Monday, May 29, 2006

It's Memorial Day...

And I really don't have much planned other than a few moments of quiet reflection on who sacrificed what so that I could be here. I am a big barbeque fan (as my waist size will attest) , but I really need to cut back on some of that stuff (meat, bread) and go for the greens. So, no BBQ this year. I've got a salad with my name on it.

The freeways are rather calm this morning as most everyone is at home having coffee or sleeping in. Only a few hundred thousand on the freeways today. Tonight will be another story. Tonight of course, when the lanes are full, I won't see cars themselves, but simply streaming dots of light flying through the arteries of the city. Like fibre optic cable I would imagine or a pointilist painting come to life.

I'm going through and giving Jeff O'Brien my producer's notes on his latest draft of The Gore Gore Gore-Met. The director, Jonathan Walter and I are very pleased thus far (Psych!). Jeff's been a good little toad and served this mad pulp bastard well. He will be allowed to exist for a little while longer. At least until Herschell gets hold of him then all bets are off.

Quips aside, what's interesting about our collaboration is the fact that we have never all been in the same room together - ever. Jeff's in Vancouver. Jonathan is in Milwaukee. I'm here in LA, and Herschell is travelling the world this summer with his wife. We've spoken on the phone, exchanged emails, pictures and links - but we won't shake each other's hands until we go to set a couple of days prior to filming.

Wow.

The last time I did this sort of thing was when we produced some Blistex commercials for German TV. It's a chore, but the goal is worth it. We get to make a movie. Not just any movie mind you - A Herschell Gordon Lewis movie. Most of you don't know this, but when Herschell quit moviemaking back in the 70's and went into direct marketing (very successfully I might add) he took all of his movie ideas - stories , treatments, ideas scribbled on napkins - and locked them away in a trunk in the attic. When we first started discussing this movie (and another one we're developing) we realized what we had on our hands - HGL movies that haven't been made yet! Ideas that haven't been seen by the public - ever!

Other people are trying to make HGL movies - there's a remake of Wizard of Gore coming up and a sequel/remake of another film of his...

But this will be the first original Herschell Gordon Lewis film seen
in nearly 40 years!

(How did I get off track talking about this film? See what this moviemaking thing does to me? I'll keep you posted on what's happening - as much as I can. )

Take time out today to ask yourself, "Who sacrificed something for me to be here where I am right now in life?" I'm getting to make this film because of a lot of people - my parents, brother, sister-in-law, professors, mentors, drill sergeants, bosses, people who told me I "couldn't do that" - influenced, cajoled, slapped, and sacrificed. Right now there are people out there sacrificing something so you get to exist.

Honor them by doing what you do to the best of your ability and passing it along.

3 comments:

Christian Lindke said...

Speaking of the ramake of Wizard of Gore, I was just looking up the credits of an actor from an episode of House a couple of weeks back. Long story short...he's starring in the remake.

MaryAn Batchellor said...

I spent some time at the cemetery. Never done that before. Met a lot of people anxious to tell me what their dearly departed did for them, for me, and for this country. Great stories and a lot of laughter in the most unlikely place. Go figure.

Neal Romanek said...

We'll be relocating to London later in the year. I'll be really putting the test to the idea of global collaboration, after years as a local Hollywood boy.