The Watermelon is listed at Celebrity Video now, see here, y'all...
It will also be available to rent on Netflix and @ Blockbuster...but is that better than owning your very own copy?
Odd...summer seems to be Watermelon time...the screenplay was optioned summer 2006, shot summer 2007, first shown summer 2008 at San Diego Film Festival, and now hits the streets summer 2009...a three year process, typical story of any indie (and studio) film.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Pre-Summer Updates
Things been a bit quiet on the Hollywood front, other than the documentary for Cannes Short Film Corner, working on revisions for How to Win a Diamond Ring, trying to finish pilot scripts for The Interior and Sanchez & Kelly, gearing up for TV show pitch time over the coming five months, and trying to wrap a zillion things up in the book publishing biz.
Major projects: big novel, Raymond Carver biography, revise Gordon Lish book, put First Person Sociology anthology together, finish Vollmann bibliography.
The stage version to Stations is being produced this summer at Compass Theater in San Diego, opens July 13. Have not gone to any rehearsals yet. The future of the film version still lingers...
Major projects: big novel, Raymond Carver biography, revise Gordon Lish book, put First Person Sociology anthology together, finish Vollmann bibliography.
The stage version to Stations is being produced this summer at Compass Theater in San Diego, opens July 13. Have not gone to any rehearsals yet. The future of the film version still lingers...
Monday, April 20, 2009
Watermelon Update
Did writer's audio commentary on The Watermelon two weeks ago.
It will be out on DVD and BluRay July 4 from Celebrity Video.
Buy or rent from Blockbuster, Netflix, Amazon, etc. Might be in those Redbox DVD kiosks too.
It will be out on DVD and BluRay July 4 from Celebrity Video.
Buy or rent from Blockbuster, Netflix, Amazon, etc. Might be in those Redbox DVD kiosks too.
Short documentary update
Editing "Life in Zona Norte" right now, for its Cannes screening.
I have kept a blog about the process here.
A sneak peak can be viewed here at YouTube.
I have kept a blog about the process here.
A sneak peak can be viewed here at YouTube.
Monday, March 09, 2009
Short Doc Gets Green
I have been given the green light/micro grant to shoot a short documentary film for Real Ideas Studios for a program of international short docs that will be screened at Cannes Film Festival this May.
The doc will be about lives in Tijuana's zona norte -- the street vendors, the street walkers, the children playing in the gutter...
The doc will be about lives in Tijuana's zona norte -- the street vendors, the street walkers, the children playing in the gutter...
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Film Life Updates
The Watermelon has a distribution deal on the table...we are gonna go for it, it seems, keeping theatrical and foreign rights while distrib. will get it on Netflix, with Blockbuster, pay per views, chain stores etc. Will this help pay off investors and deferred pay? One can hope a dent will be made -- I dream of the day I may actually get my deferred script fee and producer's salary.
Two projects have had their options re-newed last week. Much needed $$$. Will they ever get made? Who knows. Hopefully.
My screenplay The Gold Tooth is in competition at the Beverly Hills Film Festival. This is, what, my fourth year there? The first one, 2006, Liv Kellgren was so excited about attending as we had two scripts in competition, and she had never come this close to the fabled Hollywood Dream, but of course she fucked that up for herself like she does everything (see first post of this blog) and missed out on that in her life, the Hollywood dreamer who had Hollywood denied. Deservedly so.
Looks like I may get this microgrant to make a short documentary in Tijuana, that will screen at Cannes with a few others. Will know for sure in a week or two but my phone talk with the project mentor went well. I'm keen on showing something at Cannes this year.
Looks like Fifty Bucks may be dead in the fray and its rights tied up till November. I think Sean is gonna fuck me out of the Chinese-set version for Amblin, like I knew he would. Ya just can;'t trust anyone in H'wood.
Trying to finish pilots The Interior and Sanchez & Kelly for pitching season this summer. Do wanna get The Interior into Slamdance's TV thing. I think it could do as well as Blogger did and make final cut.
Dunno if my short "Valerie" will be shot. Was supposed to last Jan. -- I go thru this a lot with sorts: these people get all hyped on shooting my stuff, using them as calling cards and festival entries, all this big talk, and then they bail or vanish. Ya just got deal with all the "talkers" in H'wood who love to gab about what they're gonna do and they never do shhhyat.
"So it goes." -- Kurt Vonnegut
Friday, January 23, 2009
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Options and Scripts Update
The option on Wild Turkey fell through, but there is another interested party...a bit miffed because we had a verbal deal set in place and the money guy backed out last minute.
Fifty Bucks is optioned,though (same money guy), but one of the guys involved, who will act in it, is giving a go at the rewrites himself. Whatever. he is WGA, though, and has some film credits, including a Ray Liotta film. No one has ever been able to match my cadence and dialogue when trying to work inside one of my scripts. They can't. A few have tried and failed; no one has succeeded. But everyone in Hollywood wants to "play writer" because if it "looks" easy, they think it's "easy."
The money guy asked me about writing some short scripts for what will be Grindhouse Online. We came up with a verbal deal but he has yet to pay me, so I have done no work yet on the script he asked me to revise or revising the other one of mine, "The Crimes of Joy," that he seems to want. (A short segment of that script appears asa TV show that Achilles Pumpkinseed watches in The Watermelon, shot in cool noirish black and white.)
Trying to wrap new screenplay, North Hollywood, before 2009 rings in, so I can "feel" like I finished one more screenplay for 2008.
Doing a short script adapt of Carver's story, "Gazebo," for myself.
Still working on pilot script of Sanchez & Kelly.
Didn't make final cut at Sundance Screenwriting Labs for The Gold Tooth.
Have submitted Stations with my application to Film Independent's Director's Lab.
The Watermelon didn't make it in Slamdance or Palm Springs Film Fest -- which was a long shot anyway. It is currently at Santa Barbara, Tribeca, Beverly Hills, Newport Beach, Portland, Los Angeles, and Malibu. An entertainment lawyer has agreed to rep us and we got high scores at a certain sales rep group who may offer to take it on once the top guy takes a look-see.
Fifty Bucks is optioned,though (same money guy), but one of the guys involved, who will act in it, is giving a go at the rewrites himself. Whatever. he is WGA, though, and has some film credits, including a Ray Liotta film. No one has ever been able to match my cadence and dialogue when trying to work inside one of my scripts. They can't. A few have tried and failed; no one has succeeded. But everyone in Hollywood wants to "play writer" because if it "looks" easy, they think it's "easy."
The money guy asked me about writing some short scripts for what will be Grindhouse Online. We came up with a verbal deal but he has yet to pay me, so I have done no work yet on the script he asked me to revise or revising the other one of mine, "The Crimes of Joy," that he seems to want. (A short segment of that script appears asa TV show that Achilles Pumpkinseed watches in The Watermelon, shot in cool noirish black and white.)
Trying to wrap new screenplay, North Hollywood, before 2009 rings in, so I can "feel" like I finished one more screenplay for 2008.
Doing a short script adapt of Carver's story, "Gazebo," for myself.
Still working on pilot script of Sanchez & Kelly.
Didn't make final cut at Sundance Screenwriting Labs for The Gold Tooth.
Have submitted Stations with my application to Film Independent's Director's Lab.
The Watermelon didn't make it in Slamdance or Palm Springs Film Fest -- which was a long shot anyway. It is currently at Santa Barbara, Tribeca, Beverly Hills, Newport Beach, Portland, Los Angeles, and Malibu. An entertainment lawyer has agreed to rep us and we got high scores at a certain sales rep group who may offer to take it on once the top guy takes a look-see.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Updates
Ah, time to update on the film biz, the book biz, the life biz...
Went on my second Helm Fellowship to the Lilly at Indiana Univ. two weeks ago, this time to examine all the Vollmann art object books they have there, for an article, for an appendix in the forthcoming Vollmann crit book, and for an annotated bibliography that I am doing for Scarecrow Press (probably out in 2010). His book art objects are amazing, as always, viz:
As for The Watermelon, after its first screening at the SD Film Fest, we have it out at half a dozen other fests and talking with sales agents and planning other strategies, such as "platforming" in a city outside L.A. -- more on that later.
Am waiting to hear from Sundance Screenwritings Labs. I'm on the short list with my adapt of Frank Norris' McTEAGUE, called THE GOLD TOOTH. Should hear in December. I also applied, at the insistence of someone, to the Director's lab at Film Independent with STATIONS.
Looks like I will adapt Ronald Malfi's novel, PASSENGER (Delirium Books, 2008) into a screenplay. He has been bugging me about it. I looked it over today and yeah, it'd make a hot movie -- and since he's sold two projects to Paramount and has good Tinsel Town connections, why not?
There is a play and another screenoplay 'd like to wrap up by 2008's end, but I also have the Lish book, the Star Trek crit book, the crifiction book, and the Carver's women book to also wrap up...shit.
Duck me.
The Bukowski/Carver book is out from Borgo Press.
As is The Yacht People:
This one was supposed to have been out last March in the UK by Neon Books, but the imprnt was cancelled by the parent publisher, Orion Publishing. They paid me. Wildside Press now has it out.
What else? Black Lawrence Press accepted my collection of literary stories, Pictures of Houses with Water Damage, see their press release.
My experimental post-postmodern (auto)ethnography, Zona Norte, is out from Cambridge Scholars, and is actually selling for an academic book
(I'm sure the cover helps).
So...next is hardcore Zombie Girls, a novel that is way overdue, ridiculously overdue, so I have decided to complete it this month as my NaNoWrMo Project, while at the same time wrapping up the Gordon Lish book, and finishing a big project for Ninthlink.
Do I need to sleep for the next two months? Nah.
Went on my second Helm Fellowship to the Lilly at Indiana Univ. two weeks ago, this time to examine all the Vollmann art object books they have there, for an article, for an appendix in the forthcoming Vollmann crit book, and for an annotated bibliography that I am doing for Scarecrow Press (probably out in 2010). His book art objects are amazing, as always, viz:
As for The Watermelon, after its first screening at the SD Film Fest, we have it out at half a dozen other fests and talking with sales agents and planning other strategies, such as "platforming" in a city outside L.A. -- more on that later.
