METALLICA Bassist's ''Tallica Parking Lot' Animated Short To Be Shown At COMIKAZE EXPO

"'Tallica Parking Lot", an animated film created by METALLICA bassist Robert Trujillo and Titmouse Animation Studio, will be shown at the 2013 Comikaze Expo on November 2 at 10:00 a.m. at the Los Angeles Convention Center (Room 304ABC). They will be joined by Brendon Small of "Metalocalypse" and DETHKLOK fame and Mike Judge (creator of "Beavis And Butt-Head") for a panel discussion and question-and-answer session following the viewing.

"'Tallica Parking Lot" was premiered at the Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas on September 25. The soundtrack to the film has "big, energetic beats as the animations panned through 2D and 3D views of the fans that pre-game at METALLICA shows," according to HitFix. "I wrote most of [the music for] it, but [METALLICA frontman] James Hetfield had a heavy hand in helping me finish it," Trujillo told AMFM Magazine. "It's an original music score by METALLICA. It has some very cool cameos that range from 'South Park' to 'Beavis & Butthead' and Lemmy from MOTÖRHEAD."

He added: "Just like [METALLICA's new 3D movie] 'Through The Never', you're part of the creation of something, and to see it come to life on the screen, especially when it's animated, is really special."

"'Tallica Parking Lot" and three versions of "Metallica Through The Never" will be available on the DVD/Blu-ray and other formats of the release. "Metallica Through The Never" director Nimród Antal revealed that one additional cut of the film is just of the narrative portion to "Through The Never" and has "a completely original," "'Goblin'-esque" soundtrack made by METALLICA and producer Greg Fidelman. The other version is just of the concert footage, with "three to four" bonus songs recorded during those live gigs in Vancouver and Edmonton in August 2012.

A release date for the Blu-ray/DVD has yet to be announced.

According to Box Office Mojo, "Metallica Through The Never" has taken in just $3.4 million at the box office as of October 27. The film reportedly cost more than $20 million to make, with the band putting up most of the money for the project.

A recent video documenting the making of "Through The Never" showed Peter Mensch, one of METALLICA's managers at Q Prime, discussing with the band ways to save $2 million in order to get the film's budget down to $30 million, according to Bloomberg.com.

"It depends on what you count," METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich said. "Are you counting the promotion, the marketing, the live record, the stage that we'll continue to use in future tours? This is way north of eight figures. It's a lot for us."

Marc Reiter, who works for Q Prime, told METALLICA's fan club magazine So What! that the movie was the biggest single expense in the band's history, more than the combined budgets of all their records to date. Q Prime also invested an undisclosed amount in the film.

Ulrich told The Quietus that he is not ready to write the film off as a flop. He explained, "That remains to be seen! Ask me when I come back and talk about the new record two years from now . . . I'm sure that if we don't make all the money back, then, I don't know, (we will in) T-shirt sales seven years down the line."

Justin Bieber's "Never Say Never" is the highest-grossing concert movie ever with $73 million in the U.S., according to Box Office Mojo.

In order for "Metallica Through The Never" to be profitable, it has to make at least double its production and marketing budget back at the box office, since theater owners take up to half of the money from tickets. So the movie would have to earn $36 million to break even.