“Romper Stomper,” the controversial neo-Nazi flick from Australia that established Russell Crowe's career is being made into a television series. The 6-part production will be under the original content offerings of Australian streaming service, Stan.
Updates of inherently racist conceits seem to be in the water these days. HBO's golden geese are on the table for a similar project.
(On July 19, HBO announced that once Game Of Thrones had wrapped up, creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss would begin on an original new series called Confederate. The show is set in an alternative timeline in which the South has seceded and slavery is legal.)
The original Romper Stomper grossed $3.2 million at the box office in Australia. Film critic David Stratton, appalled at the violence, and concerned about the sympathetic portrayal of the neonates notably refused to give it a rating. Stratton described the film in Variety as "A Clockwork Orange without the intellect".
The director, Geoffrey Wright was so upset by Stratton's rejection of his film that he later poured a glass of wine on Stratton at the 1994 Venice Film Festival.
The film has not been without lingering influence--beyond the lasting career of Russel Crowe. It has been blamed for racist violence in the UK and imagery from the film continues to inspire violent young racists in the US and abroad.
In March 2000, British prisoner Robert Stewart bludgeoned his cellmate, Zahid Mubarek, to death with a wooden table leg. In 2004, Stewart was found guilty of the racially motivated murder of Mubarek and was jailed for life. Stewart compared himself to Hando. (the leader of a Neo nazi group in Romper Stomper ) A member of the inquiry team said "He sees himself in the correspondence starring in the film Romper Stomper as a racist thug attacking gooks,". The Anti-Nazi League protested the film's London premiere.
In the United States, Dylann Roof, the perpetrator of the Charleston church shooting, had an image of Hando dying on the homepage of his personal website.
Its soundtrack has become a classic standards for Neo Nazi groups and websites. White Power labels have bootlegged its tracks since the soundtrack's release. In 2011, a Russian White Power label released the whole soundtrack on a 12". One of the most popular being "Fuhrer Fuhrer",
The television series reboot of Romper Stomper will be directed by Geoffrey Wright, the original film director. This time around he will presumably be less apt to douse reviewers with wine at festivals.
Production is set to begin this week.
“Romper Stomper will be unmissable television, as provocative now as the film was in 1992, examining at a personal level the hatred, fear, vengeance and politics hidden in plain sight all around us,” according to a Stan spokesman
Crowe will not be returning...