Am waiting to hear from Sundance Screenwritings Labs. I'm on the short list with my adapt of Frank Norris' McTEAGUE, called THE GOLD TOOTH. Should hear in December. I also applied, at the insistence of someone, to the Director's lab at Film Independent with STATIONS.
Looks like I will adapt Ronald Malfi's novel, PASSENGER (Delirium Books, 2008) into a screenplay. He has been bugging me about it. I looked it over today and yeah, it'd make a hot movie -- and since he's sold two projects to Paramount and has good Tinsel Town connections, why not?
There is a play and another screenoplay 'd like to wrap up by 2008's end, but I also have the Lish book, the Star Trek crit book, the crifiction book, and the Carver's women book to also wrap up...shit.
Duck me.
The Bukowski/Carver book is out from Borgo Press.
As is The Yacht People:
This one was supposed to have been out last March in the UK by Neon Books, but the imprnt was cancelled by the parent publisher, Orion Publishing. They paid me. Wildside Press now has it out.
What else? Black Lawrence Press accepted my collection of literary stories, Pictures of Houses with Water Damage, see their press release.
My experimental post-postmodern (auto)ethnography, Zona Norte, is out from Cambridge Scholars, and is actually selling for an academic book
(I'm sure the cover helps).
So...next is hardcore Zombie Girls, a novel that is way overdue, ridiculously overdue, so I have decided to complete it this month as my NaNoWrMo Project, while at the same time wrapping up the Gordon Lish book, and finishing a big project for Ninthlink.
Do I need to sleep for the next two months? Nah.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Monday, October 06, 2008
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
The Audacity of Democracy
So LightSong Films has been hired to make a documentary about some funny and possible illegal dealings in the Obama Campaign and the people funding (pulling the strings). The doc is produced by PUMA (Party Unity My Ass) and called The Audacity of Democracy. Right now, Brad and Lori are in Denver for the DNC.
It’s been weird for them…much traveling…here is a trailer of some of what they have shot.
But there are those, it seems, who do not want this doc made…
Brad talks about it on his blog – going from JFK Airport to O’Hare in Chicago, he was pulled aside by the TSA and searched and questioned. That’s no big deal, the same happened to me in March at the Indianapolis Airport – a 50ish tall TSA dude ZOOMED HIS SITES on me the second I walked in, I heard him say to another TSA guy, pointing at me, “He is a referral.” They searched all through my stuff (tho did not catch I had Tramadol in an aspirin bottle) and the tall guy asked me rapid-fire questions, the kind meant to trip you up, which does not work on me…
Anyway, Brad then says two rigid Air Marshall types sat on either side of him, not moving, not saying a word…coincidence, maybe…
But he found that both his XL2 cameras had been stolen. How does this happen in a post-911 Orange Alert era…if someone can WALK OUT with two big cameras, someone could WALK IN with a bomb, eh…unless of course the people doing security do the theft….so it was either the baggage handlers for Jet Blue or the PSA guys…the Chicago cops told Brad they felt it was the PSA, and noted that Chicago politicos are corrupt, and there are many in Chicago who have vested interested in Obama…
PUMA bought him a replacement and they are trying to get Jet Blue to pay for the loss. I guess there was no insurance and Jet Blue claims they cannot be held responsible for a political black ops theft…still, I think the threat of having Homeland come down hard on their security should get them to pony up.
Brad says in his blog he did get threats…
Then Lori says she came home and it looked like the door lock had been messed with, an d missing from the apartment was a notebook that had all her contacts, info, schedules, etc., for who to interview and meet…
This is not hard to believe. PUMA has their lines tapped, this doc has been in the news from The Wall Street Journal to FOX, so Obama’s people, whoever they really are (I feel Obama is actually fronted by the Republicans to keep Hilary off the ticket) are keeping tabs on this doc, and have done their intimidating…
I just hope they are okay in Denver and don’t get tossed in those mass jails or get beaten up…this is all I need now that The Watermelon is getting its wings…then again, this sort of newsworthy matters could help the film in great ways… “Producer and Director of Hemmingson Indie Film Disappear at DNC, Without a Trace.”
Kidding.
Well, this is the world we live in….we have free speech still, but they won’t make it easy for us to express it.
Still Working on Screenplay…
…for Sundance Screenwriting Labs. I got an extension to Sept. 1. I have been having some blocks and just tinkering with little things, but I have to get my ass in gear and wrap it up this week…as it is an adaptation, I KNOW what is going to happen….
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
San Diego Film Festival
Just got official word that THE WATERMELON, has been selected for the San Diego Film Festival, Sept. 25-28, two screenings at the Gaslamp AMC 15.
Don't know dates yet, which will be posted on the site c. Sept.
1--
www. sdff. org
Since I began this blog with the germination of the script and chronicled its journey to production, I now start the next phase -- the festival circuit run.
Don't know dates yet, which will be posted on the site c. Sept.
1--
www. sdff. org
Since I began this blog with the germination of the script and chronicled its journey to production, I now start the next phase -- the festival circuit run.
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Adapting McTeague
For the second time, I have made finalist round for the Sundance Screenwriting Lab, this time with my adaptation of Frank Harris 1897 novel, McTeague. The only film version is a cool 1924 Erich von Stroheim silent flick, Greed, which ran nearly 10 hours long. Storheim cut it down to 4, then MGM cut it down to an hour and a half and it flopped; the cut film was accidently put in the incinerator by a janitor and is lost forever. It was the highest budgeted film at the time, at half a million, unheard of in the silent film biz. I always wondered why no one re-did it -- I am sure there are some adaptations on development shelves, but the book is public domain so I can do my own.
I am having fun adapting someone else's work, let alone a classic novel, what Larry McCaffery calls the darkest, best dentist novel ever written. I am calling it MAC. I was calling it TEETH until I saw the recent indie, TEETH.
Some recent published stuff --
My cover story at the Reader on Tijuana violence --
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2008/aug/06/greetings-from-tijuana/
A review-essay of Eric Kohn's PURSUING HOLLYWOOD --
http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/995
My novelette, "Long Island Iced Tea," has finally appeared in issue #35 of HARBOILED MAGAZINE and a prose poem, "Nothing," in Issue #33 of ART MAG.
Two short essays on Raymond Carver stories accepted in THE EXPLICATOR.
Thinking of doing my second Helm Felloship at India U's Lilly Library next month -- this time on the William Vollmann art books they have archived there, which I will write an essay on and include in my Vollmann bibliography.
Monday, June 02, 2008
SDFF
Talked LightSong Films into letting me submit The Watermelon to the San Diego Film Festival. Their PR firm also handles the Reader's website.
The movie is ALMOST finished with post, half the original score is done and placed in, and the VO needs to be re-done, some finessing here and there, but after a year, it's time to finish this thing and get it out and sell it...I know it takes about a year for movie's to be in post, but really...it's time to get this out in public and determine if it is any good or not. I am too biased and close to it to gaze on it objectively. I want to watch an audience's response.
The movie is ALMOST finished with post, half the original score is done and placed in, and the VO needs to be re-done, some finessing here and there, but after a year, it's time to finish this thing and get it out and sell it...I know it takes about a year for movie's to be in post, but really...it's time to get this out in public and determine if it is any good or not. I am too biased and close to it to gaze on it objectively. I want to watch an audience's response.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
New Book out -- My 44th!
My new novel, In the Background is a Walled City or, How Santa Claus and I Saved the World is now available from The Borgo Press --
Order here --
http://www.wildsidebooks.com/In-the-Background-Is-a-Walled-City_p_316-2349.html
or @ Amazon.com --
http://www.amazon.com/Background-Walled-City-Michael-Hemmingson/dp/1434402428/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212239702&sr=8-1
Order here --
http://www.wildsidebooks.com/In-the-Background-Is-a-Walled-City_p_316-2349.html
or @ Amazon.com --
http://www.amazon.com/Background-Walled-City-Michael-Hemmingson/dp/1434402428/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212239702&sr=8-1
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Beverly Hills Fllm Festival - A Blogger's Gaze and Memory
I arrived to the fest tired, half-asleep, straight from Mexico – who else but yours truly can go from a Tijuana slum to the heart of the heart of Beverly Hills within 4 hours?
This is the third year I have gone to BHFF, with a screenplay “in competition” for the screenwriting award. This year it is for Antarctica, set in the South Pole. I wrote it based on a story idea by my friend Will Beinbrink (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1080718/), who is also the lead male actor in my film The Watermelon. The script was short-listed for the Sloan Initiative at the Sundance Screen Lab, is submitted for the Sloan thing at the Hamptons Film Fest, and is in talks to be optioned with a certain entity/someone (more on that later as it does or does not develop).
In 2006 when I went to the BHFF, I had three scripts in the running, two co-authored by Liv Kellgren, the other The Watermelon. All have been optioned, one was made, none won the main award – so what does hat say abot subjectivity and judges? It says no one in Hollywood knows shit and cannot tell the difference between a good screenplay and a bad one.
I don’t know who won this year, yet, and I am not going to the awards ceremony @ $125 a plate; it all brings back bad memories. Two years ago, things really fell apart with Liv, badly, and at the last moment she not only failed to show up in Beverly Hlls, she attempted to cancel our dinner reservations on her credit card. She was told there were no refunds. She did this solely to make my happy experience a bad one. Her act of malice cost her $250. I had intended to reimburse her – since she tried to cancel dinner hours before it happened, without informing, I decided fuck it, if she wanted to hurt, it would come out of her pocket.
There is a price to pay for betrayal, and Liv Kellgren has paid it ten-fold.
All of this coming from someone who, weeks before, said, “I feel like I am living in a dream” because many of the things she (we) had dreamt of were starting to come true – many meetings with producers and studios, scripts being finalists and winning here and here and there…it was closer than she ever got…
Then she turned her dream into a nightmare...and has a bogus money scheming biz with fake testimonials: www.ConsciousEnvironments.com.
And I am always reminded of that time when I go the BHFF.
Last night, I told someone about my other bad memories of Beverly Hills, when I lived there back when I was 24, with Sharon, and how that went south and I truly became “down and out in Beverly Hills.”
