FRED Entertainment

Director: Ryan Schifrin
Cast: Matt McCoy, Haley Joel, Michael Deak, Paul Gleason, Dee Wallace-Stone
Release: 2005
Synopsis: There’s a beast on the loose in the forest. Is it the abominable snowman?

Prognosis: So bad, it’s good. Who out there finds themselves longing for the simpler times of “˜80s horror cinema when movies like CHOPPING MALL, GHOULIES, PHANTASAM, CRITTERS, THE HOWLING, et al., were the bee’s knees for any kid worth their weight in subversive VHS rentals?

One of the things I still can get behind, and I don’t get behind much unless she’s really eager, natch, is a good shake “˜em up scare flick. Hollywood simply doesn’t make these kinds of films anymore and the direct-to-video crap they have on the shelves of Blockbuster just isn’t going to cut my need for good horror. This film, ABOMINABLE, while not really splatter-worthy, looks like a good step back in the right direction.

This trailer opens with an awful Peggy Lee-like ditty, but it is saccharine-sweet on purpose, the frame showing an ominously bare tree and as the shot is nearly overexposed. That’s when we get the words on the screen: “If a woman screams in a forest”¦” I’m loving life at this point but the title cards dissolve slowly, the bare tree appearing once more, “and no one is there to hear”¦” it says. The cards dissolve again only to have the scene get blurry, as this trailer begins with the conceit that this is being projected by film, the sound of a running projector prominent in the sound field and everything, the sound and the visuals, warp out of focus. “Does she still make a sound?”

We next then get a shot of the yeti himself taking in a leisurely stroll through the woods as he is just barely recognizable in the “film” footage being shown. It cuts quickly to a picture of someone’s eyes behind some mini-blinds as they ask someone if they’ve seen anything. High pitched violins ratchet up the tension level as we then get a couple of po-po’s with wide brimmed hats surveying a crash scene. One tells another that they still haven’t found any bodies (Ooo”¦missing bodies”¦) as we get a look at one of those old school station wagons (who the hell drives those things anymore, anyway?) with a large hole punched out in the windshield on the driver’s side. And then, Paul Gleason, Principal Richard Vernon himself, says that they should go check out the woods. As I think back about how appropriate that the consummate 80’s icon like him is in a movie that harkens back a couple of decades, I almost miss seeing the trippers innocent Catholic school girls who will become fodder for the screaming that will happen later on in this film. Of course there is an implied promise of nudity, but nothing beats a hapless, hopeless honey trying to hightail it as she tries to escape in a forest. And then, like a present from the “˜80s movie gods, we get our protagonist, Matt McCoy, star of POLICE ACADEMY 5: ASSIGNMENT: MIAMI BEACH, who plays a cripple, er, a person with physical maladies. I don’t care who you are but if you’re any fan of horror films you can’t tell me that it wasn’t sweet as all hell when that one guy in a wheelchair bought it in FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 and bumbled down all those steps; quality kill, if you ask me.

Anyhoo, we get more of Matt and then, shortly after, a peek at a woman just getting out of the shower as she wraps a towel around herself and of a blonde in front of her computer as the lights start to flicker. Things get quiet.

“There is something out there.”

Screams of this beast call out as the blonde from the last scene has telltale blood on her face. We get the beast banging on the tail end of a crappy car, the interior lights clearly bright enough to show how scared the blonde is as she tries to get away. There’s chaos everywhere, the cripple, er, disabled guy tries to snag an ax, there’s gunshots, screaming of all kinds, and then we get the money shot: the open mouth of the beast in question as it howls. Bloody footprints are shown in the snow.

I can’t speak so highly, or lowly, of this film. I’m sure it will most likely disappoint on all levels but the whiff of possibility was too tempting to at least not have some hope. And besides that, the poster for this film was designed by none other than Drew Struzan. For those scratching your head about who this master of movie art is, the man is responsible for giving us memorable movie posters for RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, various STAR WARS designs, GOONIES, THE THING, and even, my favorite, BETTER OFF DEAD. The man is THE go-to-guy for any poster work, hands down.

Director: Paul Weitz
Cast: Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace, Scarlett Johansson, Selma Blair, Phillip Baker Hall, David Paymer
Release: December 29, 2004
Synopsis: Dan Foreman (played by Dennis Quaid) is headed for a shakeup. He is demoted from head of ad sales for a major magazine when the company he works for is acquired in a corporate takeover. His new boss, Tom (played by Topher Grace) is half his age – a business school prodigy who preaches corporate Synergy. While Dan develops clients through handshake deals and relationships, Tom cross-promotes the magazine with the cell phone division and “Krispity Krunch,” an indeterminate snack food under the same corporate umbrella.

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Prognosis: Predictable. My boss, the real one who facsimiles his signature on my check and the one who would can me in a second if he knew some of the sites I frequent while on the clock, never reads this column. The guy is nearly five years younger and only has a fraction of a college education. I’m bitter about both these facts and I can completely relate to Dennis Quaid’s situation in this new movie.

The trailer gets right to the chase in the first few seconds without the aid of a voice over or some placards. Topher Grace is going to be Dennis’ new boss. Scarlett Johnannson is Dennis’ supa fine daughter. She and Topher are riding in an elevator. The two of them have no idea who the other one is. Topher opens up and says it’s his first day on the job and even tosses a “I have no idea what I’m doing” line at her before making the eventual discovery of everything all that more comedic. When Topher and Dennis meet for the first time, Dennis casually asks how old he is. Upon responding 26, Topher asks Dennis the same question. The way Dennis says the words “fifty-one” you can feel the weight of the response in his voice as does Topher’s quickly thrown-back comment about Dennis being as old as his dad. Ok, it seems like a plot out of a bad King of Queens episode, not there’s really any other kind, but there seems to be something between these two guys.

We interrupt this trailer to tell you that this movie was directed by the same chap who gave us ABOUT A BOY. Thank you.

“You have the potential to be an awesome wingman.”

Topher’s ill-fated attempt to try and be a managerial figure results in some friction between the two of them and it’s completely believable to me. The other nice thing about this plot is that Topher’s life is taking a header into the crapper. The man seems to be a workaholic at twenty-six and is obviously too wrapped up in business to see what a waste it is to lose Selma Blair, who is fed up with his corporate ambition. The boy is just not right in the head. What little slices we are shown of what he does after his lady walks out on his ass make him out to be despondent and a little lost. When Dennis mentions as a goof of whether or not he’d like to have dinner at his house, Topher jumps at that hook with aplomb. With that invitation extended, and the Peter Gabriel hit “Solsbury Hill” cued up while knowing Scarlett is Dennis’ daughter, you can guess what happens next.

Yup. A little hand holding, leading to those dumb little movie smiles, leading to a little romancing, a little undressing, and all the other coquettish things Scarlett can do to entrench herself in Topher’s life before it all comes down when Dad finds out who she’s diddling. Dennis is all butt-hurt when he finds out it’s his boss she’s hooking up with, but I would see this as an advantage I could parlay into a big payday as long as she’s happy. So Dennis is all pissed before Topher gives a delightful soliloquy about love, passion and all that garbage. Either she’ll end up not being with him or she will. I do know, however, is that I just saved you eight bucks.

Director: Steven Soderbergh
Cast: George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Bruce Willis, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Vincent Cassel, Don Cheadle, Andy Garcia, Elliott Gould, Eddie Jemison, Bernie Mac, Shaobo Qin, Carl Reiner
Release: December 10, 2004
Synopsis: Danny Ocean (Clooney), reignited flame Tess (Roberts) and the rest of a band of thieves and con men (some returning and some new), team up for another three huge heists, but this time they’re in three different locations (Rome, Paris and Amsterdam). In Amsterdam, the prize is Rembrandt’s “De Nachtwacht” painting, which resides at the Rijksmuseum. Meanwhile, casino owner Terry Benedict (Garcia), whom Ocean and crew ripped off in Las Vegas, is hot on their tail, looking for revenge.

Prognosis: Even the Boston Red Sox would hit it if they could. This is a good, clean trailer.

If I was given the opportunity to create the marketing campaign for this film my first tagline would’ve been “Holy fu#$^& sh$%! Can you believe we managed to squeeze this many egos into a widescreen? I mean, for fu$% sake, how often does this happen? See this film!” However, something with enough star wattage to fuel a small African village the trailer here is surprisingly casual and harkens back to the great trailers of the 50’s; there are intros done for all the major players with kitschy exclamatory descriptors to go along with their on-screen personalities.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with an opening that says “Who can forget that thing they did with that guy that time?” The bleached white view of everyone’s legs as they walk all cool and confident with jazzy music underneath it all, while aesthetically appealing, made me think that this film was going to cater to the low denominators in the house. That concern was assuaged with the next scene of Brad Pitt talking to Andy Garcia on a cell phone. The shot is over Brad’s shoulder as Andy asks for the money he helped to steal in the first film, with interest, and that he wasn’t the only one looking for the money. Brad walks towards his car, listening to Andy, and it’s a beautiful day out in the parking lot. Brad’s car explodes. Nice.

“It’s payback time!”

The above quote is one in a long string of exclamations that each person gets with their intros. Short of upping the font size to 50% of the screen the nostalgia factor of this shows what kind of mindless fun this movie is trying to be about.

Clooney then comes on the screen and says that they need, all eleven, twelve?, a high paying job. This is an interesting statement as I thought these guys had made the “ultimate score.” But as you scratch your head trying to figure out why it is they are making another go at things we get multiple cut scenes of some exotic European locale. Almost like how the Brady’s needed a paper-thin reason to go to Hawaii (that blasted, cursed idol!) so too do these people need a good reason to go to Europe: they’re too well-known. Works for me.

Catherine Zeta-Wanna-Laya Jones is in this thing, I believe, as some sort of agent Mastermind in training but I’m too busy waiting to hear that T-Mobile chirp to pay attention.

Matt Damon even meets up with Andy Garcia. In the scene we’re shown Andy rudely tells Matt to get out of his car. I’m surprised that Matt isn’t somehow hanging upside down by his short and curlies but this is a very interesting encounter that obviously needs a lot more exposition before I understand how these two can meet in such a nonviolent altercation.

Bernie Mac has a problem with it being called Ocean’s Eleven. His signature combative comedy worked well the first time, as who can forget when he and Matt discussed the finer points of hiring more “coloreds” in Vegas casinos, and it looks like its back for another round. Some say his signature style is shticky and played out at this point but I like it.

