I saw a final cut of THE GATEWAY MEAT, filmed in Massachusetts. I appear in the film, I get brutally murdered and got to write my own death scene. Unfortunately my face is bound up with duct tape and we shot for 8 or 10 hours and I couldn't see and was covered in cold fake blood all day. The DVD will be out soon. The film is AMAZING- oh my god- so gory! I was only in a small part and did not see the script so knew nothing about the plot of the film or anything about it except my scenes.
Also out soon on DVD:
Countess Bathoria's Graveyard Picture Show, which debuted at the Fantasia Film Fest, and which I co-wrote.
I am writing for The Independent Magazine website and will be interviewing Jeremy Kasten, director of the upcoming remake of The Wizard of Gore.
I have an interview in the next Girls and Corpses magazine with Erik Ruhling, author of Infernal Device, an illustrated book of torture devices.
Although I put it aside months and months ago it looks like my script A Fistful of Anger may be optioned.
These days, porn is on everyones mind it seems. From wholesome young kids in school, middle aged working women joking at the office, to creepy old perverted men working lonely 3rd shift security jobs. So why should Kevin Smith be any different?
Kevin Smith is the writer/director of Clerks I & II and many other funny, successful flicks. He tells the average males down & out loser stories better than most, and has an empathy for that kind of character.
So it is of no surprise that his latest flick, "Zak and Miri make a porno", a 25 million dollar budgeted feature from the Weinstein Co. is going into production January 2008 in Pittsburgh Penn.
kevin calls it "a love story. Zak and Miri just want to make a good old-fashioned dirty movie because they are in deep financial trouble and need to raise money fast.”
The film will star Seth Rogen (knocked up) and Elizabeth Banks (The 40 year old virgin) along with Jason Mewes (kevin's long time side kick "Jay" from Clerks I and II and Jay and Silent Bob go to hollywood fame). There are several other key pieces of casting not yet revealed. Kevin Smith stated: “I can’t wait to reveal the rest of the cast. A key piece of the puzzle just fell into place yesterday, and it’s a genius bit of casting. This is gonna be fun”.
Is this movie a gamble? I think not. Porn is everywhere. Porn is legitimate. It's not something dirty, hidden under your uncles bed anymore. Porn has become so acceptable to the masses that the average person can talk openly about it at the office, or see references to it on network television on a daily basis. This is all thanks to the Internet, which from day one, has fed the porn hungry masses and has brought hardcore pornography into practically everybody's homes.
kevin never hid his love of porn. Starting from Clerks I, with the video clerk ordering despicable porn titles such as anal rump rangers in front of a horrified women patron, to Clerks II where they put on a full blown donkey porn show. Porn references were always littered through out his scripts. Anyone that was paying attention could see where he was heading with all of this.
If anyone can pull this off, a main stream, big budget flick about porn, Kevin Smith just might be the man to do it. He has the average mans sensibilities. He knows how to speak to, and reach his audience. With this movie, Kevin has just decided to take his love of porn and the average persons love of porn, to the next logical step.
Is this the first big budget mainstream porn movie to reach the masses? No... It has been done before: National Lampoon's "Barely Legal" released in 2005 was about 3 high schoolers that made their own porn and it did alright business, but it wasn't a huge success.
The Weinstein brothers are no dummy's. They know the time is right to make a blockbuster out of a main stream movie about porn, and Kevin Smith is the perfect director to help bring it all together.
This does bum me out a little, because I have been threatening to make a mainstream comedy about the porn world for years. Leave it to Kevin Smith to beat Craig Amabello to the punch.... But he has far more experience and skill at these things than I do. This is what I get for sitting on my ass and not actually getting to work on MY script and start shooting MY own movie about the porn world..... A world in which I am most intimately acquainted.... But I'm sure there's room for several blockbuster movies about porn and I am hoping that mine will be one of them!
On Monday, October 29, science meets the paranormal, and film meets literature, at the Coolidge Corner Theatre.
At 7:00 PM, the Coolidge will hold a special screening of the 2001 Japanese film Kairo, directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Kairo tells the story of Japanese teens investigating a series of suicides linked to an internet webcam that supposedly offers the opportunity to interact with the dead. Kairo actress Kumiko Aso's performance in the film won her a Japanese Professional Movie Award for Best Actress. In addition, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone Magazine says that Kairo "possesses the dark art to make your pulse pound and your hair stand on end."
Along with a screening of Kairo, the Coolidge will have author Alan Lightman on hand to discuss his new novel, Ghost. Ghost tells the story of David, an average man who witnesses a supernatural event. The experience results in a private, psychological crisis for David, who also must contend with being a local media spectacle.