9 months there…another life…
Maybe I should avoid that part of L.A. – Beverly Hills truly is where dreams are born and die…
As for the festival, as every year, I saw many great short fllms. Of the features, the best was the doc on The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, A Dutch Connection.
This is the third year I have gone to BHFF, with a screenplay “in competition” for the screenwriting award. This year it is for Antarctica, set in the South Pole. I wrote it based on a story idea by my friend Will Beinbrink (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1080718/), who is also the lead male actor in my film The Watermelon. The script was short-listed for the Sloan Initiative at the Sundance Screen Lab, is submitted for the Sloan thing at the Hamptons Film Fest, and is in talks to be optioned with a certain entity/someone (more on that later as it does or does not develop).
In 2006 when I went to the BHFF, I had three scripts in the running, two co-authored by Liv Kellgren, the other The Watermelon. All have been optioned, one was made, none won the main award – so what does hat say abot subjectivity and judges? It says no one in Hollywood knows shit and cannot tell the difference between a good screenplay and a bad one.
I don’t know who won this year, yet, and I am not going to the awards ceremony @ $125 a plate; it all brings back bad memories. Two years ago, things really fell apart with Liv, badly, and at the last moment she not only failed to show up in Beverly Hlls, she attempted to cancel our dinner reservations on her credit card. She was told there were no refunds. She did this solely to make my happy experience a bad one. Her act of malice cost her $250. I had intended to reimburse her – since she tried to cancel dinner hours before it happened, without informing, I decided fuck it, if she wanted to hurt, it would come out of her pocket.
There is a price to pay for betrayal, and Liv Kellgren has paid it ten-fold.
All of this coming from someone who, weeks before, said, “I feel like I am living in a dream” because many of the things she (we) had dreamt of were starting to come true – many meetings with producers and studios, scripts being finalists and winning here and here and there…it was closer than she ever got…
Then she turned her dream into a nightmare...and has a bogus money scheming biz with fake testimonials: www.ConsciousEnvironments.com.
And I am always reminded of that time when I go the BHFF.
Last night, I told someone about my other bad memories of Beverly Hills, when I lived there back when I was 24, with Sharon, and how that went south and I truly became “down and out in Beverly Hills.”
9 months there…another life…
Maybe I should avoid that part of L.A. – Beverly Hills truly is where dreams are born and die…
As for the festival, as every year, I saw many great short fllms. Of the features, the best was the doc on The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, A Dutch Connection.
Bio-Diesel Fuel Conspiracy
A DIFFERENT GAZE~AT HISTORY
At the Beverly Hills Film Festival (www.beverlyhillsfilmfestival.com) I watched a screening of the documentary Fields of Fuel (http://www.fieldsoffuel.com/) that chronicles the history and facts about “bio-diesel” liquid as an alternative and future fuel. The narrator of the film has written a book about this subject:
http://www.amazon.com/Fryer-Fuel-Tank-Vegetable-Alternative/dp/0970722702/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208126003&sr=8-1
Both book and film show how any diesel engine can run off treated vegetable-based oils (peanut, corn, soy, hemp) that do not emit harmful waste and are less costly than regular diesel fuel.
http://www.greasecar.com/
The documentary makes a radical claim that John D. Rockefeller was behind the drafting of the Volstead Act (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAvolstead.htm) – a.k.a “The Dry Law” of the18th Amendment that engaged Prohibition, the outlawing of alcohol in America that gave birth to a great deal of criminal activity.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/troy/4399/
Fields of Fuel claims Rockefeller wanted the manufacturing of booze illegal to stump the making of ethanol (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel), which was the basis for bo diesel fuel. At the time, the diesel engine was in its infancy and was slowly gaining popularity in the public If diesel cars became the wave of the future, Rockefeller’s Standard Oil could have been ruined – why use petrol-based fuel from the ground when corn oil could do a better, cheaper job?
http://hemp-ethanol.blogspot.com/2008/01/part-two-history-of-hemp-fuels.html
Inventor Rudolf Diesel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Diesel) did die a mysterious death before his engines could become all the age:
“In the evening of 29 September, 1913, Diesel took a ship (SS Dresden) to cross the English Channel from Antwerp, Belgium, to Harwich, England. He took dinner on board the ship and then retired to his cabin at about 10 p.m., leaving word for him to be called the next morning at 6:15 a.m. He could not be found the next morning. Ten days later, he was found dead in the water off the Dutch coast; after the recovery of his body, it was thrown back into water.”
Rockefeller did donate $350,000 to the Anti-Saloon League (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAprohibition.htm) …but did was he the puppet master of the Prohibition, and was it to deter the making of bio-diesel fuels?
If this is so, it casts new light on American history, and all those gangsters, booze runners, speakeasys, and the thousands of people killed during that era were nothing more than pawns to ensure the oil barons got rich off of gasoline sales.
At the Beverly Hills Film Festival (www.beverlyhillsfilmfestival.com) I watched a screening of the documentary Fields of Fuel (http://www.fieldsoffuel.com/) that chronicles the history and facts about “bio-diesel” liquid as an alternative and future fuel. The narrator of the film has written a book about this subject:
http://www.amazon.com/Fryer-Fuel-Tank-Vegetable-Alternative/dp/0970722702/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208126003&sr=8-1
Both book and film show how any diesel engine can run off treated vegetable-based oils (peanut, corn, soy, hemp) that do not emit harmful waste and are less costly than regular diesel fuel.
http://www.greasecar.com/
The documentary makes a radical claim that John D. Rockefeller was behind the drafting of the Volstead Act (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAvolstead.htm) – a.k.a “The Dry Law” of the18th Amendment that engaged Prohibition, the outlawing of alcohol in America that gave birth to a great deal of criminal activity.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/troy/4399/
Fields of Fuel claims Rockefeller wanted the manufacturing of booze illegal to stump the making of ethanol (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel), which was the basis for bo diesel fuel. At the time, the diesel engine was in its infancy and was slowly gaining popularity in the public If diesel cars became the wave of the future, Rockefeller’s Standard Oil could have been ruined – why use petrol-based fuel from the ground when corn oil could do a better, cheaper job?
http://hemp-ethanol.blogspot.com/2008/01/part-two-history-of-hemp-fuels.html
Inventor Rudolf Diesel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Diesel) did die a mysterious death before his engines could become all the age:
“In the evening of 29 September, 1913, Diesel took a ship (SS Dresden) to cross the English Channel from Antwerp, Belgium, to Harwich, England. He took dinner on board the ship and then retired to his cabin at about 10 p.m., leaving word for him to be called the next morning at 6:15 a.m. He could not be found the next morning. Ten days later, he was found dead in the water off the Dutch coast; after the recovery of his body, it was thrown back into water.”
Rockefeller did donate $350,000 to the Anti-Saloon League (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAprohibition.htm) …but did was he the puppet master of the Prohibition, and was it to deter the making of bio-diesel fuels?
If this is so, it casts new light on American history, and all those gangsters, booze runners, speakeasys, and the thousands of people killed during that era were nothing more than pawns to ensure the oil barons got rich off of gasoline sales.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
From Bloomington to Tijuana to bevelry Hills...
I recently returned from Bloomington. I did my thing for the Gordon Lish project early than I anticipated, and it was a good trip for research and studying the Midwestern lifestyle. The information I gathered is invaluable for my book.
http://www.routledge.com/books/Gordon-Lish-and-his-Influence-on-Twentieth-Century-American-Literature-isbn9780415991773
I came home and headed for Tijuana to work on a feature story on the violence down there, which will probbaly make an appendix for Norte Norte, which I am still working on rewrites to return to SDDU Press.
Today, my cover story of street kids appeared in the Reader. Worked 7 weeks on that one, had a hard time kidding street kids to talk to me. An expanded version of it will wind up being a chapter on my auto/ethnographic project on homelessnehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.italic.gif
insert italic tagsss, Now I Know What Happened to Me.
Next, off to Beverly Hills Film Festival this weekend. Third year in a row -- maybe I'll win a troply this time. The screenplay I did with Will, Antacrtica, that was short listed for Sundance/Sloan Screenwriter's Lab. It's the one that this certain kind fellow is interetsed in being his directoral debut, but I am also thinking he may like Because better, when I finish it, which I hope to do this month. Either would be fine with me -- I mean, it's another movie.
Speaking of movies...Stations still has ts set backs but I am working on getting it shot by years's end, and Mommy vs. the Evil Bank Robbers is inching along in pre-production. The who wanted to do my short, "asa and Andi," vanished on me, no surprise -- looking back in this blog, he's the third producer/director to flake on me. I suppose one of these days an unflake will take it on.
Working on an artcle about shooting The Watermelon and the state on indie films in San Diego. Had some good talks with the people at the SD Film Commission and SD Film Festival.
Ah, The Watermelon. I tremble, waiting to hear the original score. After seeing it so many times with the drop in music, it may be akin to seeing a whole new movie -- which I hope it is, and I hope the music is damn good. It is time for that film to get out of post-prod. and start heading for the festivals and buyers. LightSong Films says they want this to change all our lives, and that would be nice -- why do we do this stuff, this art stuff, if not for changing our lives...
My first published novel changed my life. My first full length play production chnaged my life. Hollywood thus far has changed my life -- sometimes for the worst, sometimes for the best, a mixed-blessing as I knew it would be. I have met some great people, I have met some insane people; I have been happy and hurt; I have been disillusioned and felt like I was on the right track; I have been helped and I have been lied to.
Meanwhile, I would like to get back to writing a novel soon, after all these non-fiction projects.
Of which, I am doing a study of blogging for Hampton Press and just signed the contract with McFarland for Women in the Work of Raymond Carver. I am waiting to hear from Indiana Univ. Press about my proposed biography of Carver, and son Borgo Press will release my dirty realist monograph on Carver and Bukowski. I am all Carvered out.
http://www.routledge.com/books/Gordon-Lish-and-his-Influence-on-Twentieth-Century-American-Literature-isbn9780415991773
I came home and headed for Tijuana to work on a feature story on the violence down there, which will probbaly make an appendix for Norte Norte, which I am still working on rewrites to return to SDDU Press.