George asks the question about what it is they’re stealing and it’s brilliant that the question is never answered because up to this point you’re just trying to get an handle on everything that’s happening in the trailer that you almost forgot this is about thievery of some sort. We are given no indication what it is they’re going to be pilfering and this only helps to up the interest factor in what these guys have flowed to Europe to lift.

I look forward to the time that OCEAN’S ELEVEN takes over SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION as the movie that gets played nightly on either TBS or TNT. I can watch the movie again and again without it ever becoming a nuisance. Also, I get a kick of the Mormon brothers; Casey Affleck and Scott Caan are just great antagonists.

Director: John Polson
Cast: Robert De Niro, Dakota Fanning, Famke Janssen, Elisabeth Shue, Amy Irving, Dylan Baker
Release: April 1, 2005
Synopsis: A widowed father desperately tries to break through to his nine year old daughter when she creates a creepy, maniacal imaginary friend with a terrifying vendetta. Imaginary friends can seem so real.

Prognosis: Positive if Dakota buys it by the end. Ok.

Since Dakota Fanning’s career is still burgeoning, I feel an obligation to track it with the kind of anticipation that many young boys out there showed as they waited for the eventual personal demise of the Olsen twins. Some people enjoy collecting stamps or coins, but I like to try and pick out who will eventually have their own E! True Hollywood Story told to millions. I’m betting the farm on Dakota.

To be fair, I’ll take this thing from the top with Robert De Niro. At first the man seems to be a guardian of sorts to a crazy looking Dakota. While this movie opens up in the city the bulk of what’s going happen looks to be in the country. Famke Jannsen says that little Dakota needs to “works through this.” What this is we’re not sure but Bobby says he needs to be a full-time dad.

Whoa! Go-Go-Gadget fertility! A man his age deserves to have a wet nurse Dakota’s age not being the one responsible for her upbringing, but I’ll play along like a good little boy.

Dakota has an imaginary friend named Charlie. First of all, when you have a kid that looks so obviously Robert Smith of the Cure pale and evil like Dakota appears to be in this thing the best method for dealing with it is not sequestering yourself in a remote country house where no one will hear your shrill death screams as the kid plunges a meat thermometer in your eye socket. You lock the kid up in solitary and punt her butt out into solarium for some rays. To confirm this suspicion of mine you see the Dakota’s written “You Let Her Die” on the bathtub wall in the middle of the night. Bobby needs to be severely alarmed. Dunking her in water would’ve been a good start.

“It’s not unusual for a child to create imaginary friends”¦.”

I also love how Famke is playing the shrink-by-phone role in this film. I’m sure she’ll be important later in serving to rescue Robert from an axe-wielding youngster in some way in the third act.

Elizabeth Shue is looking just fabulous as she can be and, judging by the flashback, looks like a close stand-in for the previous mother. How original I know, but I am concerned about how long it’s been since the mother died. Robert is back on that proverbial horse trying to get some of that Elizabeth goodness, who wouldn’t, but it’s odd in a STRANGE BREW “get married so soon after the funeral” sort of way. What’s more is that this imaginary “friend” seems to be manifesting some troubling behavior as he/she/it starts to act aggressively against daddy’s new plaything.

“Let’s hope you don’t wind up like her.”

Yeah, Dakota says this to an obviously concerned Elizabeth Shue. I tell you what, if my kid was actively trying to shoot down my chance to get up on that horse again with a MILF-a-licious someone like Elizabeth I would be tying that brat down to the bed SEVEN style for the duration of the evening. Robert even tries to question the authority of her imaginary friend to which Dakota says that kind of talk will only make her friend mad.

Look, get Father Karas or Dr. Phil on the case because this Wednesday look-alike from the Adams Family needs some straightening out; this movie should be about 10 minutes long from the kinds of psychosis this kid is displaying.

“If you want to know the secret you have to play the game.” Lame tagline. It is god awful but whatever gets the middle aged to come see the movie.

Director: Zhang Yimou
Cast: Takeshi Kaneshiro, Andy Lau, Zhang Ziyi, Dandan Song
Release: December 3, 2004 (Limited)br> Synopsis: Near the end of the Tang Dynasty, police deputies Jin (Kaneshiro) and Leo (Lau) tangle with Mei (Zhang), a dancer suspected of having ties to a revolutionary faction known as the House of Flying Daggers. Enraptured by her, the deputies concoct a plan to save her from capture, and Jin leads her north in what becomes a perilous journey into the unknown.

Prognosis: Very Positive. First thing that I thought?

I’ll share because I know we all have a tight relationship and you won’t think too differently of me.

The opening shot of this trailer has three dudes, all wearing green, standing in a field of thin, green bamboo trees. It’s smoky, there’s an army of guys just like them standing a few feet behind, and as they have their heads down, their wide brimmed Asian sombrero covering their faces, I swear I am looking at BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA part two. What’s more, one of the three guys in this trailer wings the exact same blade Thunder, Carter Wong, used in the film.

The blade seems like it dances in the air as it tumbles and turns. The effect is wonderful to watch as it eventually hits a bamboo tree, splintering it. Next, we’re given notice this film is the official Chinese entry in the 2005 Academy Awards for best foreign language film. This is when the even better stuff starts.

Fast paced sticks and drums start in and we are given a look at Ziyi Zhang busting a move with in a swift, colorful flourish. We’re given an Ebert quote. Sharp bamboo spears rain down from above as fleeing soldiers try to avoid becoming a human-on-a-stick for a hungry animal. The Chicago Tribune gives a quote. Ziyi is taking a bath in the open as an interloper looks on. Reuters gives a quote. A blade is unsheathed and flung. Ziyi tosses a blade, attached to the end of her long flowing robe, in the direction of someone she’s trying to kill. The interloper from before and Ziyi hold hands. A dude, doing the splits using two bamboo trees fights off an attack as his twigs and berries dangle precipitously in front of harms way. There’s a fight in the snow.

Then, there’s a shot of the oft used bamboo forest. Then, as a whizzing sound populates the audio landscape, dozens of sharp thingies come straight at the camera. Ziyi and her man are then shown laying comfortably on the ground next to one another.

What’s interesting about this film, apart from the action going on, is the way it looks. Anyone who is familiar with the genre already knows that the director from HERO also is the one behind this film as is the writer, costume designer, production designer, and action choreographer. It’s nice when you have a studio like Miramax hold back a movie like HERO for so long because you end up generating interest in this property for a different company, Sony Pictures Classics, who didn’t feel the need to sit on this film. Within a matter of half a year you get the treat of being able to see two films, informed by the same sensibilities, by the same director. This may not mean anything for someone who hasn’t seen HERO or has any plans on seeing HERO or even cares what HERO is but for those of us in the know it is a rare treat that shan’t be overlooked or underappreciated.

We had our premiere a few nights ago and I couldn’t have asked for a better audience. It was great. The biggest complaint I got was that some people couldn’t hear some lines because people were laughing over them. Even my own mom liked it and she’s a fire and brimstone Irish Catholic.

Now, we both grew up in the suburbs here in Illinois. Where did you eventually go to college?

I went to Mizzou. University of Missouri-Columbia.

What did you graduate with?

I graduated with a journalism degree. It sounds better than it was.

Did you do any paper writing?

Yeah, the main thing was that I was the weekend sports anchor and weekday sports reporter for NBC. That was a lot of fun. I got recognized a lot by ladies over 70 with purple hair. That was my big demographic. Unfortunately, all the college girls were out so the only people at home, it just didn’t work. I couldn’t make anything work with that fan club. I guess I could’ve but I’m just not wired that way.

How did that translate, then, into movies and screenwriting?

What happened from there was that I had a job offer to go to Billings, Montana, for like fifteen grand and my brothers were like “you can come down to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and make thirty thousand” and, like a dumbass, I went where the money was and I realized I hated it and from there I went into corporate health insurance. Actually I loved it and I was making a lot of money but I was missing that creative outlet. My wife, just like she was unfortunately portrayed in the Project Greenlight show, she was incredibly supportive and was like, “let’s go give this “˜dream’ a shot.”

I know you must be satisfied with the way things have ended up.

Yeah, it’s a struggle even with the break I got with Project Greenlight. The advantage from that is I now have an opportunity to get into doors I couldn’t get into before. But once you get into the door you better have something good.

With getting your movie, Outing Riley, made with other peoples money and having to pitch people on giving you some, did you think to yourself that being given lots of money by a big studio, with decisions being made by them, is a better thing than self-financing?

Hell yeah.

You know what it is? The grass is always greener. With making this film, and making every decision about this film, I had a major say in, and not to denigrate the people I worked with because it was definitely a team effort, what to do.

That being said we didn’t have cash to do everything we wanted to do. The flip side to it is if you do a studio film you have all the cash you want, more cash than you need, but some of your creative ideas get shot down.

Anytime that someone gives you money they expect to have a say in the process. It’s fair. It’s legitimate. I, personally, was hoping to have a more independent environment. A lot of the directors I know started off making their own movies and from there they moved onto studio pictures. I kind of wanted that same feeling, to have no excuses.

Was it hard for you to make a “commercial” for people to judge whether or not to trust you with thousands of dollars or were you beyond that and were going to do whatever it took to get OUTING RILEY made?

I can’t explain it but I swear to God I sat down to do a commercial script. But when I finished I ended up with a funny, intimate look at how an Irish Catholic family deals with homosexuality. It is so far from commercial. I’m telling you I’d love to be able and sell-out but, unfortunately, I can’t write a sell-out script. If someone could tell me how to do that, I would.

I think part of that formula is that you have to have a cataclysmic event happen to the earth”¦

(Laughs)

Excatly right.

And you have to have seven different guys come in”¦.one rugged”¦one shy”¦

Right. And you’ve got to be able and snowboard from D.C. to New York in two days and have no one question your plot ideas.

I can’t do that. I’m not good and, I swear to God, I’m not judging those who can, because those people are pulling in paychecks. And I got two little kids. This independent world, I wish there was more money in it.

Now, about the film, OUTING RILEY has an Irish guy at its heart; STOLEN SUMMER has an Irish kid at its heart. Is there something about being Irish that you identify with?

What I find interesting is that I grew up in an upper-middle class family in Deerfield, Illinois, and my first story was about the working class, blue collar, and in my eyes it was Bridgeport, which is an Irish section of Chicago. Today, I see in the Chicago Tribune that they’re touting my film as a Southside blue collar look at how an Irish Catholic family deals with homosexuality but that’s not the case at all.