Alan Lightman is a physicist and author who currently teaches at MIT. His previous work includes the critically acclaimed novels Einstein's Dreams, Good Benito, and Reunion, as well as the National Book Award Nominee The Diagnosis.
"ROCKING THE BOAT" IS A MOVIE ABOUT THE MUSIC AND JOURNEY OF ARTISTS WHO DESERVE TO BE HEARD.
Every year for the last twelve, legendary three-time Grammy Award winning, Delbert McClinton has leased a cruise ship and filled it full of his musical friends and fans.
The tone is spontaneous. It’s about Independence, artistic integrity, talent, originality, and mutual respect. Dozens of new songs are introduced. New creative relationships are formed.
This is a floating music festival, song-writing clinic, and musician’s retreat, designed to help artists and audience alike recharge their batteries and celebrate another trip around the sun.
A young Delbert is shown with John Belushi at the Lonestar Cafe, NYC (Photo courtesy of Stephanie Chernikowski)
The following is Jay's account of how this film came into being...
"I have been a small market work for hire director for 30 years. I spent the first 20 years mostly doing commercials. I eschewed agencies and they me. I am a writer/producer/director and didn't think much of the talent they brought to bear on a project or problem. Accordingly, and happily, I worked in somewhat obscurity-even within my market-but nonetheless was continuously employed by loyal clients who appreciated my sensibilities and craft.
While attending our first New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 1999, my wife, Susan James, and I were astounded at the number of artists we loved that we had never heard of. Delbert McClinton was one of these. Having lived and worked in Hawaii all my adult life, I somehow missed Delbert. The genre defying nature of Delbert has yielded a level of celebrity that is not commensurate with his talent. The same can be said for untold thousands of singer/songwriter/artists who cannot be packaged into the cookie cutter product that dominates the music industry today.
We learned that Delbert threw a week-long floating music festival and signed up. From the first day of the first cruise I knew that this was a movie. It took 4 years to demonstrate to Delbert's wife Wendy Goldstein, that I had the head, heart, and craft to tackle it. Delbert is a happy man. I think he feels he is as rich and famous as he needs to be. He is doing the best work of his life. He is an American Master and 3-time Grammy® winner. He has played with some of the best musicians this country has ever produced. He is unassuming but clearly venerated. The musicians he includes in his annual affair are shockingly good. They are poets with Clapton instrumental chops. The people who attend his cruises come from all economic strata but have in common very demanding musical needs. Delbert's directive is "plug in, play, and blow my socks off." The words have to be clever and the notes sweet.
Delbert Mc Clinton is the image above right,Wayne Toups is the guy with the accordion on the right.
The all access nature of his Sandy Beaches Cruise allowed me to meet artists who are 5, 10 or 20 years behind Delbert in their own journeys but completely in line with his musical values. It is about communicating ideas and feelings through music in the way of Hank Williams, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Gatemouth Brown, or Wilson Pickett. For the most part it is lyric based rhythm and blues with a Texas twist.
We did a sneak preview screening of the rough cut at the 80-year-old Palace Theater in Hilo, Hawaii on June 3rd. People laughed, cried, cheered, and boogied in all the right places, and many left with the same incredulity that I had the first time I heard Delbert and these other artists: Where the F have I been that I never heard these guys before?"
Come take part in the excitement. There is no shortage in music during the festival to make this experience come full circle.
Rocking the Boat will be screening on Wed, Aug 1, 7:00 PM | Redfield Auditorium as part of the Woods Hole Film festival
Check out the Rocking the Boat website to view the trailer and get more details: http://www.rockingtheboatmovie.com/
Check out the Woods Hole Festival website to check out screenings as well as musical performances: http://www.woodsholefilmfestival.org/
I just turned down a PA job offer from a feature that's coming to Boston because they were hiring in the production office. I told them I was specifically interested in post-production or the art dept., but not too keen on the production office.
For anyone who hasworked in or known people who work in the production office, you know what they're lives are like... hellish and non-existant. God bless them. I feel bad about it because I complain about being out of cash a lot, but I guess I need to figure out if I can afford princples or not. That being said, working in the production office would mean making mininum wage to do shit that won't necesarily lead anywhere. This would have been my third feature film, but this time around, "at least I'm working in my field" won't work... eh... I guess its hard to feel bad for me when others don't have a job.
But I just made room for someone else who is eager to please to take my place, so turn my stupidity into an opportunity!