Today, my cover story of street kids appeared in the Reader. Worked 7 weeks on that one, had a hard time kidding street kids to talk to me. An expanded version of it will wind up being a chapter on my auto/ethnographic project on homelessnehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.italic.gif
insert italic tagsss, Now I Know What Happened to Me.
Next, off to Beverly Hills Film Festival this weekend. Third year in a row -- maybe I'll win a troply this time. The screenplay I did with Will, Antacrtica, that was short listed for Sundance/Sloan Screenwriter's Lab. It's the one that this certain kind fellow is interetsed in being his directoral debut, but I am also thinking he may like Because better, when I finish it, which I hope to do this month. Either would be fine with me -- I mean, it's another movie.
Speaking of movies...Stations still has ts set backs but I am working on getting it shot by years's end, and Mommy vs. the Evil Bank Robbers is inching along in pre-production. The who wanted to do my short, "asa and Andi," vanished on me, no surprise -- looking back in this blog, he's the third producer/director to flake on me. I suppose one of these days an unflake will take it on.
Working on an artcle about shooting The Watermelon and the state on indie films in San Diego. Had some good talks with the people at the SD Film Commission and SD Film Festival.
Ah, The Watermelon. I tremble, waiting to hear the original score. After seeing it so many times with the drop in music, it may be akin to seeing a whole new movie -- which I hope it is, and I hope the music is damn good. It is time for that film to get out of post-prod. and start heading for the festivals and buyers. LightSong Films says they want this to change all our lives, and that would be nice -- why do we do this stuff, this art stuff, if not for changing our lives...
My first published novel changed my life. My first full length play production chnaged my life. Hollywood thus far has changed my life -- sometimes for the worst, sometimes for the best, a mixed-blessing as I knew it would be. I have met some great people, I have met some insane people; I have been happy and hurt; I have been disillusioned and felt like I was on the right track; I have been helped and I have been lied to.
Meanwhile, I would like to get back to writing a novel soon, after all these non-fiction projects.
Of which, I am doing a study of blogging for Hampton Press and just signed the contract with McFarland for Women in the Work of Raymond Carver. I am waiting to hear from Indiana Univ. Press about my proposed biography of Carver, and son Borgo Press will release my dirty realist monograph on Carver and Bukowski. I am all Carvered out.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
L.A. and Bloomington, IN
I'm pitching some TV show concepts to the producer to Baywatch tomorrow, have some imporant meets with important peeps, then I am off to Indiana Univ. to do my Helm Fellowship and research Lish's papers.
Oh, will be doing a feature for the Reader about the two year process of writing and filming The Watermelon.
Oh, will be doing a feature for the Reader about the two year process of writing and filming The Watermelon.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Helm Fellowship
I am hoping to do my Vera Helm Fellowship at Indiana Univ's Lilly Library next month or April, I just need to block out two weeks of my life. I will be there to comb through the 13,000 items in the Gordon Lish archives, such as correspondence, original Carver manuscripts with editing marks, Lish’s own manuscripts, and whatever else will be usefor for my book on Lish for Routledge, that I am eager to complete.
The research will also come in handy for my Carver biography and maybe my other Carver crit book for McFarland.
The research will also come in handy for my Carver biography and maybe my other Carver crit book for McFarland.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Notes on Film, Fiction, and Auto/ethnography
The Watermelon lingers in post-production limbo. An original score is being worked on. One musician flaked, so now there is another on it (or so I guess). It seems like long,,,,but shooting actually wrapped in Sept...most films, large or small, are in post 9-12 months. I know LightSong Films is seeking a publicist, and it is at one or two distributors, but there is really no point in shopping it and submitting it to festivals until it is absolutely ready...such is the indie film game, viz --
Some setbacks on Stations. I absolutely refuse to allow it to be changed, and the director had some cockmanie idea to set it in the past and change the locations, which would have never worked for this story and script; plus none of the conditions of the option contract have been met, and my chosen lead actress seems to have lost sight of why she moved to L.A. -- to be an actress; I knew this might happen. She is not taking classes to keep up her chops or auditioning, and instead prefers to "hang out" with the scenester crowd. She is working on her writing nd getting published, so maybe she is better off as a writer than an actress.
Speaking of which, LIV KELLGREN has also given up her biggest dream, Hollywood and acting, as she has not been cast in anything in over a year, and is attempting a THIRD buiness in feng shui, this time called Conscious environments. What a joke -- first it was Insite Out, then Feng Shui Specialities. She will never learn; my psychic Nancy said she is doomed to fail at everything, which is part of the repercussions and consequences for all the pain she has caused people and all the destruction she has created around her.
Nancy says Liv knows the Universe is punishing her yet she is still too stupid and stubborn to fix her wrongs and make amends to those she hurt. What more does she need to lose -- she lost any chance at Hollywood, she no longer acts, she will never get cast in anything significant, she is still in debt and living at her mom's house....whatver.
I may be back to square one with STATIONS. I am doing a slight revision, to see how it looks....it will eventually be made; I don't know when now.
Things are moving forward positively with MOMMY vs. THE EVIL BANK ROBBERS and FIFTY BUCKS. Working with someone to get ANTARCTICA funded, and I have a new script I started called BECAUSE.
No luck yet in finding a commercial publisher for my biography on Raymond Carver. There are two university presses interested in it, though. Someone will pick it up. I'd like to get an advance, and I mean a good one, so I can take time off to finish it right...we'll see.
McFarland has picked up my Vollmann book, now altered, as well as my monograph on the roles on women in Carver's stories. Might do a book on Wim Wenders with them.
Next two books from Borgo Press will be my short monograph on dirty realism and Bukowski and Carver, and a collection of essays called Auto/ethnograhies - Love, Sex, and Independent Filmmaking, that I am proud of.
Speaking of which, heard from peer reviewers on my auto/ethnography on Tijuana, ZONA NORTE, I have with SDSU Press. The press wants a revision. Hopefully, they will do the book. It is another I am proud of.
Some setbacks on Stations. I absolutely refuse to allow it to be changed, and the director had some cockmanie idea to set it in the past and change the locations, which would have never worked for this story and script; plus none of the conditions of the option contract have been met, and my chosen lead actress seems to have lost sight of why she moved to L.A. -- to be an actress; I knew this might happen. She is not taking classes to keep up her chops or auditioning, and instead prefers to "hang out" with the scenester crowd. She is working on her writing nd getting published, so maybe she is better off as a writer than an actress.
Speaking of which, LIV KELLGREN has also given up her biggest dream, Hollywood and acting, as she has not been cast in anything in over a year, and is attempting a THIRD buiness in feng shui, this time called Conscious environments. What a joke -- first it was Insite Out, then Feng Shui Specialities. She will never learn; my psychic Nancy said she is doomed to fail at everything, which is part of the repercussions and consequences for all the pain she has caused people and all the destruction she has created around her.
Nancy says Liv knows the Universe is punishing her yet she is still too stupid and stubborn to fix her wrongs and make amends to those she hurt. What more does she need to lose -- she lost any chance at Hollywood, she no longer acts, she will never get cast in anything significant, she is still in debt and living at her mom's house....whatver.
I may be back to square one with STATIONS. I am doing a slight revision, to see how it looks....it will eventually be made; I don't know when now.
Things are moving forward positively with MOMMY vs. THE EVIL BANK ROBBERS and FIFTY BUCKS. Working with someone to get ANTARCTICA funded, and I have a new script I started called BECAUSE.
No luck yet in finding a commercial publisher for my biography on Raymond Carver. There are two university presses interested in it, though. Someone will pick it up. I'd like to get an advance, and I mean a good one, so I can take time off to finish it right...we'll see.
McFarland has picked up my Vollmann book, now altered, as well as my monograph on the roles on women in Carver's stories. Might do a book on Wim Wenders with them.
Next two books from Borgo Press will be my short monograph on dirty realism and Bukowski and Carver, and a collection of essays called Auto/ethnograhies - Love, Sex, and Independent Filmmaking, that I am proud of.
Speaking of which, heard from peer reviewers on my auto/ethnography on Tijuana, ZONA NORTE, I have with SDSU Press. The press wants a revision. Hopefully, they will do the book. It is another I am proud of.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
End of the Year Stuff
Since writers live to be accepted (who wnats to be rejected), here are my Christmas acceptances --
1. Book contract from State Univ. of New York Press for The Anthropology of Pornography, to be published in their Postmodern Culture Series. This is an ethnography of sex workers in Los Angeles only, a study of the sub-culture in L.A., as an athropologist would study any culture, partially participant-observer. It starts off with my own experiences as being a cameraman for people like Al Borda, Max Hardcore, Captain Bob, etc., and the people I met, talked with, became friends with,
and then leads to interviews with various people who work as talent and directors in the biz (and what they do outside the biz in real life). The book is not finished and will nneed vetting by peer review, so I don't expect this book to come out until late 2009 or even early 2010.
2. Agreemets with Borgo Press to publish two more collections of erotic stories, the short novel Seven Women (previously only available in a special edition from Bookspan's Venus Book Club) and a collection of essays called Auto/Ethnographies -- Sex, Death, Love, and Independent Filmmaking.
3. Essay, "Like the Portholes in a Jules Verne Submaries - Footnotes in the Novels of Paul Auster, Nicholson Baker, and Mark Z. Danielewski" in the journal Problems in Lietrary Genres from the Univ of Lodz in Poland.
It was accepted the same day that Critqiue turned it down the seconmd time (the revision). I have to change the referncing style for their journal, which uses a British-based style guide.
4. I'll add this as it is most likley going to happen -- talkling with McFarland & Co, about Carver's Women - Role, Place, and Identity of the Feminine in the Short Stories of Raymond Carver. They loved the proposala and just need to see a chapter.
5. Need to revise a review esay on Vollmann's new book, Riding Toward Everywhere, for Modern Language Studies.
Meanwhile, The Watermelon is stll in the last legs of post-production. LightSong Films is trying to get together some quick investor funds to film my campty horror low budget Hardboiled Zoimbie Detective (origianlly pubished in Dybukk Press' Badass Horror as a novella) while dealing with financing, with Hand Picked Films, for Statons. And Debbie is still dealing wth financing for Mommy vs. the Evil Bank Robbers. Right now, I feel very distant and aliented from the whole film financing process and Hollywood in general.