This family is upper-middle class, suburban family. So, I think in the humor, in the real interaction with the characters, there are no pretenses. They lay it out the way it is. Maybe, for some reason, that has a working class, blue collar, public servant sort of feel but that’s not what I’m writing about here. The assumption, according at least to the Chicago Tribune, is incorrect.

Now, speaking on the subject of Chicago, you label yourself a Cubs fan”¦

Die hard.

Well, as I re-watched STOLEN SUMMER I noticed that the young protagonist is wearing Sox swag.

You know what, again, that was a Southside story to me. It hurt me deeply. Writing about Chet Lemon, Jorge Orta, and all those guys, Brian Downing. I am a baseball fanatic but I live for the Cubs. But to be authentic, to be true to the story, the kids had to be White Sox fans.

I don’t make that mistake this time.

Now, I know Steve Dahl, an active radio legend in Chicago. How did you get hooked up with Steve? I know you met Jeff Garlin at an Emmy’s party, but I know Steve is a Sox fan, I figure that would put him on the short list, but how did you get him to do this movie?

(Laughs)

You know, I just met him doing press for STOLEN SUMMER and we really hit it off. So, when I was in town shooting this movie I just asked him if he’d be interested in being in the film. His son, Patrick, moved out to LA and Steve is an empty nester now. He actually wishes the film business, the TV business, was stronger in Chicago.

So, really, how is it in Chicago? It’s a fabulous location but why the lack of productions? Is it the Midwest? Is it too damn expensive? Is it too inaccessible for people to get to?

It’s difficult because you have Toronto to the north, which has the same sort of Chicago feel, but it’s a lot cheaper. But I think they’re starting to bring a lot of business to this town. I think the Chicago Film Office is doing a lot to promote filming in Chicago.

I know BATMAN RETURNS had some filming done downtown.

Yeah, I think Christopher Nolan, I thought I read something where he said that lower Wacker seemed like Batman to him. It’s one of the big reasons why he chose to film here.

It would be nice to be able to have a lot more productions here and I’d like to be able and move back home. But if I want to stay in this business I can’t afford to.

About OUTING RILEY and Mike McDonald (Mad TV). He plays your boyfriend. How did that pitch go? Was the first question, “How do you feel about making out with a dude?”

(Laughs)

You know the best thing about Mike McDonald is that if I were to ask a female the same question they would smack me around.

I pulled Mike aside and I said, “Listen, this is my first time kissing a guy. Is it possible for us to rehearse?” And Mike just laughed and looked at me like I’m a jackass and he says, “Yeah, sure, go ahead.” I just didn’t want the first kiss to be on camera, I wanted to be prepared and he said, “Perfectly fine.” And all I could think of is that if I were to ask an actress “Yeah, is there any way for us to make out, maybe I could take off your shirt, rub you up and down a bit, just to get into character” they’d beat the crap out of me. But Mike McDonald was a good sport.

I recommend to every guy out there to practice making out with another man.

Now you’re in the process of marketing OUTING RILEY. I know when I first asked you about it you didn’t have a trailer to review, poster art or any of those things. Are you having to do that yourself or are you finding people who can help you with that?

What we’re looking to do, hopefully, is to drum up enough interest at the [Chicago International Film Festival], get a distributor who will want to get onboard and from there we will do our trailer and all that other stuff. So, we’re hoping to find distribution.

Do you have any leads about who might have been in the audience?

Yeah, we’ve gotten a few, offers would be a strong word, but we’ve got some real interest. So, we’ll see. I hope to be able and find a company that, obviously, can pay back my investors but also gets behind the film. We’re a small film so I’m not expecting some major release but I’d like somebody to, you know, stick behind it and be able to keep in theaters for more than a couple of weeks.

You’ve said you wanted to make more movies like this. Many people want to embrace the big studio system or eschew it. Do you still have faith that if you take material to a studio you’ll be able to develop it the way you want or are you willing to say “I’ll compromise on X or X”?

I don’t mean to be a dork but as a hypothetical I can’t quite answer because I don’t know. With this script I don’t know why I was so gung-ho about keeping it the way it was and going to make it myself. I just wanted to try making a truly independent film.

And now that I know that, you know, making a studio film ain’t that bad. So it just comes down to whatever I write next. The level of compromise I’m willing to do, and, you know, it would be great to get a paycheck. It would be great to get a studio to jump onboard. I don’t want to sound like I’m just Johnny Independent and I gotta do it my way. I don’t. I’ll gladly take a check from anybody.

Anyone who’s willing to pay”¦

Exactly. If I can con someone to buy a script, I’m in.

Well, now the past two scripts and films have all centered around Chicago. Are you looking to become the next John Hughes heir apparent?

I would love to be the John Hughes heir apparent, but, again, his tastes are definitely, although great, are a bit more commercial than my tastes. If this can build to a John Hughes-like career I’d be thrilled. I’m not sure if I am capable of writing that.

Seeing how he liked to use Chicago, specifically, for his stories, are there any reasons why you like to stay in Chicago, why you keep coming back to that?

I just tend to write about”¦like this one story I’m going to work on next is kind of a story about a guy who’s been married eight years and his wife says to him would he be interested in having a double team, ménage a trios, and how, this dream proposal, the one he’s been dying for his entire life, finally comes through and his wife spirals out of control and it kind of takes it from that moment. To me, in a sense, that can be filmed anywhere, but I’d love to be able and do that right here in Chicago again. I’ve got a feeling there’s a lot of husbands out in America, not just Chicagoans, that can relate to that moment.

Well, thinking about budgeting, then, and you’ve said that one of the most important things is budgeting a film, is it more important to get the big name actor, maximizing your days during your filming or is it really about the reshoots?

That’s a great question. I would say, starting out, the most important thing is getting the big name actor because that gives you an opportunity to sell the film but, working down from there, how many days you can get is huge. I think it’s the Coen brothers that built-in to every budget they have, like 25%, they build in for reshoots.

Really?

Yeah, which is just brilliant but the problem is I can never come up with enough money to be able and put aside 25%. It’d be nice to attract a major star because a major start would attract money. And I don’t mean money in my pocket; money to be able to make the film.

And I know your hierarchy, according to your production journal, of important people in the process of making a film has the editor at the top of the food chain. You still stand by that?

Well, it depends. Obviously, it was just funny to me because people were asking me “Who’s the most important person on an independent film?” By the way, what a stupid move to write that as I am making the movie and then people on the crew are reading it. But to me, because time is so essential, your first AD, your first assistant director, is incredibly important because he’s the one that says “Listen, we’ve got to get these shots in, you’ve got to move.” The cinematographer is going to do as much or as little as you ask him to do because it’s all time sensitive. So, if you don’t have a lot of time at the end of the day, and you’ve got to get a shot in, and you’re just doing a master shot, you’re not asking much from your DP. He’s setting up your shot and then you’re just rolling whereas your AD is always trying to tow the line between creativity and schedule. And that’s just during production. When you’re in post-production the editor just comes up with just a new way to look at it.

I know this is cliché but the script you write is different than the movie you shoot and the movie you shoot is different than the movie you edit so you almost have three different films. You got the script, the movie you shot and the movie you edit.

You’ve said yourself that you have three different films. By the end of it, especially because you were on a timeline to get the film locked up at a certain time, was there any objectivity left after you’ve spent so much time on it?

Very little. You feel like you’ve got a pretty good movie but you just never know. It’s completely different than STOLEN SUMMER; I’m proud of that movie, it’s good, but there are moments in it and performances I wish I could do over. Again, when you watch a film a bunch of times you wish you could have done a few things differently but overall I think it’s funny and the performances are real. Thank god I don’t sink this film as an actor and I can’t wait to see what others think.

You said one of your main criticisms of your directing is getting more range from yourself and others. Did that improve by shooting’s end or is that something you’re still learning to grapple with?

To me, personally, I’ve got limited range.

Who am I kidding? I’m no Julliard actor but I had enough range for this role, obviously, because I wrote it and so I know the character. I think the best thing I did on this film is not direct as much. When you’re in the scene yourself as an actor and you’re the director of the film it’s tough to direct because you become this insecure actor who is worried about his own performance. It’s tough to objectively view the people you’re in the scene with but the thing with that is that we did a lot of talking of what we wanted to do before and kind of just got out of the actor’s way. Nathan Fillion and Stoney Westmoreland steal the movie, they’re terrific.

Digitial or film? Given the choice, which way would you go?

Given the choice, obviously money’s not an issue, I’ll go 35. It’s just richer.

Even though it’s the wave of the future, digital?

It’s great because it’s inexpensive. It does look great, but daytime exteriors are difficult and 35 millimeter is just not as difficult.

What makes digital so much more difficult for exteriors?

It’s just much more sensitive to light. Nighttime exteriors are beautiful with digital but I found it didn’t save time. It saved money but it didn’t save time. Everyone is like “oh, it’ll save you time.” Not really. It saves you money and, the cost savings you get using 24p on a budget like mine [is beneficial].

I know one of the things about the production of your first movie was that you were labeled First Time Director, it was used often, and you’ve said that it shouldn’t be used a crutch but it seems like it could be a valid argument in some way.

You don’t realize how valid an argument it is until you become a second time director.

It’s truly a valid argument.

Did you find yourself saying “Oh, I did this one thing this way and it totally didn’t work?”

It’s all about confidence. It takes ten days to develop any kind of confidence the first time you’re directing and those are ten important days. Whereas the second time you’re a lot more confident and, in this case, my crew was a lot more confident. You can’t get past the fact that the crew, the first time around, I needed to earn their respect. In their eyes, and I can’t blame them, I was a contest winner. “Hey, look who won the lottery! He’s now directing!” And because of that I definitely had to earn respect and I think I did. Well, at least all of them came back to work a second time and I hope that’s what it means.

The second time around you just know what to expect. It’s very hard when people tell you what to expect and you haven’t experienced it. So I knew going into it, pre-production, [that it was] unbelievably important.

You also mentioned in your production journal that you had met Harvey Weinstein of Miramax while in post production of the movie and that he asked to see a copy of the movie. Have you shown it to him yet?

No, I haven’t shown it to them. They’re pretty much out of the business of buying films. I think Miramax as we know it will cease to exist very soon.

I assume that Dimension will continue with Disney and Harvey will go off and start up his own company. I know they didn’t have any acquisitions up in Toronto [at the Toronto International Film Festival].

You’ve said that you’re no good unless you’re passionate. Do compromises on a project lessen that passion? How do you keep your enthusiasm up during long and arduous productions?

