All Aboard the Chaos: Adam Shankman Lets Stop! That! Train! Go Full Camp

Adam Shankman has spent much of his career working on polished Hollywood productions, from The Wedding Planner and Bringing Down the House to the musical spectacle of Hairspray. His latest film, however, takes a very different route.

Stop! That! Train! is a deliberately outrageous independent comedy that trades the scale of a major studio production for a 19-day shoot, a train packed with RuPaul's Drag Race stars, and a simple creative philosophy: make the joke, commit to it, and don't be afraid to be ridiculous.

In an interview with The AU Review, Shankman opened up about the unusual production and the creative freedom that came with working outside the traditional Hollywood system. For the director, making the film independently meant being able to trust his instincts without studio executives questioning whether a particular joke was too silly.

That freedom proved especially important for a comedy built around absurdity. Shankman describes the film as a return to what he calls “good old-fashioned stupid,” drawing inspiration from classic comedies such as Airplane!, Top Secret! and Mel Brooks' work, while also looking to the heightened melodrama of classic disaster films including The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno and Earthquake.

The result is a film that embraces its ridiculous premise rather than trying to explain it away. Stop! That! Train! follows train stewardesses Tess and DeeDee, played by Ginger Minj and Jujubee, after their glamorous new positions aboard the Glamazonian Express turn into a fight for survival when a catastrophic “Stormaganza” sends the train hurtling toward disaster. Their unlikely mission becomes even more chaotic when they join forces with their first-class counterparts and RuPaul's President Gagwell.

For Shankman, however, the comedy depends on precision. Despite the film's deliberately over-the-top tone, he says broad comedy requires careful control. Rather than filling every moment with elaborate camera movements, he often chose to keep the camera still and allow the joke itself to dictate the cut.

That approach reflects his affection for the classic comedies that inspired the project. Shankman believes those films understood that a gag does not necessarily become funnier simply because the camera moves more. The timing, framing and performance have to work together, with every shot serving a specific comedic purpose.

The director also sees a natural connection between disaster movies and camp. The melodramatic performances and enormous emotions of classic disaster cinema provided the perfect foundation for the film's exaggerated humour. Rather than relying on spectacle for its own sake, Stop! That! Train! uses the seriousness of the disaster genre as a source of comedy.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of the film, though, is the way it treats its drag performers.

Shankman has deliberately avoided making drag itself the punchline. His goal was for audiences to see the characters as characters first—people facing a seemingly genuine crisis—rather than constantly being reminded that they are played by drag performers.

That distinction became particularly important during the casting and filming process. Shankman says the performers exceeded his expectations as actors, approaching the material with genuine dramatic commitment. The film may be wildly camp, but the characters themselves have to believe that the danger is real.

That philosophy also gives Stop! That! Train! a place within Shankman's broader relationship with queer cinema. While queer sensibilities have appeared throughout his career, the director describes this project as his first overt contribution to the queer cinematic canon.

Rather than centring the story around coming out, discrimination or queer trauma, the film simply allows its characters to exist. They fall in love, panic, argue and attempt to save a runaway train without having to justify their identities to the audience. Even the idea of RuPaul playing the President carries a deliberately anarchic quality.

That sense of normalisation may ultimately be one of the film's most interesting qualities. Stop! That! Train! does not ask audiences to treat its drag performers as a novelty. Instead, it puts them at the centre of a classic disaster-comedy scenario and trusts them to carry the story.

For Shankman, that is ultimately what filmmaking has always been about: making something that connects with an audience and, above all, makes people smile. After decades of working across studio films, musicals and comedies, Stop! That! Train! appears to give him the opportunity to return to the simple pleasure of making something purely for the joy of it.

Stop! That! Train! will begin screening in Australian cinemas on August 13, 2026. With its combination of drag royalty, disaster-movie melodrama, old-school slapstick and Shankman's unmistakable affection for big, unapologetic comedy, the film looks ready to take audiences on one gloriously chaotic ride.

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