I have set some end of the year goals -- wrap in the Star Trek critical monography by Xmas (or at least New Year's) and have the new novel, The Agent, ready for the agent when NY publishing opens back up for business in January.
Oh -- and the Carver biography is still out there, so with all the New Yorker stuff on Carver lately, will hoepfully have an offer in when things open back up there on the East Coast.
1. Book contract from State Univ. of New York Press for The Anthropology of Pornography, to be published in their Postmodern Culture Series. This is an ethnography of sex workers in Los Angeles only, a study of the sub-culture in L.A., as an athropologist would study any culture, partially participant-observer. It starts off with my own experiences as being a cameraman for people like Al Borda, Max Hardcore, Captain Bob, etc., and the people I met, talked with, became friends with,
and then leads to interviews with various people who work as talent and directors in the biz (and what they do outside the biz in real life). The book is not finished and will nneed vetting by peer review, so I don't expect this book to come out until late 2009 or even early 2010.
2. Agreemets with Borgo Press to publish two more collections of erotic stories, the short novel Seven Women (previously only available in a special edition from Bookspan's Venus Book Club) and a collection of essays called Auto/Ethnographies -- Sex, Death, Love, and Independent Filmmaking.
3. Essay, "Like the Portholes in a Jules Verne Submaries - Footnotes in the Novels of Paul Auster, Nicholson Baker, and Mark Z. Danielewski" in the journal Problems in Lietrary Genres from the Univ of Lodz in Poland.
It was accepted the same day that Critqiue turned it down the seconmd time (the revision). I have to change the referncing style for their journal, which uses a British-based style guide.
4. I'll add this as it is most likley going to happen -- talkling with McFarland & Co, about Carver's Women - Role, Place, and Identity of the Feminine in the Short Stories of Raymond Carver. They loved the proposala and just need to see a chapter.
5. Need to revise a review esay on Vollmann's new book, Riding Toward Everywhere, for Modern Language Studies.
Meanwhile, The Watermelon is stll in the last legs of post-production. LightSong Films is trying to get together some quick investor funds to film my campty horror low budget Hardboiled Zoimbie Detective (origianlly pubished in Dybukk Press' Badass Horror as a novella) while dealing with financing, with Hand Picked Films, for Statons. And Debbie is still dealing wth financing for Mommy vs. the Evil Bank Robbers. Right now, I feel very distant and aliented from the whole film financing process and Hollywood in general.
I have set some end of the year goals -- wrap in the Star Trek critical monography by Xmas (or at least New Year's) and have the new novel, The Agent, ready for the agent when NY publishing opens back up for business in January.
Oh -- and the Carver biography is still out there, so with all the New Yorker stuff on Carver lately, will hoepfully have an offer in when things open back up there on the East Coast.
Friday, December 14, 2007
My 44th published book, a collection of sordid, nasty, literary tales of human interaction, titled How to Have an Affair and Other Instructions, is now available from Wildside Press.
Makes a good Xmas gift! Order today -
http://www.wildsidebooks.com//How-to-Have-an-Affair-and-Other-Instructions-by-Michael-Hemmingson-trade-pb_p_316-2134.html#
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Notes from Dec. 1 07
The Watermelon did not get selected for Sundance. It passed some initial steps, but not the final. The producers are bummed, I think. I am used to rejection and I'd lie if I said it doesn't bother me, but it does just a litte. It was a long shot and they did not submit the best cut -- at least not where the film is at now. There are plenty of other festivals, many, and a great deal of very good movies never got into Sundance -- e.g., Edmond, its first screening was at the Silverlake Film Festival, which is local centric and new.
So now I am waiting to hear from the Sundance Screenwriting Lab and the Sloan regrading Antarctica. I shold know by mid-month.
I have made it to consideration rounds for a Guggenheim Fellowship -- at least, I know they sent out recommendation forms to my agent, Larry McCaffery, LightSong Films and...somewhere else...another long shot but I am mid-career, I beleive, which is what the Guggenheim is for, although a few people have told me that they usually turn you down the first year and give it to you the next time you apply (I think SSI does the same thing).
I have a lot of book ms. and book proposals out there -- my main interest is fidning homes for the Carver biography and Zona Norte.
No new screenplays in my head, or none that I feel an urgent need to write, but I am thinking of going back and rewriting two that I have not been marketing because they have plot problems, Priority Male (rom com) and Fifty Bucks (thriller/crime). Will, the lead in The Watermelon who acted at The Fritz back in 1995, showed Fifty Bucks to a producer he knows at Lakeshore Entertainment -- the guy said he was ready to option it from age one, until he got to page 50 and felt it came apart. We've been trying to set up a meeting for him to give me notes on where he'd like to see the story go, but I have some ideas on how the fix pages 51-110, so may do that.
Priority Male just needs a new Act III. The Act III I have now is kind of like Blazing Saddles, but only Mel Brooks can do mel Brooks.
What else...before the year is up, I will attempt to finish the first draft of the Star Trek critical monograph, finish the last chapter of Judas Payne and turn it into Borgo Press, get the outlines and opening chapters to The Agent (novel) and Now I Know What Happened to Me (auto/ethnography)out there, and manybe have my book of essays ready to go, which is called Promises Made to Heaven...Broken.
So now I am waiting to hear from the Sundance Screenwriting Lab and the Sloan regrading Antarctica. I shold know by mid-month.
I have made it to consideration rounds for a Guggenheim Fellowship -- at least, I know they sent out recommendation forms to my agent, Larry McCaffery, LightSong Films and...somewhere else...another long shot but I am mid-career, I beleive, which is what the Guggenheim is for, although a few people have told me that they usually turn you down the first year and give it to you the next time you apply (I think SSI does the same thing).
I have a lot of book ms. and book proposals out there -- my main interest is fidning homes for the Carver biography and Zona Norte.
No new screenplays in my head, or none that I feel an urgent need to write, but I am thinking of going back and rewriting two that I have not been marketing because they have plot problems, Priority Male (rom com) and Fifty Bucks (thriller/crime). Will, the lead in The Watermelon who acted at The Fritz back in 1995, showed Fifty Bucks to a producer he knows at Lakeshore Entertainment -- the guy said he was ready to option it from age one, until he got to page 50 and felt it came apart. We've been trying to set up a meeting for him to give me notes on where he'd like to see the story go, but I have some ideas on how the fix pages 51-110, so may do that.
Priority Male just needs a new Act III. The Act III I have now is kind of like Blazing Saddles, but only Mel Brooks can do mel Brooks.
What else...before the year is up, I will attempt to finish the first draft of the Star Trek critical monograph, finish the last chapter of Judas Payne and turn it into Borgo Press, get the outlines and opening chapters to The Agent (novel) and Now I Know What Happened to Me (auto/ethnography)out there, and manybe have my book of essays ready to go, which is called Promises Made to Heaven...Broken.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Maybe Not
Wedding Stopper will not be able to be done within the budget originally discussed. Too complicated, and there is a crashing helicoptor. PLUS Jolene decided she didn't like it because it mirrored certain events and people in her life, when I told her last year it was based on certain people and events. I thought she had read it but I guess she didn't, until there was an investor looking at it.
Investor is looking at House of Why, my low key noir thriller with one location -- a beach house, and six characters.
Meanwhile, Stations is in pre-preproduction...
Debating on going to the American Film Market later this week or weekend. I have a press pass. Not sure if I feel like interacting with all these film biz types. A sales rep is showing The Waternelon around there. May head to Tijuana with Kevin...
Speaking of Tijuana, Zona Norte is currently out with Transaction Books, State Univ. of NY Press, Left Coast Press, Pluto Books, and Guide Dog Books. Any one of them would be a fine publisher -- so whover comes back first with a decent offer. Later this week I will probably submit it to Ecco Press, AltaMira Press, and Univ. of California Press.
I am, this week, starting the Star Trek crit book for Wayne State UP, fixing up the Carver bio proposal, and discussing various possible books with SUNY Press, IB Tauris & Co., and Peter Lang, Publisher.
Investor is looking at House of Why, my low key noir thriller with one location -- a beach house, and six characters.
Meanwhile, Stations is in pre-preproduction...
Debating on going to the American Film Market later this week or weekend. I have a press pass. Not sure if I feel like interacting with all these film biz types. A sales rep is showing The Waternelon around there. May head to Tijuana with Kevin...
Speaking of Tijuana, Zona Norte is currently out with Transaction Books, State Univ. of NY Press, Left Coast Press, Pluto Books, and Guide Dog Books. Any one of them would be a fine publisher -- so whover comes back first with a decent offer. Later this week I will probably submit it to Ecco Press, AltaMira Press, and Univ. of California Press.
I am, this week, starting the Star Trek crit book for Wayne State UP, fixing up the Carver bio proposal, and discussing various possible books with SUNY Press, IB Tauris & Co., and Peter Lang, Publisher.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Thursday, October 25, 2007
#5
A new, tighter cut of The Watermelon is coming in the mailer, edit #5. The one I have is #2. I am eager to see the new and improved version.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
We Are Burning Here In San Diego
I am by the beach and far from the fires.
I know that Liv Kellgren had to evacuate her house. My parents almost had to, was getting close...
There is a sales rep who wants to shop The Watermelon at the American Film Market, haoppening next week in Santa Monica. She has a good track record and is well-connected. I hve a press pass for AFM but am unsure if I can go -- at least not the whole time.
I have wrapped up a lot of books...
The Dirty Realist Duo - Charles Bukowski and Raymond Carver on the Aesthetics of the Ugly is done and off to Borgo Press for Spring 08 publication.
Zona Norte is done and ready to find a home (there are a couple of prospects).
Promises Made to Heaven...Broken almost done.
To complete the year, I will finish the guitar book for th Tiger Guides, the Star Trek crit book for Wayne State Univ. Press, and...who knows...maybe another screenplay. Always need those to sell.