Well, compromise is just part of the process.

For example, we couldn’t shoot at the Mercantile Exchange or in the Catholic Church. This one scene that I had set for the Mercantile Exchange I ended up turning into a baptism scene at this gay church we ended up shooting at and I never would have to have done that if we had the money or ability to shoot at the Merc. And this scene works twenty times better because of the fact that I had to rewrite it to fit a location we already had but there’s something so funny about this scene, two brothers and the sister talking about their gay sibling in church while a baptism is going on, but the only reason why I wrote it was because of compromise.

There was a lot of what we would call the happy accidents. And with a bigger production you just throw money at your problems. With this movie we had to go rewrite the script and the biggest expense is locations.

Pete, thank you very much for your time and good luck with the film

I appreciate it, thank you.

Director: Dylan Kidd
Cast: Laura Linney, Topher Grace, Gabriel Byrne, Marcia Gay Harden, Paul Rudd
Release: October 15, 2004
Synopsis: Louise Harrington (Laura Linney), a divorced, thirty-something admissions officer at Columbia University’s School of Fine Arts is intelligent, pretty, successful, and unfulfilled. That is, until a graduate school application crosses her desk and she arranges to interview the young painter. When F. Scott Feinstadt (Topher Grace) appears, he bears an uncanny resemblance to Louise’s high school boyfriend and one true love, an artist who died in a car accident twenty years earlier. Within hours of the interview, Louise and F. Scott have embarked on a passionately uninhibited older woman/younger man affair. But is F. Scott just a reminder of Louise’s lost love? And is Scott just trying to wheedle his way into the Ivy League?

Prognosis: Positive. I’ve always been eager to be glib and simply write a one word review of a trailer.

I think it has something to do with my inordinate number of viewings of SPINAL TAP when the band sits down with Rob Reiner. Rob tells them that a journalist, reviewing their album Shark Sandwich, wrote a one word review that simply said: Shit sandwich.

That’s was comedy gold.

I think that a movie titled P.S. was crying out for a one word review, B.S., just the merriment I would have received inside would have been nice, but my soul was crushed when I watched this trailer and ended up really liking it. There is a slow steadiness to it, hitting all the right points, and it worked beautifully.

Starting from point A, though, I wasn’t sure the trailer would hold any ground for me. Laura Linney walks stridently, and when you see it you’ll understand just how strident that walk is, and there’s this Dallas soap opera theme song horn playing underneath it all that gives it an odd commercial feel; that she’s really going to be selling panty hose by the end of this thing, for example. The Toronto International Film Festival kudos is then displayed in front of us like an eager child who just learned how to finger paint. After this, without knowing much more than Laura can walk well, Laura gets into it with her mother about a family friend that the two of them knew. So far, not very interesting, but it’s downright exciting me, though, on the inside because I still have a chance to use the whole B.S. thing.

“He has the same talent.”

Then, Topher Grace walks into the picture. I have an acute dislike for That “˜70s Show, based solely on the fact that not even TiVos lighting fast review time of an episode can keep my attention, and I thought that watching WIN A DATE WITH TAD HAMILTON was about as close as one could have come to breaking several statutes of my local county’s decency laws, but he’s absolutely charming here. Immediately there is some of that clichéd chemistry between Laura and Topher and it carries with it the hope for a good story to wrap around these two. Sure enough, there is. The flamenco, Lifetime special guitar music is slightly saccharine to listen to but that’s another point I’m willing to overlook.

“He has the same face.”

Then, without so much as a perceived first date, Topher starts touching her as he asks Laura if she has ever had her portrait done. This moment made me realize I got into the wrong major in college after seeing what he does to her just after asking that question. He tucks her hair behind her ear, he strokes her arm, and you know this is not going to end nicely by picture’s end.

About this point in the trailer we are shown that the same guy who directed RODGER DODGER (great film) and the producer of YOU CAN COUNT ON ME (even better film) came together to consolidate their magical powers and crafted this film. Then, without so much as an introduction, Gabriel Byrne pops up as Laura’s husband. Before I try and remember how long it’s been since I’ve last seen him in a movie, Laura spills the plot to us about what makes Topher the one she wants to have a dalliance with.

It’s commendable, actually, that the movie makers waited over half the length of the trailer before telling us that Topher is a close look-alike of someone Laura used to date in high school and who died prematurely. There is a full on Linney/Grace lip lock which just seals the Mrs. Robinson deal for me.

The supporting cast looks wonderfully crafted and the trailer leaves us teetering on knowing exactly how it’s going to end and not knowing where it will go.

Director: Eric Darnell
Cast: Chris Rock, Ben Stiller, Jada Pinkett Smith, David Schwimmer
Release: May 27, 2005
Synopsis: Madagascar follows a lion, zebra, giraffe and hippo who are released from the zoo and sent back to the wild by an animal rights group. Ending up on the African island of Madagascar the New York menagerie finds their lives turned upside down.

Prognosis: Positive. I don’t know who were the ones who spent 49.1 million on SHARK TALE’s opening weekend but I am very disappointed in those who sent a message to Dreamworks to make more of that crap.

Look, I’m not one to listen to critics. I may entertain an opinion by Roger Ebert here, read an idea or two from Ryall about what’s good or bad on the tube, but, damn, a 34% average approval rating? I couldn’t pass 3rd grade with a score like that and neither should that movie.

However, I will gladly give two shift keys up for what looks like a step up from SHARK TALE for the film MADAGASCAR.

It has a good beginning sans the reminder that the same studio that brought us SHREK (good) and SHARK TALE (crap) brings this film into our lives. A really twisted opening has a giraffe, a lion and a hippo (David Schwimmer, Ben Stiller, Jada Pinkett Smith, respectively) singing happy birthday to a zebra (Chris Rock). It would be fairly innocuous if it weren’t for the hippo forcing the giraffe to blow on his party favor in a funny fashion that reminded me of a Three Stooges episode; it’s just funnier to see than try to describe but it is very slapsticky. They throw a non sequitur in the mix by showing the reaction of a couple of monkeys (the best part of a zoo, next to the orangutans) as one sniffs his pit and falls off a branch. The monkey who falls is obviously a tamed down version of a real one that sniffed his finger after putting it in a not so fresh locale and was put on tape for the world to see, but, hey, a few points for them at least making an effort to keep things interesting for me.

Anyway, this is a movie about some animals making a break for it. Their lives at the Central Park Zoo are shown in the animals-acting-like-humans-when-they’re-not-around kind of way that’s been so played out but kids will enjoy that. It’s nice to see natural color palates here on everything instead of the day-glo Zubaz job that Dreamworks did in creating an underground spray paint community in SHARK TALE.

There penguins here, and they look like potential scene stealers in this film, are shown taking over a tanker, possibly trying to make a break for it. I am reminded of the penguin from the Wallace and Gromit short, THE WRONG TROUSERS, and I hope that these conniving little bastard birds do their worst. When Ben mentions that the penguins are psychotic, I am rearing to see more as I wonder why penguins seem to always have master plans brewing.

It was definitely amusing to see Ben Stiller get his ass kicked by an old lady after he makes one of his first appearances outside the confines of his cage (It’s the “rough animal with the sinister reputation who’s really nice” kind of character that reminds me of the Shark from FINDING NEMO, the big brown bear on Sesame Street, etc”¦).

Cute and cuddly, boys. Cute and cuddly. The instructions given to the penguins after being surrounded by the fire department and police is laugh worthy as well and I found myself actually looking forward to an animated picture that will get released in the new year.

Director: Michael Clancy
Cast: Ray Romano, Hank Azaria, Jesse Bradford, Zooey Deschanel, Glenne Headly, Famke Janssen, Piper Laurie, Kelly Preston, Rip Torn, Debra Winger, Curtis Garcia
Release: October 29, 2004
Synopsis: When three generations of a deliciously dysfunctional family gather to bury the family patriarch, the beloved granddaughter of the deceased is given the task of delivering the eulogy. In the days leading up to the funeral, family secrets are revealed, old grudges resurface and the household erupts with renewed vigor. A wickedly irreverent comedy, Eulogy is ultimately a heartwarming portrait of a houseful of misfits celebrating the strangest and most enduring bond of all.

Prognosis: Negative. Can sitcom actors really make the big push to the big screen and find success?

Dramatic actors have been doing it well enough, compared to the Matthew Perry’s and Jason Alexander’s of the pop culture landscape, and going it with a better percentage rate when you look at what people like George Clooney have been able to parlay into successful leaps into films. This comment should also reflect of the opposite, big screen to small, when you look at actors like Timothy Busfield and Anthony Edwards who started out playing horny geeks in REVENGE OF THE NERDS to dramatic paragons of prime time television.

With EULOGY, however, Ray Romano seems to be playing his TV’s namesake character Raymond but with an eerie looking moustache that looks taken straight from an old school stag film.

That aside, the trailer opens with all the flourish of mediocrity as Ray tries to hustle his kids up and out of the house to go to a funeral. His protestations in regard to their dilly-dallying, an “aw-shucks, hurry up, you scamps,” inspires neither fatherly fear nor respect out of these hellions; with a demeanor like Ray’s there should be no wonder why not even kids are afraid of him. He is, though, making his way through a divorce situation so maybe there is the possibly of some spousal abuse flashback, hence the moustache. Ray could be giving his old lady a taste of his mannish power by having her eat the back of his hand; if the gods were truly good they would make Patricia Heaton the object d’ bitch slap while she’s in the middle of making one of those obnoxious Albertson’s commercials. But, I digress slightly.

“You’re fully experiencing the loss.”

Out of the blue, and switching gears faster than a crack ho with an itch to scratch, Debra Winger appears on the screen and suddenly I’m interested in what’s happening. She’s looking migh-T-fine for a woman her age, but I’m not really sure what her relationship is with Ray. Nor do I know how Zooey Deschanel or Hank Azaria fit into it all but it’s pretty good talent being represented; the same, however could be said of WELCOME TO MOOSEPORT but there’s hope yet for this film.

My uplifted spirits are popped like a gaseous colostomy bag, though, when I get some more scenes like the one they show at a funeral home where one of the directors mentions how much the casket costs. This statement is followed by the widow asking how much it would cost to simply put him in a bag. Priceless. Really it is. This is another movie about a dead man no one liked but, really, no one got along with Rip Torn, the decedent? I’m at the point of being nonplussed when, just like the beginning, I’m sucked back in this trailer’s undertow as I get Famke Janssen, playing a lesbian, playing a life-partner to a woman in Ray’s family plus there’s a nice cat fight between Ray’s current bride-to-be and Debra Winger.

