I'm Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs!

Well, while Dgro is off in The Lou handling some wedding plans, I'm holding down the fort here in LA, handling a few miscellaneous items and trying to get some work done. Also, Captain Deadpan is in the middle of Pennsylvania producing some feature starring only octogenarians. So I'm all by my lonesome here in LA and it kind of feels like the parents are away for the weekend. I'm gonna have a kegger and eat Cocoa Puffs for dinner every night.

Things have started to sink in a bit regarding the Magnolia deal and it feels awesome.

Last week, I went over to Ed the Editor's house and took a look at a few of the scenes we might include in the "deleted scene" section of the DVD. It had been a long time since I had seen some of the scenes and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed them. I stand by our decision to remove them from the finished film, but for the most part they are interesting and well done.

Also, I've been interested in reading about the vast changes currently underway in the independent film arena. A few weeks ago the independent production wings of Warner Brothers were shut down and recently we've learned of the closing of Paramount Vantage, that studio's independent wing. Those developments, coupled with our country's recent economic woes, makes me feel more blessed than ever that "Humboldt County" actually got a deal that will put it in theaters. It's really one of the biggest, most pleasant surprises in recent memory.

Finally, we're hard at work trying to put together some promos for HC that will play on video on demand. You may have seen them for other movies - basically, the star of the film comes on and says "I love this film, this is why I did it and this is why you should click to watch it right now." Most of the promos are pretty boring and worse, they take themselves ridiculously seriously. So, we convinced Magnolia to let us have a little more control over their creation. I don't know why, but they're letting us do it. It kind of feels like they let the inmates have the keys to the asylum, and let me tell you, that's a completely cool philosophy if you're one of the inmates.

So in addition to working out the script for these promos, we reconnected with some of HC's lead actors last week to ask them about their availability. And of course, that meant calling the one and only Peter Bogdanovich (the kids are calling him "PBogs" and we recommend you do the same). Even though we have now spent a great deal of time with Pbogs, gotten to know him, and him us, we're still very nervous every time we contact him. Maybe it's because he's one of the greatest living film directors of all time. But that's just a guess. It could be that ascot he loves to wear. Regardless, we called him up last week and, as always, he was gracious, kind and generous. It was quite remarkable for Darren and I to hear him say "You did it guys. You should be proud." After we hung up the phone, we were just giddy for about ten minutes. He likes us. He really likes us.

I leave on Tuesday for the East Coast where we'll be presenting Humboldt at the Provincetown fest in Mass. I'm really looking forward to it. If any of you are in the hood, come say hi.

Peace,
d