Need to do some work on the Gordon Lish crit book.
I know that Liv Kellgren had to evacuate her house. My parents almost had to, was getting close...
There is a sales rep who wants to shop The Watermelon at the American Film Market, haoppening next week in Santa Monica. She has a good track record and is well-connected. I hve a press pass for AFM but am unsure if I can go -- at least not the whole time.
I have wrapped up a lot of books...
The Dirty Realist Duo - Charles Bukowski and Raymond Carver on the Aesthetics of the Ugly is done and off to Borgo Press for Spring 08 publication.
Zona Norte is done and ready to find a home (there are a couple of prospects).
Promises Made to Heaven...Broken almost done.
To complete the year, I will finish the guitar book for th Tiger Guides, the Star Trek crit book for Wayne State Univ. Press, and...who knows...maybe another screenplay. Always need those to sell.
Need to do some work on the Gordon Lish crit book.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Raymond Carver Bio
I had toyed with the idea iof writing a bio-pic screenplay on Raymond Carver. I decided to do it as a book first, which my agent in NY is now shopping -- with today's NY Times article about Carver and Lish, there is a buzz in the publishing industry that will last for a few dyas.
It would still make a good movie. I can see Vincent D'onfrio playing Carver.
It would still make a good movie. I can see Vincent D'onfrio playing Carver.
Easier to View
The Watermelon trailer is now at YouTube, easier to view...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDimaB95fK0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDimaB95fK0
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Next Movies
Next movies to shoot...
Stations is in pre-production.
Mommy vs. the Evil Bank Robbers is in pre-pre-production.
Liv Kellgren is not involved with either, as well.
Stations is in pre-production.
Mommy vs. the Evil Bank Robbers is in pre-pre-production.
Liv Kellgren is not involved with either, as well.
Trailer of a Trailer
A 1-minute trailer for The Watermelon, is online!
We have a working cut that has been submitted to Sundance and is with our sales rep, and will be screening for distributors soon. Overall, it runs 97 minutes.
It is here, at last.
We have a working cut that has been submitted to Sundance and is with our sales rep, and will be screening for distributors soon. Overall, it runs 97 minutes.
It is here, at last.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Ready for the Journey
Last week, I saw a rough cut of The Watermelon and we shot some minor scenes that needed to be dropped in, like Jolene's cameo as the lead's blind date.
I was very pleased by what I saw. My opinion is biased, of course, but I think we have a good movie here.
As I watched, all I could think of was the past...remembering how this script...such as the night I came up with the idea, in Encinitas, at Liv Kellgren's house. We are walking to the bar on Highyway 101, three blocks away. I talked about the idea at the bar. Liv just smiled, probably thinking I would never write it. I was in her bed that night, her dog Mimi at our feet, her daughter at her ex-husband's house; I couldn't sleep, I could only think of this script, this movie...
I remembered sitting on the floor, at 3 a.m, mid-April 2005, franticlly finishing the script so I could give it to Liv at the airpor, before she went to Las Vegas and I went to Seattle to teach at a writing conference. I wanted to show her, prove to her, I could write a screenplay, one that would start our carers as independent filmmakers.
I remembered showing it around Los Angeles, having no idea how I would sell it or get it made. Several actors and low-levels producers said they loved it. A major studio producer had coverage done on it; the report said, "Wonderful writing, but no commercial potential."
I remembered optioning it to LightSong Filsm, alone, now that Liv and I were not speaking. I had no one to celebrate with. What was there to celebrate, anyway...
I remembered all the ups and down, the crazy people who came into the project and made a mess of things,. the investor who backed out, the woukd-be players who b.s.'ed us. It was supposed to have started shooting January 2007, but it was July 9, 2007 when first day of shooting began.
This morning, I was informed that a suitable rough cut was ready to make the deadlin for the Sundance Film Festival.
I though, Finally, here we go.
Two years.
And the journey has only started. The biggest hurdle was hurdled -- the film was shot. Now we have to show t, sell it, find an audience, maybe make some money.
There is still a long road ahead on this...
I began this blog fifteen months ago. It is a curious thing to go back and read the entries. I see the patterns. I see what worked, and what was broken. I wish I had the answers but now I have more questions.
I was very pleased by what I saw. My opinion is biased, of course, but I think we have a good movie here.
As I watched, all I could think of was the past...remembering how this script...such as the night I came up with the idea, in Encinitas, at Liv Kellgren's house. We are walking to the bar on Highyway 101, three blocks away. I talked about the idea at the bar. Liv just smiled, probably thinking I would never write it. I was in her bed that night, her dog Mimi at our feet, her daughter at her ex-husband's house; I couldn't sleep, I could only think of this script, this movie...
I remembered sitting on the floor, at 3 a.m, mid-April 2005, franticlly finishing the script so I could give it to Liv at the airpor, before she went to Las Vegas and I went to Seattle to teach at a writing conference. I wanted to show her, prove to her, I could write a screenplay, one that would start our carers as independent filmmakers.
I remembered showing it around Los Angeles, having no idea how I would sell it or get it made. Several actors and low-levels producers said they loved it. A major studio producer had coverage done on it; the report said, "Wonderful writing, but no commercial potential."
I remembered optioning it to LightSong Filsm, alone, now that Liv and I were not speaking. I had no one to celebrate with. What was there to celebrate, anyway...
I remembered all the ups and down, the crazy people who came into the project and made a mess of things,. the investor who backed out, the woukd-be players who b.s.'ed us. It was supposed to have started shooting January 2007, but it was July 9, 2007 when first day of shooting began.
This morning, I was informed that a suitable rough cut was ready to make the deadlin for the Sundance Film Festival.
I though, Finally, here we go.
Two years.
And the journey has only started. The biggest hurdle was hurdled -- the film was shot. Now we have to show t, sell it, find an audience, maybe make some money.
There is still a long road ahead on this...
I began this blog fifteen months ago. It is a curious thing to go back and read the entries. I see the patterns. I see what worked, and what was broken. I wish I had the answers but now I have more questions.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Full Circle
It is now time for this blog to come full circle, in a way.
When I began it, in April 2006 last year, I ranted about trying to find homes for screenplays, and how Liv Kellgren (of Encinitas, Calif. and MOXIE Theatre, for search engine purposes) was supposed to help me and stand by my side on this adventure for a career change, to benefit both our lives...and how she ultimately took a huge CRAP on our plans, by lying to me, breaking several major promises, and betraying my trust.
The first project was The Watermelon. Looking over the course of this blog, I chronicled meeting several producers who wanted to get it started but were unable to, then I met Brad and Lori of LightSong Films...there was a six-month delay, funding issues, and some bad apples connected to the film, but it has been shooting this month in L.A. and is 75% done. From what I have seen, it looks very good.
So, that script that I wrote for Liv Kellgren, that script she abandoned out of stupidity and selfishness, that script I sat up to the wee hours to finish, on my floor, and rushed to the airport to give to her before she went to Vegas for a business thing for the Western School of Feng Shui, that project I wrote for us to both use as a way into the indie film world, has become my entry in the indie film world, alone.
LightSong was gonna use her trailer, the original watermelon trailer, as the main prop, and she, to my surprise, agreed and made a deal with them. I supposed she didn't want to burn any bridges in L.A., because you never know who may be in the position to help you in the future...but this would also be a way for her to get that hunk of junk off her mother's property. The only part of the deal I didn't like was that Brad would have to shoot of MOXIE Theatre play...meaning he'd have to come down and give them a PBS-quality shoot of some show...I didn't want my fi;m, or anyone connected to it, helping that theater company out in any way shape or form. Why? Because Liv's cohorts stuck their noses in my business. They had to pry and get info about what was happening between me and Liv, and give her bad advice, and backstab me. Now, of course, their shows have lost a great deal of money, they've gotten some bad reviews, and they're not as hot as their egos thought, and I doubt the company will last another season.
But Liv's trailer was too big and cumbersome to haul up to L.A. and store, so in the end they went with a 13 foot smaller trailer, which worked out just fine. I am sure Liv was pissed. But now she could not hold the trailer over on my film, like denying it. Now I could rub it in her nose that I was making a real movie and she was not.
And boy did I rub it in. I know it was being childish and vindictive, but I felt justified that I was getting what she always dreamt of and she was getting nothing, trapped in her life, not getting cast, stuck working 9-to-5 and turning 34 with no accomplishments in her life.
There is more now:
The family action/comedy we wrote in summer 2005, Mommy vs. the Evil Bank Robbers, is going to get made. at least, it is damn close to finalizing a deal. This is the cloest it has come. It is in a different version now, rewritten with my biz partner Debbie, with Liv relegated to a "story by" co-credit, which I may remove.
One would think, that with these scripts now going places, Liv would be smart and get back on board -- but doing so would mean she has to make amends, and she has to apologize for ling to me and breaking two major promises, and God knows that would never show humility and say she is sorry, and admit she was wrong. She is incapable of admitting she is wrong. She has always been so above everyone around her that she doesn't feel she ever has to apologize for hurting other people.
Everyone in L.A. that I have talked to her about agrees she is pretty dumb -- I mean, the woman dreams all her life about making movies, doesn't have a SAG or AFTRA card, has never gotten near to doing it...and then when it happens, she doesn't make the right move to fix things and get back on track?
Part of it was, I know she never thought this would happen, that these scripts would be made. She is used to failure and dreams never realized. I told her time and again, no book I write or play ever goes unpublished or unproduced -- some find homes right away, some take 1-3 years. I told her this would be the same for the screenplays: it wold take a while, it was not gonna happen tomorrow, it would take hard work and drive and tenacity, but it would happen. She did not believe in me, the work, or the dream. So, in knowing only failure all her life, and being afraid of success, she left herself behind, and she wound up in a pool of failure.
I left messages with her that it may not be too late, she could come back on board, she could experience this, just fix your wrongs, make amends, pick up where you left off, get back on the right track...and did she do the right thing? Liv Kellgren, doing te right thing? The Universe would probably explode if she ever did the right thing.
