Today’s issue of the New York Times Magazine features a short article I wrote about an odd corner of Hollywood’s B-movie industry. Entitled “The New B Movie“, the essay profiles The Asylum, a small company that in recent years has found success making “mockbusters” — movies with titles like Snakes on a Train and Transmorphers, which tie in to the theatrical release of major films like Snakes on a Plane and Transformers.

According to Asylum co-founder David Latt, who prefers the term “tie-ins” to “mockbusters,” these movies are themselves original stories, even as they tap into the publicity created by their blockbuster namesakes:

“I’m not trying to dupe anybody,” he says. “I’m just trying to get my films watched. Other people do tie-ins all the time; they’re just better at being subtle about it. Another studio might make a giant robot movie that ties into the ‘Transformers’ release and call it ‘Robot Wars.’ We’ll call ours ‘Transmorphers.’ ”

Unlike classic B-movie productions, which make up for low budgets with campy moments of comedy, The Asylum’s films are strangely self-serious in an attempt to translate for foreign DVD-rental markets (which make up nearly half of its income). “Transmorphers,” for example, never once reveals a moment of self-referential humor, even as it features mad scientists with robot girlfriends, cheap plastic ray guns, girl-on-girl bunk-room catfights and random T. S. Eliot references.

Full article online here.