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Hello!
The Fall has arrived – my favorite time of the year. And I’m very excited about how well my projects keep developing. Here are a few highlights:
HEADING HOME TO THE HAMPTONS FILM FEST
 Photo by Gordon Grant http://www.gordonmgrant.com/
We’ve begun slipping the script for MONTAUK HIGHWAY to a few select industry contacts and the response is very encouraging. I co-wrote the film and will help produce. It’s a love story set in The Hamptons against the class tension between the locals and the summer crowd. The director, Tony Abrams (best known for making PUMPKIN starring Christina Ricci and produced by Francis Ford Coppola) has serious momentum with two other New York projects: one is AFTERBIRTH, a delightfully creepy psychological thriller and the other is called PLUSHIE a romantic comedy set in the furtive world of plushie sex (several stars attached.) He’s got a great shot at one, if not both films getting made by the end of 2010. We’re hoping MONTAUK HIGHWAY can complete his New York trilogy, or get made first to kick things off!
Tony, Greg Cantwell (the co-writer) and I will all be going to The Hamptons Film Fest from October 8th to the 12th to meet with potential executive producers and talent for MONTAUK HIGHWAY. Keep your eyes open for The East Hampton Star story about us that comes out on the 9th! If you or anybody you know happens to be going to the fest, shoot me an e-mail and let’s see if we can get together! Also, two of my colleagues have films playing the Hamptons Film Fest this year, so it will be excellent to support their work as well. More on those two next:
MY COLLEAGUES ARE ROCKING!
- Rob Tate, who edited my first feature SNAPSHOTS FROM A .500 SEASON just won an Emmy for GOURMET’S DIARY OF A FOODIE! A long time ago he was having a down day and he told me that it was only “other people” that win awards like that, never him. Well, I’m extremely excited and proud that he’s gotten a chance to become one of those “other people.” Rob and I are also still trying to get our doc TV series going, currently entitled THE 5TH. More details about that below.
- Andy Hollander, the composer on all my films just landed two big articles in the trades that position him as on the verge of hitting the A-List. Check him out in VARIETY and HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Andy also scored a film that will be at the Hamptons Film Fest called SERIOUS MOONLIGHT directed by Cheryl Hines, starring Kristen Bell, Meg Ryan, Timothy Hutton and Justin Long. I’ll be checking that on on Friday the 9th at 9:30pm.
- Soomi Kim, the lead actress in SNAPSHOTS has devoted her life to a stage show extravaganza as creator and lead performer. It’s called LEE/GENDARY and it’s about the legend of Bruce Lee. She had a HUGE night at the New York Innovative Theater Awards winning 3 out of 6 awards including Outstanding Production!
- Skye Borgman, the DP for SCHOOLED recently released her awesome doc feature called JUNK DREAMS an adventure that chronicles one magical journey of two ageless brothers in their 80’s.
- and Alysia Reiner, who starred in SCHOOLED and is best known for her role as the bride in SIDEWAYS will be premiering her film at The Hamptons Film Fest that she produced and stars in called SPEED GRIEVING. It’s screening at 11am on Friday Oct. 9th and 1pm on Sunday. As long as my travel plans hold up, I’ll be there for her screening on Friday!
UPDATE ON MY DOC TV SERIES…
THE 5th tracks a defense lawyer from St. Louis and his VERY tough customers — clients that many of us may pre-judge as guilty just because they come from rough parts of town and are accused of harsh crimes. But all of us are innocent until proven guilty. And so justice HAS to be blind in giving the best defense to everybody. The show will mostly follow the clients and their challenges but here is an INTRO CLIP of the lawyer who lives to fight for the underdogs, and thereby also fights for all of us. We’ll be pitching the show to TV channels over the next few months.
UPDATE ON MY SCI-FI CREATURE FEATURE…
DOMINANT COLONY is a project I’ve been cooking up for a long time. It’s the story of an outsider teen who must learn to lead when hordes of wolf-sized alien ants stampede his town. With the success of DISTRICT 9 (my favorite film of the year) I figure there may be a window of opportunity for people considering other original, smart, sci-fi material. My co-writer Michael Lee Barlin and I have finished the detailed outlines of all three films in the trilogy and have gotten promising responses from a few industry contacts who are die hard fans of the genre. We also recruited an A-List storyboard artist named Vincent Lucido to create a sketch (pictured here) of the wolf-sized creatures. Next Vince will draw a city scape panel of hundreds of these guys storming the Sydney Opera House in Australia where the film takes place. Lots of fun to see this project coming along!
aBetterFilm.com HITS FULL STRIDE
Another great development is that I’ve shifted my film school to a totally on-demand system, meaning we run new online seminars for screenwriting and short film production, on request only. Now that the model is set-up, I don’t have to spend any time and energy doing promotions, and I can focus fully on my own projects. And now the Master Class is FREE! So if you know anybody looking to learn the craft with innovative, passionate colleagues, right from their computer, CHECK IT OUT!
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