So, as the movie was shooting, I found myself sad, and melancholy, and then I was angry -- I was pissed because she had left me to experience the joy of my first movie alone. I had no one to share this with, no one of true significance, like a soul mate or partner -- in that she inspired the script, I wrote it for her out of love so she could be a film actress, because I wanted her to be happy, and then she betrayed me...we were suppose to share this wonderful experience together, and now that I was left alone, the expereince lost its value...this was supposed to be like my first novel or play, something wonderful...
Perhaps I can find a way for it to be, yet. It's not done, it's not edited, thhere is still along road ahead -- screenings, festivals, selling it...and if it does get distribution, will it be just DVD/cable, or will it get some theater time...nd how well will it do...what kind of reviews will it get...what kind of doors will it open for me...
I have decided to let Brad direct Stations, the next project, becuse it is a tough one, on a moving train. This is contigent that he keeps Jolene in the lead role, as planned. Yes, she is unknown, but people have to start somewhere, and this movie will make her an overnight indie star darling, and set her on her path, and my job to help her will be complete, she can go off on her career, have a family, an d I will have fulfilled my karmic duty to her and her future kid. Also, for a number of reasons, I am uncertain I could direct her objectively. She and the project will be in good hands. I am wondering about taking on roles as director and producer anyway -- I think I am best off just being a writer, for now.
So, Staations should shoot in January, that is the plan, a year overdue but that's Hollywood for you.
I don't know what will be next. I have half a dozen other scripts to place, another one I wrote with Liv, How to Win a Diamond Ring, and one that needs a major rewrite, The Next Wedding. Somehow I know that even if they get made, Liv Kellgren will still be too stupid to do the right thing.
What a waste of a human being, she had so mujch promise, she could have had it all, and now it is too late, I'm afraid. She really screwed her chances up.
So it goes.
When I began it, in April 2006 last year, I ranted about trying to find homes for screenplays, and how Liv Kellgren (of Encinitas, Calif. and MOXIE Theatre, for search engine purposes) was supposed to help me and stand by my side on this adventure for a career change, to benefit both our lives...and how she ultimately took a huge CRAP on our plans, by lying to me, breaking several major promises, and betraying my trust.
The first project was The Watermelon. Looking over the course of this blog, I chronicled meeting several producers who wanted to get it started but were unable to, then I met Brad and Lori of LightSong Films...there was a six-month delay, funding issues, and some bad apples connected to the film, but it has been shooting this month in L.A. and is 75% done. From what I have seen, it looks very good.
So, that script that I wrote for Liv Kellgren, that script she abandoned out of stupidity and selfishness, that script I sat up to the wee hours to finish, on my floor, and rushed to the airport to give to her before she went to Vegas for a business thing for the Western School of Feng Shui, that project I wrote for us to both use as a way into the indie film world, has become my entry in the indie film world, alone.
LightSong was gonna use her trailer, the original watermelon trailer, as the main prop, and she, to my surprise, agreed and made a deal with them. I supposed she didn't want to burn any bridges in L.A., because you never know who may be in the position to help you in the future...but this would also be a way for her to get that hunk of junk off her mother's property. The only part of the deal I didn't like was that Brad would have to shoot of MOXIE Theatre play...meaning he'd have to come down and give them a PBS-quality shoot of some show...I didn't want my fi;m, or anyone connected to it, helping that theater company out in any way shape or form. Why? Because Liv's cohorts stuck their noses in my business. They had to pry and get info about what was happening between me and Liv, and give her bad advice, and backstab me. Now, of course, their shows have lost a great deal of money, they've gotten some bad reviews, and they're not as hot as their egos thought, and I doubt the company will last another season.
But Liv's trailer was too big and cumbersome to haul up to L.A. and store, so in the end they went with a 13 foot smaller trailer, which worked out just fine. I am sure Liv was pissed. But now she could not hold the trailer over on my film, like denying it. Now I could rub it in her nose that I was making a real movie and she was not.
And boy did I rub it in. I know it was being childish and vindictive, but I felt justified that I was getting what she always dreamt of and she was getting nothing, trapped in her life, not getting cast, stuck working 9-to-5 and turning 34 with no accomplishments in her life.
There is more now:
The family action/comedy we wrote in summer 2005, Mommy vs. the Evil Bank Robbers, is going to get made. at least, it is damn close to finalizing a deal. This is the cloest it has come. It is in a different version now, rewritten with my biz partner Debbie, with Liv relegated to a "story by" co-credit, which I may remove.
One would think, that with these scripts now going places, Liv would be smart and get back on board -- but doing so would mean she has to make amends, and she has to apologize for ling to me and breaking two major promises, and God knows that would never show humility and say she is sorry, and admit she was wrong. She is incapable of admitting she is wrong. She has always been so above everyone around her that she doesn't feel she ever has to apologize for hurting other people.
Everyone in L.A. that I have talked to her about agrees she is pretty dumb -- I mean, the woman dreams all her life about making movies, doesn't have a SAG or AFTRA card, has never gotten near to doing it...and then when it happens, she doesn't make the right move to fix things and get back on track?
Part of it was, I know she never thought this would happen, that these scripts would be made. She is used to failure and dreams never realized. I told her time and again, no book I write or play ever goes unpublished or unproduced -- some find homes right away, some take 1-3 years. I told her this would be the same for the screenplays: it wold take a while, it was not gonna happen tomorrow, it would take hard work and drive and tenacity, but it would happen. She did not believe in me, the work, or the dream. So, in knowing only failure all her life, and being afraid of success, she left herself behind, and she wound up in a pool of failure.
I left messages with her that it may not be too late, she could come back on board, she could experience this, just fix your wrongs, make amends, pick up where you left off, get back on the right track...and did she do the right thing? Liv Kellgren, doing te right thing? The Universe would probably explode if she ever did the right thing.
So, as the movie was shooting, I found myself sad, and melancholy, and then I was angry -- I was pissed because she had left me to experience the joy of my first movie alone. I had no one to share this with, no one of true significance, like a soul mate or partner -- in that she inspired the script, I wrote it for her out of love so she could be a film actress, because I wanted her to be happy, and then she betrayed me...we were suppose to share this wonderful experience together, and now that I was left alone, the expereince lost its value...this was supposed to be like my first novel or play, something wonderful...
Perhaps I can find a way for it to be, yet. It's not done, it's not edited, thhere is still along road ahead -- screenings, festivals, selling it...and if it does get distribution, will it be just DVD/cable, or will it get some theater time...nd how well will it do...what kind of reviews will it get...what kind of doors will it open for me...
I have decided to let Brad direct Stations, the next project, becuse it is a tough one, on a moving train. This is contigent that he keeps Jolene in the lead role, as planned. Yes, she is unknown, but people have to start somewhere, and this movie will make her an overnight indie star darling, and set her on her path, and my job to help her will be complete, she can go off on her career, have a family, an d I will have fulfilled my karmic duty to her and her future kid. Also, for a number of reasons, I am uncertain I could direct her objectively. She and the project will be in good hands. I am wondering about taking on roles as director and producer anyway -- I think I am best off just being a writer, for now.
So, Staations should shoot in January, that is the plan, a year overdue but that's Hollywood for you.
I don't know what will be next. I have half a dozen other scripts to place, another one I wrote with Liv, How to Win a Diamond Ring, and one that needs a major rewrite, The Next Wedding. Somehow I know that even if they get made, Liv Kellgren will still be too stupid to do the right thing.
What a waste of a human being, she had so mujch promise, she could have had it all, and now it is too late, I'm afraid. She really screwed her chances up.
So it goes.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
New Projects
I have two projects submitted the Sundance Screenwriter's Lab (last year I came fairly close to getting in with Many Blessings). Both are collaborations:
1. To Hell with Heaven is a WWII flick based on the life of Gunny Sgt. Johnny Basilone. He's a Marine icon. Surprised there has neve been a bio pic. This isn't really a bio ic, and is only looselyt based on him. This one is with Sean, a hopeful producer in L.A.
2. Antarctica. This one is set in a science station in the South Pole, a charcter dramedy about how these folks deal with Winter months, trapped inside the station, losing their minds. This one is with Will, the lead actor in The Watermelon.
I don't normally collaborate with men on writing projects -- or anyone really. But making movies is such an acoss-the-board collaborative medium. The only person I've co-written screenplays with is Liv Kellgren, but that's no more.
I have two short screenplays over at Duke City Shootout, "Valerie" and "Asa and Andi." "Valerie" is a one-woman movie, where the camera is the POV of the man she has a two year relationship with. In a matter of ten-twelve minutes, we see various scenes, from first date, second date, first fuck, living together, pregnancy, miscarriage, jealousy, fights, breaking up, and having coffee together years later, when POV is engaged to another woman and Valerie has gone through some tragic events, always wondering what her life would have been like had she not broken up with this guy. "Asa and Andi" is about two friends in the 30s who decide to have a baby because they are getting older and their bio-clocks are ticking...now, this little script is supposedly to be made by a fellow in L.A., there has been a lot of back and forth and rewriting and discussion about shooting it on 35 mm film, but nothing has happened yet, so I am showing the script around again...
I don't have any plans to write any more screenplays than finishing the two mentioned above. I have enough screenplays written that I am trying to sell, place or produce.
I'm back to working on my books.
1. To Hell with Heaven is a WWII flick based on the life of Gunny Sgt. Johnny Basilone. He's a Marine icon. Surprised there has neve been a bio pic. This isn't really a bio ic, and is only looselyt based on him. This one is with Sean, a hopeful producer in L.A.
2. Antarctica. This one is set in a science station in the South Pole, a charcter dramedy about how these folks deal with Winter months, trapped inside the station, losing their minds. This one is with Will, the lead actor in The Watermelon.
I don't normally collaborate with men on writing projects -- or anyone really. But making movies is such an acoss-the-board collaborative medium. The only person I've co-written screenplays with is Liv Kellgren, but that's no more.