There are the meddling twin boys, Ray’s kids, who look like they are the instigators for a lot of the wackiness that is bound to ensue when they start drilling holes in the wooden coffin grandpa is in as they put a spout from a gas can into one of the holes and fill “˜er up. After this is done, they shoot fire arrows at the coffin and finally hit it, causing an explosion. While pyrotechnics is always a crowd pleaser for me much of the rest in this trailer is forgettable in a way that only misery can describe.

Director: Jordan Roberts
Cast: Michael Caine, Christopher Walken, Josh Lucas, Jonah Bobo, Glenne Headley
Release: October 8, 2004 (limited)
Synopsis: Four generations of men are suddenly brought together by the chance to uncover the truth about their family’s past. It’s a journey that takes them out on the road to a world full of surprises — some comic, some dramatic, and all of them personal.

Prognosis: Positive. While there will be no point in this film where Christopher Walken’s character asks for more cowbell, this still looks like a tender gem of a movie. Also, Josh Lucas needs more movies that show his ability to not be the asshole everyone hates. Cases in point: HULK, UNDERTOW, SWEET HOME ALABAMA, etc”¦

I can’t quickly rattle off any other movie where there’s been a father/son father/son father/son plot line but I like the originality of the subject material. It’s nice to see that there are still some good premises out there.

Things start off in this trailer with Josh Lucas being accosted awake to find his dad at his doorstep. Apart from the sheer elatedness of finding out that Christopher Walken is your dad and that he’s not bearing cowbells, Lucas appears less than delighted. There’s friction, and obviously there are unresolved issues that will get fixed in the end and he’ll spend most of the movie being a stick in the ass, but the grandson seems happy enough to see granddad and keeps things interesting.

The reunited family, resplendent with Michael Cane as the patriarch, has a wonderful meal at what looks like a KFC (hopefully Walken orders value meal number three while telling the person behind the counter he has a fever and the prescription is more breast meat). Quickly after this happens, Michael dies and leaves behind a will that Walken masterfully reads out loud and seems to be in charge of. This, I’m sure, will lead to even more anger in Lucas.

While Lucas seems just ok with his dad suddenly showing up, the unorthodox reading of a will that seems transcribed on wrinkled writing tablet paper and the accompanying treasure hunt for his grandfathers assets is an intriguing plot device that really keeps this story moving at a comfortable pace.

I could do away with throaty voiceover man as he tells me that “this fall, some secrets are worth pursing;” yeah, some are, but since I don’t have a treasure map and this is a fictional movie I’ll settle for trying to figure out if my wife’s been shuttling money out of my checking account to buy small amounts of that really expensive Lancome makeup. In the meantime, Holmes, don’t tell me that there are secrets worth pursuing. Vampires, psychic detectives, the origins of Twinkie filling, these are all secrets worth pursuing but this just isn’t one of them.

This is a road picture of the oddest order, pure and simple, but Walken really sells it as the crazy old man back from prison, escapee is more like it, and Lucas is really charismatic as the tortured protagonist who is fighting the urge to enjoy the time with his father, who probably violated him with a plunger or some other deep secret we’ll find out in the course of this movie, but will “come to grips” with his past and embrace his future as a father and blah blah blah.

It’s about the journey here and Walken seems to be taking delight in this role. We even get him reprising his dancing abilities, last seen cutting a few rugs and hotel lobbies in a Fat Boy Slim video, and a little ivory tickling. What I enjoy, more than anything, is that the voiceover is suspended long enough for me to see small flashes of personalities in Walken and Lucas. Since this is movie about them, really, it would be good to see why these two have issues with one another. When Walken plays the piano and the two of them have a “moment” it’s believable and it’s not overwrought in a way that seems false.

For a first time writer/director Jordan Roberts, the movie looks decently shot while the story, spoken primarily through the actions of the actors, appears competent enough that it didn’t evoke any eye-rolling on my part. The movie will most likely get a tepid response as the story has a finite number of endings, all of them possible, but this appears to be a picture that has, at the very lest, a good grasp of its story.

Director: Shane Carruth
Cast: Shane Carruth, David Sullivan, Casey Gooden, Anand Upadhyaya, Carrie Crawford
Release: October 8, 2004 (Limited)
Synopsis: At night and on weekends, four men in a suburban garage have built a cottage industry of error-checking devices. But, they know that there is something more. There is some idea, some mechanism, some accidental side effect that is standing between them and a pure leap of innovation. And so, through trial and error they are building the device that is missing most. However, two of these men find the device and immediately realize that it is too valuable to market. The limit of their trust in each other is strained when they are faced with the question, If you always want what you can’t have, what do you want when you can have anything?

Prognosis: Negative trailer; positive buzz. The sound of clicking heels? The soft snaps of ice fracturing? I’m not sure what that noise is as we’re shown that this film has won a couple of Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prizes.

It took some doing but I figured out that the next shot is of a garage, late at night, flooded with yellow night. At first I thought it was a close-up of some old type of transistor because it’s really blurry, most likely done to create a moody kind of feeling, but then I thought back to my Savage Steve Holland days and was reminded of that garage from BETTER OFF DEAD; great film and even better garage. However, I am digressing.

Back in this trailer, after we see the garage, I am asked “What is essential?” Before I can rattle off some funny things I could put in that blank it gives me a few answers, none of which I came up on my own and are far superior answers I wouldn’t have been able to come up with on my own. The action going on behind this little impromptu game of $20,000 Pyramid is obfuscated by haunting audio (sounds like a slowed down heartbeat mixed with muffled lighting) and of some dudes playing with electronic equipment. I’m then asked, like a kid who won’t stop asking questions to mom and pop, “What is wanted?” Again, same funny scenario in my own head, other answers given that don’t come close to my own, etc”¦ These Mormon looking fellows, resplendent with the white shirts, crisp Aryan look, good looking families and accompanying short shirt wearing friends, have something going on but I haven’t a clue as to what it is. Then, as if adding kerosene to this little campfire of discontent, they ask me another freaking question: What is truly wanted?

Before I can be witty one of them finally speaks. “You’re talking about making a bigger one.” He repeats this while still wearing a white, collared shirt; are these guys engineers or just really hardcore company men? Then, the timpani drum starts banging and then a bunch of cut scenes start flying. The words “money” and “power” and a whole slew of others crisscross the screen. Images of storage units and gas canisters and ITT Technical Institute electronics litter the visual landscape. The way these two guys are the only people on the screen I am almost thinking that they are out to create the world’s largest dong and to show Sweden who really is the king of adult “novelty” toys but that guess isn’t too far off and I’ll you why: this film doesn’t explain why in the hell I should see their film. There is no compelling reason to pay money for this experience and this is just a matter of having a bad trailer for a movie that has garnering some great word-of-mouth. Simply based on that I am apt to give this movie a try but to those out there who aren’t glued to every moment of movie news that’s released this trailer does a poor job trying to get the attention of those who are the demographic target.

It’s super to be all coy and secretive but, damn, give me at least a few reasons why I should come see the movie. That said, I, for one, am eagerly awaiting to see the final product.

We had so many different versions and choices. Ultimately what it comes down to is that you’re creating the identity of your film. And you can’t be everything to everybody so you’ve got to figure out who your core audience is and how do you get to them. We decided our core audience was men who were 16 to 40. Guys who like boxing. So that’s why we designed the trailer that way. Even though there is a love story, a spiritual component, and many other things in the film, you still have to pick something and go with it. We worked hard on that trailer.

How long does it take to cobble something together from edits?

You’ve got to write the copy, you’ve got to write the script, the editors have to sit down and make version after version. If you bang one out it’s like six to eight weeks. If you go to the point where you actually make your negative and then Technicolor can start shipping them to theaters. You can get it done, probably, within three or four weeks if you get what you want, quick.

I notice that the clips in the trailer are mostly of the film’s action, the boxing.

We decided that we were going to market it like that. Even thought the film has a strong love story we weren’t going to go into that in the trailer.

You’ve said in recent interviews that you always wanted to direct a film. Why was this project “the one?”

This was the one because it was an interesting combination of an art film about an interesting people that hasn’t been totally exploited and not much has been done about them. [It’s a] a very commercial, familiar, film about a kid who overcomes and triumphs in the end and achieves greatness. It’s an inspirational movie so I thought it was just the perfect combination. To be honest I just love the landscape of not just Arizona. I love landscape whether it be Montana, Arizona, or Colorado. I just love the outdoors. I grew up watching John Wayne movies and they shot them up there in Monument Valley and that’s where the boxing team is. It’s set up there.

Was that something that you’ve always had in you, the country spirit? I’ll bring it up now, congratulations on being nominated for creating Best Video of the Year for “Whiskey Lullaby.”

Thank you. I’m from New York, so on NYPD BLUE, I did completely different kind of work so I appreciate the city, I appreciate the country, but I think my heart is in the country. That’s where I live. I have a ranch in Colorado, I live in Arizona.

Built by hand in 1998 (an IMBD Fun Fact about Rick’s log cabin in Colorado), right?

You know, that’s all fabrication. I am the world’s worst carpenter. Literally, I could not build a tree house for my gerbil. I do have a log cabin but the only thing I did was to pick the logs. It’s one of things where somebody makes something up and then all of a sudden it becomes a fact and everyone starts picking up on it.

About the movie, I watched it. I really liked it a lot. I was blown away for it being a first-time effort. You really hit it out of the park.

Under a million dollars, that movie.

Yeah, visually it looks like it’s right up there with a DANCES WITH WOLVES, something that looks far more expensive with some of the shots you got off.

I got a great cinematographer. The guy is so talented. We had 24 days to film it. We worked six days a week and we worked hard and it was financed 100% by Indian tribes. I had Indian people on the set with me every day, watching me, making sure I did right, make sure I spent their money right and honored their people, so there was a lot of pressure on me making it.

This leads me into the question: the script you wrote by yourself.

Yeah, I wrote it by myself.

It seems that Black Cloud’s character is conflicted, spiritually, with coming to terms”¦

With his mixed blood.

Right. How did you find that voice? Or how did you write this with authenticity?

