have Shout! Factory TV be the home for Cult-Tastic. Roger and Julie’s influence in the independent film space is immeasurable, and the Shout! Factory TV digital streaming service was built on serving fans of cult films and television,” said Gene Pao, SVP, Digital Enterprises. “With a number of Corman films already available on our service, we pushed hard to secure the opportunity to complement existing content with a series featuring enthralling behind-the-scenes anecdotes from Roger and Julie. We see immense opportunity in developing more original programming inspired by the Cormans’ film archive.”