I have two short screenplays over at Duke City Shootout, "Valerie" and "Asa and Andi." "Valerie" is a one-woman movie, where the camera is the POV of the man she has a two year relationship with. In a matter of ten-twelve minutes, we see various scenes, from first date, second date, first fuck, living together, pregnancy, miscarriage, jealousy, fights, breaking up, and having coffee together years later, when POV is engaged to another woman and Valerie has gone through some tragic events, always wondering what her life would have been like had she not broken up with this guy. "Asa and Andi" is about two friends in the 30s who decide to have a baby because they are getting older and their bio-clocks are ticking...now, this little script is supposedly to be made by a fellow in L.A., there has been a lot of back and forth and rewriting and discussion about shooting it on 35 mm film, but nothing has happened yet, so I am showing the script around again...
I don't have any plans to write any more screenplays than finishing the two mentioned above. I have enough screenplays written that I am trying to sell, place or produce.
I'm back to working on my books.
Saturday, May 05, 2007
After a few bumps and delays (3 months worth) everything seems to be running well with The Watermelon and shooting should begin within weeks, or in July. The producers tell me a rough cut is expected by Sept. 1.
Even Liv has been cooperative, with the use of the trailer, now that she has her assoc. producer credit on IMDB and Hollywood Reporter and such.
The Art of the One Act
At long last, I received copies of The Art of the One Act, an anthology that contains my play "Milk."
This book has been three years in the making, maybe more. It is massive, pricey ($35) and beautifully printed and designed. It is also a weird connection to my other writerly side, as a playwright.
I wrote this one-act back in 1999 for the San Diego Actors Alliance Festival...Lissa was to be in it but she felt uncomfortable because the female lead was based on Christine, my ex- and her friend, and she didn't feel good "playing" her friend.
It later went on to Moving Arts in LA for their 2000 festival at the LA Theater Scenter. They did an excellent job, different from mine. It has been produced in a few other festivals, and once again in San Diego, in a production where Liv, yes Liv!, played the female lead...how curious to have her "play" Christine, and how odd that now, in many ways, Liv and Christine are the same (both seeking meaning and truth in spiritual matters and blaming the men in their life for all their problems).
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Update
Well, haven't updated in a while...
Things still in the air over The Watermelon. Daily, weekly changes, ups and downs, cast changes, producing changes, location changes, but seems it is getting closer to shoot, maybe June. I guess this is all par for the course, and it is really out of my hands -- casting choices, locations and what not, since I am but the mere writer. ;)
Stations is delayed to, to Oct. I think. One of the invetsors has had financial problems and may or may not be able to come in, and the Exec Producers won't put anything up until I meet the first half of the budget. So am checking into other avenues.
So why did I want to get into this film biz?
The Dress is still in development in NY, I believe, and LFTV has many of our porjects out there...
Right now I have been focused on getting back to my books, which I have neglected the past year. I don't have a single title out for 2007, which is weird...after 8 years of publishing 3-5 books a year, to have a dry year feels wrong...
The short films have been going well.
Things still in the air over The Watermelon. Daily, weekly changes, ups and downs, cast changes, producing changes, location changes, but seems it is getting closer to shoot, maybe June. I guess this is all par for the course, and it is really out of my hands -- casting choices, locations and what not, since I am but the mere writer. ;)
Stations is delayed to, to Oct. I think. One of the invetsors has had financial problems and may or may not be able to come in, and the Exec Producers won't put anything up until I meet the first half of the budget. So am checking into other avenues.
So why did I want to get into this film biz?
The Dress is still in development in NY, I believe, and LFTV has many of our porjects out there...
Right now I have been focused on getting back to my books, which I have neglected the past year. I don't have a single title out for 2007, which is weird...after 8 years of publishing 3-5 books a year, to have a dry year feels wrong...
The short films have been going well.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Well...
Obviously I have not been keeping up with this blog...
Been in L.A. a lot, almost every week. Haven't moved up yet, but soon.
Some delays on The Watermelon, with financing not in place. Instead of shooting next month, it may be March. But the director/producer plans on shooting the "TV stuff" next month (stuff the charactersare watching on TV, which can double as short films and DVD extras stuff later).
Stations may shoot first. It's all up in the air. The financing for that project could very well be settled first. Jolene is eager to get started, and so am I.
Funny thing with Stations, it was a finalist for the Westwood International Film Festival...and they never told me. Not an email, not a phone call. I happened upon the listing via Google. I didn't win, but still...I would have liked to have gone...I called and emailed the festival and they never replied. My PR person knows them and called and they'rejust disorganized, it seems.
Speaking of not winning, I made semi-finalsit for the Slamdance/Fox 21 thing, but didn't make Top 3. WHich is okay. I stole some of their tequila as a consolation prize. Met some interesting people, including some improv comedian/Adrian Brody lookalike who tried to pick up on Jolene. The execs at Fox21 felt my pilot, "Blogger" would make a better movie than TV show, and they could be right...
I have EPs for both films -- very big ones, big names in Hollywood, they're not putting any upfront cash in, they are letting us use their name for better Hollywood street cred, and will handle selling the foreign distribution. My PR person also pitched them an idea for a new division for indie films...too many details...could happen,could not...
But I will be part of a new production company soon, with lots of funding...said funding in a holding pattern which is why I haven't moved yet.
My short film "The Aliens" is edited and ready, and being submitted to festivals.
A short film contest I am partially involved with finally chose a winner. There were many delays, months of delays...too many things...the winning script is marvelous. I may even direct it.
What new specs have I written since last update? Hmmm...
Fifty Bucks -- a thriller we're trying to get Bruce Willis attached to (or someone like that)
Hardboiled Zombie Detective -- campy tale based on a novella of mine in the anthology, Bad Ass Horror.
The Wedding Stoppers -- quirky romantic comedy.
What else? What else? Lots of meetings, lots of strippers, lots of loss.
Been in L.A. a lot, almost every week. Haven't moved up yet, but soon.
Some delays on The Watermelon, with financing not in place. Instead of shooting next month, it may be March. But the director/producer plans on shooting the "TV stuff" next month (stuff the charactersare watching on TV, which can double as short films and DVD extras stuff later).
Stations may shoot first. It's all up in the air. The financing for that project could very well be settled first. Jolene is eager to get started, and so am I.
Funny thing with Stations, it was a finalist for the Westwood International Film Festival...and they never told me. Not an email, not a phone call. I happened upon the listing via Google. I didn't win, but still...I would have liked to have gone...I called and emailed the festival and they never replied. My PR person knows them and called and they'rejust disorganized, it seems.
Speaking of not winning, I made semi-finalsit for the Slamdance/Fox 21 thing, but didn't make Top 3. WHich is okay. I stole some of their tequila as a consolation prize. Met some interesting people, including some improv comedian/Adrian Brody lookalike who tried to pick up on Jolene. The execs at Fox21 felt my pilot, "Blogger" would make a better movie than TV show, and they could be right...
I have EPs for both films -- very big ones, big names in Hollywood, they're not putting any upfront cash in, they are letting us use their name for better Hollywood street cred, and will handle selling the foreign distribution. My PR person also pitched them an idea for a new division for indie films...too many details...could happen,could not...
But I will be part of a new production company soon, with lots of funding...said funding in a holding pattern which is why I haven't moved yet.
My short film "The Aliens" is edited and ready, and being submitted to festivals.
A short film contest I am partially involved with finally chose a winner. There were many delays, months of delays...too many things...the winning script is marvelous. I may even direct it.
What new specs have I written since last update? Hmmm...
Fifty Bucks -- a thriller we're trying to get Bruce Willis attached to (or someone like that)
Hardboiled Zombie Detective -- campy tale based on a novella of mine in the anthology, Bad Ass Horror.
The Wedding Stoppers -- quirky romantic comedy.
What else? What else? Lots of meetings, lots of strippers, lots of loss.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Updates
Man, long time no post.
What's new? The Watermelon is going along great, seems to be on shcedule to shoot around Jan. 11. Notices are in Hollywood Reporter, Variety, etc., and we should be up on IMDB soon. Half the parts are cast, we have a great PR person working on additional financing and getting it into festivals.
The option for my novel The Dress is complete and they are working on the script version right now.
A couple of TV development deals that I will talk about later...
Working on financing for Stations, that I hope to shoot in April or May.
Crossed paths with a guy who read my second book, a collection of stories, yeras ago, and is in the biz, and wants to work on some movies. More on that later...
All overdue novels are now in. I have one deadline left, for the Vollmann crit ook, which I plan to meet this month.
Gearing up to move to L.A. in a few months, hopefully sooner, depending on the finances and a few other factors.
What's new? The Watermelon is going along great, seems to be on shcedule to shoot around Jan. 11. Notices are in Hollywood Reporter, Variety, etc., and we should be up on IMDB soon. Half the parts are cast, we have a great PR person working on additional financing and getting it into festivals.
The option for my novel The Dress is complete and they are working on the script version right now.
A couple of TV development deals that I will talk about later...
Working on financing for Stations, that I hope to shoot in April or May.
Crossed paths with a guy who read my second book, a collection of stories, yeras ago, and is in the biz, and wants to work on some movies. More on that later...
All overdue novels are now in. I have one deadline left, for the Vollmann crit ook, which I plan to meet this month.
Gearing up to move to L.A. in a few months, hopefully sooner, depending on the finances and a few other factors.
Monday, August 21, 2006
TV Land
Know someone (a comic book publisher that I am working with on a TV series pitch and maybe some other stuff) who is working with someone who is good friends with the CEO of the new CW Network, and she's going to try and get me a meeting with this CEO to pitch shows. Producer T. told me to usehis name and company as a prodco that would be attached, and as they are BIG that would help.
Producer T. is also working on getting us a meeting at the new MyNetWork TV for a telenovela soap I have in mind -- 13 weeks, five shows a week is this new network's format.
The pitch meet at 247TV has been moved to October; they are swamped and moving to bigger offices.
There are upcoming picth meetings at TNT, Spike, Showtime and FX, so things are moving along.
No one is saying "yes" yet.
Producer T. is also working on getting us a meeting at the new MyNetWork TV for a telenovela soap I have in mind -- 13 weeks, five shows a week is this new network's format.
The pitch meet at 247TV has been moved to October; they are swamped and moving to bigger offices.
There are upcoming picth meetings at TNT, Spike, Showtime and FX, so things are moving along.
No one is saying "yes" yet.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