Well, you know, I just wrote a movie about people. About human beings. This movie could’ve been told about a Spanish kid from Nogales or a black kid in Harlem. It’s a movie about overcoming obstacles and challenges and we’ve all got them. And I think that’s why Black Cloud is so successful. It’s not written from an Indian point of view. It’s written from a point of view about human beings and they happen to be Indian and I think that’s unique. DANCES WITH WOLVES was the first movie, in my mind, that changed the stereotype that the old westerns created and I think BLACK CLOUD, because I got so much support from the tribes, I think they believe that BLACK CLOUD is going to show the good and the bad of them today. I didn’t know a whole lot of Indian people when I wrote BLACK CLOUD but I know a whole bunch now. And it’s a very interesting culture, very diverse. There are over 560 tribes in the country and there is just a lot to learn about them. We live amongst them and they live amongst us but we really don’t integrate too much. Their culture is all around us. It’s a fascinating culture and I am glad that I discovered it because it just adds a lot of texture to the landscape.

Well, that just leads into issues about the financing. I know in previous interviews you’ve said that the usual Hollywood routes”¦

Yeah, all dead ends for me.

Right. Any fears that making the call to the Tohono O’odham and Tonto Apache Indians, the eventual backers of the movie, what they would’ve said? Any doubts that the project just wasn’t going to happen because of that?

Well, I met with many counsels around the country. I flew around the country and I cold called many tribes.

Really?

There’s generational issues between the white culture and the Indian culture that go back a long time and here’s a guy, a white guy showing up with a script saying “I want to make a movie about Indian people and I need your money.” (Laughs) It was pretty hard to find that first investor. It took me 18 months of just trying to get meetings, of just trying to get people to read my script. And then the Chickasaw nation in Oklahoma, they were my first partner, and when they signed on board then other partners fell into place. And like you said, the Tonto Apache tribe from Payson and the Tohono O’odham tribe from Tucson are my Arizona partners. The Tohono O’odham, Diamond Casino, is sponsoring the premiere in Tucson and the Matazal Casino, those folks are sponsoring the Phoenix premiere.

Where is the film going now? I was going to talk about distribution. Are you having to sell this movie all over again or have you found that now you have a finished film people are a little more willing to get your project out there?

(Laughs)

You know, I thought I was going to make a movie and then I would be going to Sundance, they would throw a ton of money at me, I’d pay all of my investors back and life would be great. Well, Sundance ignored me, blew me off, didn’t even return my calls.

You’re kidding.

No. So, it’s like, now what are going to do? Well, what I did was, I started my own distribution company, I went back to the tribes, and I said, “listen, the movie’s good, I believe in it, you believe in it, let’s do this ourselves. And we made deals with Dan Harkins [an Arizona theater chain owner], we made deals with AMC, and we bought the media, and we designed the advertising campaign and we distributed this independently which is where we’re at right now.

The poster design is great. Sometimes you end up with the floating head syndrome, but did you work with an art designer?

I got people in LA to make my trailer and my poster and all this stuff. These are the best companies I got and they did it because they liked the movie. And they did it for well below their normal rates. I mean these guys get paid a couple hundred thousand dollars to design a poster for DreamWorks and I can’t tell you what, they basically did it for nothing because they wanted to give me a break, they liked the film, and they knew I needed a hand. Like the guys at Panavision, they donated a camera and lens package worth $75,000 and I didn’t have to pay a dollar. So I called in all the favors I possibly could over the last 26 years of people I’ve met and pulled this one together.

How long did it take you to assemble a cast and a crew and essentially tell yourself, “OK, I know I need a DP, I need a sound guy, I need all these parts.” How long did this entire process take?

Well, I wrote this movie in January/February 2002 and I found my first investor in November of 2002 and I was shooting the movie in June of 2003. It’s taken 2 ½ years writing to this point and I had a good, young producing partner, this was his first time film, too, and worked his butt off and assembled a fine crew of people. Everyone got paid a lot less than they deserved and it was just one of those things where everyone came together for the right reasons: for the love of movies and for the love of the experience. I think going up to the Navajo and living there for three weeks, it’s an experience. We were given great honors to the Navajo senate. We were allowed to film in scared places where no other film has ever been shot in. We had total support from the Navajo people, which is great. When I cast the movie, it fell together real easy. When Eddie Spears walked through the door I knew he was Black Cloud. He was the only kid I ever wanted.

With Black Cloud, I know the whole movie, most of the movie, he’s angry, he alienates everyone around him. Why did you create a protagonist that was almost hard to get to like until he really comes around near the end? He’s not only battling things he has to deal with in his life, but the real turning point is when he finds out his lineage is not what he thought it was.

Look at it from Black Cloud’s point of view for a second. Here’s a proud kid who’s proud of his heritage and his people and look at the challenges his people face today. This all used to be theirs. We came in, the Europeans, and we took what was theirs. If you look at it from his eyes and you look at the problems, culturally, that are going on up there with 70% unemployment and all sorts of problems. You can see the way he feels. At least I could, I can relate to that. So, I wanted to tell a movie from the perspective of the Indian and I haven’t really seen that: the perspective of a kid that needs to overcome his anger. I guess I had some anger, bottom line, for a period of time in my life and BLACK CLOUD helped me release that. It was very cathartic to write BLACK CLOUD because I wrote Black Cloud as a part I would dream to be. Black Cloud was me as I was writing it.

So, how does that inform the ending? Does he come to grips with it? Will there always be that part of confliction in him?

No. No, he finds peace. He realizes that he’s good and he’s ok and he realizes that people are people and there are good and bad, and it doesn’t matter what color they are, there are good and bad in every shape and size. He comes to peace with who he is. In my twenties I had a lot of angst and now in my young 30’s I’m coming to more at peace with me and myself, my life and things.

I’ve found that informs the spirituality portion of the script, that it was real important part of this story, is at least, his spirituality which you don’t see a lot of nowadays in a lot of film.

No, people shy away from it, it scares them. It takes courage to put yourself out there but because you’re setting yourself up for a bunch of people to take cheap shots at you. I’m proud of that component in the film. A lot of people wanted me to cut that scene where he’s in the spirit world with his mother.

I loved that scene.

I know, so did I!

It was great because it reminded me of GLADIATOR, an almost unfair comparison, the part near the end”¦

When he’s walking through that field.

When he’s walking through that field and his fingertips”¦

(Laughs)

It brings together everything that’s been going on in the whole movie.

I just think that the world needs, the place where we’re at right now in the world, and the fear that all of us feel for our future, and our safety and our kids and our country. I think a movie like this is important. Any movie that inspires and uplifts us, helps us to aspire to be better. I think that’s what this world needs. We don’t need any more crap to drag us down and pollute our minds. We need inspirational movies. That’s the kind of films I want to make.

What was one of the lessons you learned about the process of making a movie that you didn’t know before you began on this trip?

The biggest thing I learned was is that you had better love the story you’re telling because you are going to live with it for two years. You’re going to work everyday on it. Literally, that’s what I learned from BLACK CLOUD. Like I said I thought, “you know, man, I’m just going to go to Sundance, I’m going to sell this thing, and I’m on to my next movie.” Well, it didn’t happen that way. So, you better be prepared to stick with it for the long haul and see it through because you’re the only one who’s gonna push it, and what I mean is you’re the producer. I’m the guy who went out and asked people for money to make a film and I’m the guy responsible for paying them back. So I leaned that you gotta think about marketing. I hate to say it. You’ve got to think about marketing before you make a film. You’ve got to think about how you position it, how you sell it and who is the audience and all these kinds of things which I didn’t think about. Luckily, it worked out well on BLACK CLOUD. At least, that’s what I believe. If the business side doesn’t work you’re not going to be making many more movies.

Did at any time you think to yourself, “I’ve maybe have taken on too much?”

Oh man, I bit off a huge chunk.

You’re obviously you were writer, producer, director, and then de facto actor in the movie.

I actually, I can’t do this much again. It’s kind of taken a ton out of me. It took a lot of time out from my wife, my kids. It’s been a big, big demand on not only me but on my family. So, in the future I am going to learn more about delegating and more about trusting other people. And I’ve met some people now that I do trust that are a part of my team so when we do this again I can trust that they’re gonna do their jobs and I don’t have to micromanage it.

Have you seen anything this year that has really inspired you or anything that would make you tell someone, “I just saw this really great film”?

Tell me some things that have come out.

Well, my favorite so far this year has been ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND with Jim Carrey.

I didn’t see it.

SPIDER-MAN 2?

Didn’t see it.

How about any movie going this year? You’ve probably been tied up with this movie and haven’t had the time to go out to the movies.

I watched THE UNFORGIVEN the other day on DVD. I love that movie. I watched NAPOLEAN DYNAMITE, Jon Heder’s film.

I saw that a couple of weeks ago.

He’s coming to the premiere tonight.

That guy is a trip.

Yeah, and he’s a real nice guy. I liked him and he made me laugh and I just haven’t been going to that many movies and I haven’t seen anything I’ve liked. MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE? I fairly enjoyed that.

I’ve got a one year-old so I don’t get to get out to movies myself that much. I get to review the trailers and that seems to be as far as I get these days.

I saw HERO. I thought it was beautiful. Some of the stuff that he did was beautiful but I didn’t dig the plot. But I dug the production design big time, the visuals. Did you see it?

I’ve had it on DVD for over a year.

Remember when stuff would turn from red to yellow and just the change of the leaves?

You could almost turn off the sound.

Yeah, it was so pretty to look at. I thought that was amazing, visually.

So, you find you’re inspired more by one genre or another? Some directors like a McG will only go for action or a Brett Ratner, the guy who did RUSH HOUR, these guys are all informed about how an action movie goes but you seem to be more informed by men like Clint Eastwood.

I like Scorsese. I like Michael Mann I like Clint Eastwood. Those are some of the directors I like.

Did you see COLLATERAL?

I did. I enjoyed COLLATERAL but my favorite Michael Mann movie of all time is the Indian one, THE LAST OF THE MOHICIANS. I like HEAT, too. I didn’t see this other Clint Eastwood movie with Sean Penn, MYSTIC RIVER. Did you see it?

You know, I haven’t. Not yet. I’ve heard it’s good.

I don’t want to bring up the past. You’re done with it, it’s behind you, but even though I wanted to tell you how bad I felt for you when in episode 65 of SILVER SPOONS you had to go to David Horowitz for help in dealing with a crooked mail-order company, I know the world would love to know: How is it to work with John C. McGinley?

He’s the dude from PLATOON, right? He is so amazing, so funny. He’s so smart, so witty, so quick. His character in SCRUBS is hysterical and he’s so dry with it. That show, I think, the best written show on TV. It makes me die laughing.

You were on a few episodes.

I did five shows.

Was your acting separated from the others? Were you only spending time with just those who you were on camera with?

All of my scenes were with Elliot; I was her love interest, her guy. Zach kinda had a crush on Elliot so he was giving me dirty looks. It was a good time. That guy, Bill Lawrence, the show runner, he was the guy who was behind SPIN CITY, one of the guys, young guy, but what a hard worker. He writes, runs that whole thing. Super-talented. You want to talk about hard working those people work hard, those writers. They just work their guts out.

I think they’re the unsung heroes, I think, of a lot of stuff out there.

It’s all about the writing, I mean, honestly, it is. The actors are interchangeable.

Really?

Yup.

You think you give any mediocre actor, and give them good material, they’ll shine?

Absolutely. It’s about the writing. The writing is everything. In my opinion the writing’s everything.

What’s your own writing like?

I’ve been working so hard on BLACK CLOUD. To write, I need a block of time and I need to have my head clear and I just haven’t had that since BLACK CLOUD. So, I’m looking forward to it again, when I can get BLACK CLOUD behind me, get it out on DVD in February and then get on to the next thing. So I’m looking forward to that. I do have a script that I didn’t write that I like very much. It’s a western that I’m trying to put together for next spring to shoot and I do have an idea or two that I want to write but you know, literally, there is no time to write. No time to relax. I mean I started a distribution company; I can’t believe the details, the tasks involved.

I just want to thank you, very much, for taking the time to talk. You have your premiere. Thank you, Rick.

Thank you.

Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Cast: Audrey Tautou, Gaspard Ulliel, Dominique Pinon, Jodie Foster, Chantal Neuwirth, Ticky Holgado, Tchéky Karyo
Release: November 26, 2004 (limited)
Synopsis: From the director and star of AMELIE (Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Audrey Tatou) comes a very different love story: A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT, based on the acclaimed novel by Sebastian Japrisot. The film is set in France near the end of World War I, in the deadly trenches of the Somme, in the gilded Parisian halls of power, and in the modest home of an indomitalbe provincial girl.

View Trailer:
* Medium (Simply click on Entrez, and then on Bande Annonce.)

Prognosis: Positive. I don’t know why or for what reasons, maybe I do and I’m just not giving that information up, but I was a huge fan of Amelie. I’m not sure if it was Audrey Tautou’s visual innocence or if it was Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s visual style that captivated me but the movie was a nice blend of sugary romance, oddball characterizations, and just enough directorial panache that I was left satisfied from the entire experience. This new movie, for those that don’t already know, pairs the leading lady with the writer/director once more for a film that looks not as odd but with every bit of that je ne sais quoi that I will delight in partaking once more.

The opening of this film, with everything glazed with an amber hue, has two kids, one boy and one girl who go exploring inside lighthouse. It looks like, however, that Audrey is hitching a ride on her young beau’s back (an eerie metaphor about what the entire female race will do throughout his natural born life regardless of the fact that Tautou’s character can hardly walk). It seems the lighthouse is a place where the kids go to play and even, as the trailer shows, someplace where they come years later to continue games like hide the sausage, capturing the python, consuming the salami, and on and on the debauchery goes. I will say, for and on the record, Senator, with each successive display of Tautou’s wares, first the bustier and then simply nothing but a strategically placed arm, is a good thing. It’s downright wholesome and I think the whole family would delight in all that this kind of offers, French style.

It does, though, seem that these kids really love one another and it doesn’t feel like it’s ever going to devolve into one of those soft-core EMMANUELLE serials. She seems happy, but that, good man, is where things have to go south. Her beau goes off to fight in WWI; he must have been one of seven unlucky ones who comprised the combined strength of the French army. Men are shown in dank trenches, getting their bayonets ready, as Tautou says good-bye to her love for the last time. Or is it?

Bombs go off in every which direction, a sole man marches forward with his gun on the dirty battlefield, Tautou gets food ready in the kitchen, explosions rock the war’s landscape, Tautou flees the provincial life and heads to gay Paris (pronounced Pair-eee for those still keeping score at home) on a train. She gets a letter and voice speaks out; as to what is said I haven’t a clue as the only foreign language training I have is five years of combined high school and college Spanish: Donde esta la biblioteca porque mis gatos son muy chistoso. A zeppelin goes up in glorious flames, a very strange woman in black appears (who, I believe, might be Jodie Foster who does have a cameo in this movie) and then a body, possibly that of her best man friend in the world, rises several dozen feet in the air as a bomb crater is created just beneath him just before descending into what is quite possibly an ignoble death.

There is a shared moment between these two during happier days, again with the piggybacking, and even a forcibly sweet final image of the two of them as kids, standing cheek to cheek which is really quite sweet in a cavity forming way.

Beyond Grandpa I and II ““ 1999 is when we finished Part II, so then about four years. I went to work at Nickelodeon for a year in New York and did a pilot at MTV ““ Deadtime Stories ““ an animated horror pilot with Michael Dougherty who is actually now the big shot writer of X2 and the upcoming Superman movie, and he had created this animated horror show that MTV wanted to do at the time. I came up with a script with him and we created this little thing that didn’t make it to air. But it was a good experience.

And then I moved to LA and I’ve been working in comic books and doing little animated things here and there, and Dr. Tran is kind of our return to irreverent short animated films. We just thought, hey, we’ve got a month to kill so let’s have some fun again and my friend Jason Johnson, who co-created it and voiced Dr. Tran, he came down. He lives in Santa Cruz and is actually a massage therapist who, this is kinda funny”¦.he’s a massage therapist who recently came down with Poison Oak. He doesn’t find it funny, but I think it’s funny. So, he’s been broke. He came down and stayed with me for a few months and we were going to do Beyond Grandpa III ““ we thought that was the natural thing.

So we were just hanging out one night and came up with this character called Dr. Tran, who is a little boy who was named Doctor because his parents wanted him to become a doctor so bad. He started off as a character for an unrealized Beyond Grandpa comic book ““ the little kid in the neighborhood who the Grandpa would antagonize. Say some kid falls down and he says “Ow, ow, I need a Band-Aid” or something. And the Grandpa would say “Why don’t you get Dr. Tran? After all, he’s a Doctor” and Tran would say “I’m not a doctor!” and that would be his little catch phrase.

And so we’re sitting there talking about it and saying “yea, yea, that’s pretty good.” I’m doing the Grandpa thing and he’s doing the Dr. Tran voice and we’re going back and forth and back and forth and I suddenly realize this could make a whole film. We can just antagonize the little boy for an entire film and somehow that led into doing a mock movie trailer. Basically Hollywood sells you every good film and bad film the same way ““ like it’s the best thing you’re ever going to see. They’re packaging every turd the same as their diamonds. So, we thought, well if they’ll sell anything to you that way, why not sell a little kid? Let’s point out the absurdity by having them sell a little kid that way and somehow the two ideas just came together.

So, how did the idea of a trailer appeal to you? You figured you had a concept for maybe what would seem like almost an animated full length show but why all of a sudden, you know what, out of all the possibilities, a trailer sounds really good?

Well, part of it, well, a huge factor”“ and this is probably going to be somewhat disappointing to people to find out”“is time and budget, neither of which we had much of. So it was a matter of finding that perfect concept where we have a very stationary main figure. Our old shorts were grandpas and grandpas don’t move too much, and that’s a benefit for someone who has very little time and money (laughs). So, we came up with something with this little guy who is pretty much idle. He waves his arms around, I make a set of unexcitable normal mouths and a set of screaming mouths packed full of teeth (so that as he gets angrier, his mouth gets bigger and bigger), one background and a few posters. And then I hired a friend of mine to animate the graphics and the little figure in After Effects. Dr. Tran was a lot like a little puppet, drawn by hand and put together in PhotoShop.

How did you come up with the concept of the little Polynesian boy? Is he Polynesian or Asian because I know when I’ve seen it, it looks like Hawaii a little bit?

We never really chose. People have told us that he’s Vietnamese. We never decided that. Basically the idea was, let’s get him as far away from the American culture of entertainment as we could possibly get him. Like he is just unaffected by it. He doesn’t know what to expect and it doesn’t concern him and he’s not even interested. He’s got chores to do. He wants to finish his breakfast ““ very simple ““ and then take the cultures and juxtapose them. The original idea was contrast.

How long did it take to make it? To get it done?

I don’t think I actually answered your question. I think the idea of doing a movie trailer instead of a whole piece was just something that I always wanted to do, when we use to make short films on video throughout high school. I just kept saying, let’s try to do a movie trailer, it looks fun, but I didn’t have access to the editing software. We didn’t even have digital video in the Stone Age (the early Nineties) so, yes, it was just something I’ve always wanted to do.

But it took about five weeks. We had an early concept, but from when we started writing the script to Comic-Con was just over five weeks. It was a real rush. That’s why we had to hire an animator, editor, sound guy, and we had a producer who funded it, did our digital effects in the live action scene”¦ Rick Cortes is our awesome, awesome producer who provided us with our little kid who gets punched in the live action sequence and a lot of the resources that we had. He’s a digital effects artist whose been doing movies and stuff in the industry for years. So he did that marquee where you see Dr. Tran on the live action theatre.

Who is the Actual Asian Male [part of the live action testimonials that spoof on obnoxious audience reactions in television trailers]?

Actually he’s my friend Paul C-H-I-E-N (I’m thinking ahead because I know I spell names wrong and they always get pissed at me). So, Paul is one of the guys we did films with back in high school. I’ve known him since freshman year in high school and he’s gone on to do things of his own. He ran an Americorp group for a couple of years. I think he’s in school now and I just called him up and said “Hey, do you want to come up to LA and be in this thing.” He was glad to. We got to employ a lot of our old friends. We try to get everybody in.

Now I know, and it’s not so much a departure from Dr. Tran, but you have your own or at least you supply support for a comic book that’s now overseen by my own editor, Chris Ryall. Can you explain a little bit about your involvet in both comics and also animation? How did the two converge?

When I did the Beyond Grandpa shorts, it led to a desk job at Nickelodeon for a year, computer animating for Little Bill, Bill Cosby’s Nick Jr. show. Once we finished up our MTV pilot, I moved to Los Angeles and I got a call from my friend Serena Valentino, the creator of a comic book called GLOOMCOOKIE. I think she was just out of artists that day, and I had just moved to LA and I was like, I’m here, I’m going to get into the animation industry and I’m going to”¦..HELLO?….Sure, I’ll do a comic book and then it was BOOM. I’m inside my house every day for like two years just doing a comic book. I didn’t really need to be in LA but it was great fun.

So, after GLOOMCOOKIE, I illustrated a three issue horror mini-series called ALEISTER ARCANE for IDW Publishing, written by Steve Niles, which is now finished up and in development at Paramount Pictures. Somehow I squeezed making Dr. Tran in there somewhere. I think that’s how the timeline goes ““ so I just did it between things ““ which is the reason we had to go so fast because I had to go right on to the next comic book. We’ve gotten such good response to Dr. Tran. We did the DVD this year.

It was kind of a rush to get it done by Comicon. I was reading your journal log and it said I’m in a rush to get this done. I don’t know if I’m going to get it done ““ literally weeks were you able to get the artwork, the bonus features added, you said there were some glitches here and there that you had to work out.

And it’s been the same way with everything that we do. I don’t know how it works but by the end of it, everything is fine. And it seems to be like by the final day we’re done and it’s beautiful and it worked and everybody is happy. But every single day up to that point has been a screeching struggle of mountain climb. I don’t know why. Do you know what I think? With Beyond Grandpa I had to do almost everything myself. I wrote it with my buddies and I would animate, draw, edit and do many of the voices myself, and when you do it that way you have full control. Whereas, when you are relying on a lot of people, everybody may be talented and good at what they do, but coordinating the production becomes the new priority. Things kind of scatter and everyone is trying to figure out what you’re thinking. I’m really impressed with people who direct animation because that kind of coordination is a real skill.

Other responses to the DVD or at least downstairs at the Con?

We just started selling them but it’s going great. People are mostly saying they saw it last year here at the Con and they were waiting for it and they’ve been checking the website every now and again and that kind of stuff.

That’s how I found out about it. I saw Spike & Mike this year and as soon as I saw it, literally the next day, I was on websites on how I could get my hands on it, and I’m not being facetious, I thought it was the best short of this year that I’ve seen. It was enough to prompt me to go find out a little more about this and, sure enough, I saw the site ““ the site looks great but the short wasn’t available to buy until the Con.

And Spike has been ““ he’s been trying to get the DVD rights from us too for quite a while but we thought it would be cool to just do a limited thing. We did 400 of them, and there’s a lot of people who couldn’t come to the Con and they are emailing me saying hey, are we going to be able to get this later and I’m not positive that they will. I’m hoping we will have some left over for them. If we don’t, we did just sign a deal with Spike so he’s going to put out a DVD probably within the next few months that will have it on there. I’m considering giving him the documentary on the Making of Dr. Tran. Just because how absurd is it that there be a documentary that we made for sale in Virgin Megastore? So the fact that we only did 400 is kinda like, it dies there.

So, what’s next? What’s on the horizon? Do you have any concepts or things you’re thinking about since you’ve got a really good response from Dr. Tran?

Yeah, we thought a lot about sequel ideas for Tran, expanding the character, not necessarily the concepts. And there’s been some interest in Beyond Grandpa from different people ““ there’s always something on hold or in development somewhere. Adam Sandler started an animation website back when the whole animation website thing was really popular. Shnorff.com, I think it was called. He wanted to do Beyond Grandpa, so we were getting all geared up to do that and we thought it was great and Shnorff shut it’s doors before it even got off the ground, because of the whole dot com crash or whatever you call it.

And then we pitched another idea. We have this kids animated adventure show we pitched to a studio and this guy loved it, and the next week he lost his job. And then this guy at another studio loved Beyond Grandpa and it was like, “guys we’re going to take you out to dinner, it’s going to be great, we’re going to put this on the air.” I think it was about a month later, he lost his job.

It seems like you’re a bad totem.

A trend! So, I’ve learned to just take it as it comes. I don’t expect anything from the entertainment industry and we just make stuff when the inspiration hits us, and when we have time. You know we thought about Dr. Tran sequels but so far I don’t want to do that. It just kind of stands on its own pretty well and I don’t want to screw it up in a re-tread. Do you know what I mean? Unless we had just the right idea.

I know Craig McCracken with No Neck Joe he’s gone on ““ you know ““ to kid friendly stuff. Obviously some of the things in Spike and Mike are a bit risqué but it translates well for other people who are looking to get their start or at least get something really big off the ground. Are you actively looking for someone to put you on the payroll to do a concept in your own mind about what you’d like to maybe do?

There is a production company that I’m actually working with that has a show idea. It’s more their thing than it is mine so I don’t want to say too much about it but they had me come in and design the characters, rewrite the pitch, kinda conform the characters to my sensibilities, things like that ““ I’m not sure where that is right now. I have a manager that tends to keep track of that stuff for me, so I don’t know. I don’t have too much interest in the business side of it actually. It’s just a wonderful process of working with talented people. And like I said, Dr. Tran ““ many of my buddies ““ cause I’ve got some funny friends ““ Jason Johnson and Justin Hunt who both were in Beyond Grandpa, are two of the funniest guys you’ll ever meet and I just happened to go to high school with them. So, I’m just lucking out basically. With comic books I have a little trouble with the isolation. You get to the point where you go stir crazy and get up and go the bed and between that time you are endlessly working on comic books. That’s all you’re doing. There’s nobody around. Occasionally someone walks their dog by and I say “Please keep me company”. So I don’t know where I was going with that so”¦..

Animation and comics. Obviously with animation you get to be involved with a lot of other people and no isolation with getting other people involved. Doing comic books is very interesting. Do you find one is more artistic than the other? Do you derive more satisfaction than the other?

They are both challenging ““ in ways ““ unique. So, I don’t know. I want to write screen plays and do the whole thing. I just like playing with media and seeing what happens. When we made Dr. Tran, we had no clue that people were going to like it. You never know. You work in a vacuum. You don’t know if people will be OK with what you did. We thought, oh god, this kid’s four or five”¦ he uses all this language and we thought this 3D sequence that only goes for a few seconds, are people going to be pissed at us? We (the audience) have been sitting here waiting for this 3D sequence and now we have to take our glasses off ““ is the crowd going to lynch us? And, thankfully, people just embraced it but you have no clue until the day and you are sitting there anxiously waiting to see what people think. It’s just a really cool process and it’s fun to take the risk and see what happens.

So, if I can avoid it, I’ll try not to get another desk job, but every now and then that kind of thing pops up and you have to do what you have to do. So far, we’ve got a cool little fan base and people are interested in Dr. Tran sculptures and stuff like that. I would love to see that! Nothing I’ve ever done has been made into a toy, so, it would, of course ““ (a guy in an Optimus Prime costume walks by). Optimus! I’m a big Optimus Prime fan and I’m a big Destro fan.

Really? What about Destro?

I haven’t seen any Destros walking around the Con this year. We hide Destro in all our films.

Really?

We don’t tend to tell people where they are since technically Destro is copyright trademark Hasbro Inc., whatever it is. But we love “˜em so on the lowdown we stick him in there.

Is he somewhere in Dr. Tran?

There is a Destro reference, yes, somewhere.

And Beyond Grandpa?

He’s in Grandpa too. I’m not sure I should be telling you that.

No, it’s OK. That can be off the record if you like.

We put a thing on the web site showing where he is in Grandpa.

Well, thank you very much for your time.

Cool, man. Thank you for asking me to do this. This was fun.

Director: Rick Schroder
Cast: Peter Greene, Pooch Hall, Jeff Ham, Julia Jones, Wayne Knight, Tim McGraw, Russell Means, Branscombe Richmond, Richard Roll, Rick Schroder, Justin Scot, Eddie Spears
Release: October 1st, 2004 (Limited)
Synopsis: Black Cloud is an inspirational story about a young American Indian boxer who overcomes personal challenges as he comes to terms with his heritage while fighting his way for a spot on the US Olympic boxing team.

Prognosis: Positive. There isn’t any voiceover to be found in this trailer.

For an independent movie of this size a voiceover is usually employed to try and sell an audience on a movie in much the same way a salesman would do everything in his power to convince you the El Camino is poised for a comeback. This trailer is bold enough that it uses its imagery, its dialogue and its rapid fire flashes of action sequences to get you interested in the film. There’s a risk in letting the elements of the film sell itself but it works.

What we have, in the beginning, is a voice off-screen.

“How long you been boxing?”

“I’ve been fightin’ my whole life.”

Sweaty gloves knock into padded heads and then, like a surprise guest star on Nash Bridges, we get PULP FICTION patrol officer Zed himself, Peter Greene, but in this go around he plays a boxing scout who is trying to convince Black Cloud, Eddie Spears, to come and try out for the United States Olympic boxing team. The offer is quickly rejected by his trainer who says that Black Cloud doesn’t need adulation, he boxes because, “he needs to.”

This is when the drum beats begin and you know, judging by the scowl on his face, Black Cloud is going to get into a world of hurt with the mountain sized chip on his shoulder. His self-paved road to boxing greatness is hindered by a father who drinks too much, a dead mom he cannot remember, and by Rick Schroder, who gets his ass deservedly whooped for making a comment about the very same mother and for sporting that wicked handlebar moustache..

Black Cloud is told he is the chosen one, but I am feeling this doesn’t have anything to do with Eddie Murphy or a little Asian boy. He bobs and weaves around a punching bag, he runs free on the mesa of his land, and looks like he scores a fairly nice lady in the process before the ass whooping is returned to him in the ring. There are many punches tossed in Black Cloud’s direction before a wise Indian man tells Cloud that he must lose himself before he finds himself. I know he doesn’t know Eminem, and if he does it’s probably for his crisp candy shell, but the song that the line evokes seems weirdly appropriate anyway.

Then, as if out of nowhere, his smack talkin’, smooth movin’ opponent in the ring calls Black Cloud Tonto. If there’s any reason why a guy deserves a cinematic beat down I’m feeling that comment sealed the deal. I’m feeling this trailer for the amount of rage these dudes have for one another. All that’s really missing is a cage match.

We get intros to Schroder and Tim McGraw who, if you look up the showbiz appearances by the latter, only has one other acting part to his name before this one: as a guest musician on a Neil Diamond television special. It’s nice to see Tim here sans the man who made coming to America such a sinister, musical odyssey.

From here, lighting fast snippets fill the screen as bits and pieces of the film flicker and flash too fast to bring into context. What I can see, though, is a movie predicated on ferociousness. Black Cloud is looking to take his anger out on the world and it seems that if he doesn’t find a positive channel, the very same things that are falling apart around him will only serve to drag him down as well. See? I didn’t even need voiceover guy to tell me that, either.