I did an interview
with MONSTER TIMES and more interviews will follow. Some
of my fans have started to actively support the cause by
sending out press releases, for which I am very greatful.
things are moving ahead nicely. 2006 looks like it will
be the best year I've had in the last 13. If you like my
movies - or horror movies in general - spread the word
about SCARLET MOON coming out. I'll thank you ahead of
time for your support. :o)
March
20th,2006 - SCARLET MOON will be playing on saturday,
April 1st, at 2 pm, in Asbury Park, as part of the
Garden State Film Festival, and in the stores the
following Tuesday.
I'm negotiating
a deal for foreign releases of SCARLET MOON with an
Arizona company. Details as I get them. I have a
non-exclusive agreement with Troma as far as foreign.
My company is
growing. ASAP I'll post names, pictures and bio's of my
new associates.
February
14th, 2006 - Lots of stuff in the works. On April 1,
2006 SCARLET MOON will be showing in Asbury Park NJ as
part of the Garden State Film Festival. That's just days
before the release date of April 4th.
The additional
supermarionation scenes I'm shooting for DARK BEGINNINGS
are almost complete and we were able to bring the 22
inch life-like marionette to life on the 1/4th scale
castle set, much like they did in the 1960s Gerry
Anderson classic show CAPTAIN SCARLET. After many years
of reading how they did the special effects, minatures
and marionettes in the Anderson shows, we actually did
it ourselves. Very cool and fun.
I also have a new
legal representative who is handling all my contracts
from here on and who will be helping me raise bigger
budgets to do bigger, better movies. With all this new
activity I'm hoping 2006 will be a good year, finally,
after several bad years. Things just seem to be falling
into place. I hope it continues this way.
I also am working
at a local production facility, KULTUR, not far from
where I live. I took the position because they use
computer programs I wanted to learn, and instead of
paying for the training I'm being taught the programs
while being paid to learn! That seemed pretty smart to
me :o) .
I'm also learning
the final aspect of production I didn't know at KULTUR -
DVD Authoring.
It's my hope that
I'll be able to do a far more impressive DVD Master for
DARK BEGINNINGS with moving menues and other features
that most mid-to-low budget distributors do not do for
their average DVD releases.
The bottom line
folks is that when you buy one of my movies I sincerely
want you to own something special, and in most cases,
when others control the creative elements, they give you
just "standard functional". I'd like to try to
do better than that, if possible. This is why I
get involved with the box art and now the DVD Authoring.
I hope SCARLET MOON
is a success. I know every movie has people who love it
and people who hate it, like all art forms do. I
keep the positive and negative reviews, it's all part of
the life of a particular movie.
My personal feeling
is that DARK BEGINNINGS, the new one I'm finishing now, is
a better movie than SCARLET MOON, but I've had people
like SCARLET MOON more than DARK BEGININGS. I guess
beauty is in the eye of the beholder!
Troma only owns the
home video rights, in USA and Canada only, for
SCARLET MOON, FLESH EATERS FROM OUTER SPACE and INVASION
FOR FLESH AND BLOOD. So deals can be made for all other
aspects of those movies with other companies. Cable TV,
free TV, theatrical, foreign markets, any other avenues,
are still up for grabs. I'll be cutting deals for all
the rest ASAP.
I've already got
the interest of one West Coast film distributor who also
finances new movies. There has been talk of sequels to
INVASION beug made and someone even sent me five
possible sequel stories with titles.
Though I do like
the characters and monsters in INVASION, I've been with
those stories and characters for many years now and I
really would like to do a fresh story with new
characters. I need a break from the story/characters of
SCARLET MOON, DARK BEGINNINGS, INVASION and FLESH
EATERS.
I'd rather shoot
DIABOLICAL which is a slick, scary, serious movie. We'll
have to wait and see what happens next.
January
23, 2006 - Troma has set the DVD release date for
SCARLET MOON as April 4th, 2006. It's being announced in
the trades even in LA and screeners have already been
shipped out for critics to review and to wholesale
buyers across USA and Canada. SCARLET MOON's ship, as
far as I am concerned, has sailed. To a large extend its
now in Troma's hands, though I'll continue to be
involved in its promotion and will be handling any
product tie-ins myself through Visual Experiences. After
all the hard work its finally finished, locked in stone
and being sold. Yes, it always does feel weird to
me, when it reaches this point, that I no longer have to
do anything more on the movie SCARLET MOON. It's fate is
now in the hands of business men, critics and
the public.
DARK BEGINNINGS is
nearing completion. I have 64 minutes already in final
form. We filmed our live action Nosferatu scenes last
Friday, with Andreas actor Dominic Gregoria inside that
costume too and doing his best to be Count Orlock. I
played Dorian for those scenes and when I wasn't
handling the lighting and camera work, Shawn Reich, a
friend of many years, took over the camera for me.
The Nosferatu Count
Orlock scenes are the next to be edited, so I have to
complete the matte shots (With CGI work by Steve Mezo
"Tattooed Steve ® " and myself), green screen
work, the minature work on the 1/4 scale castle sets
with the 22 inch tall Count Orlock marionette and
split screen stuff before I can continue editing.
In some ways DARK
BEGINNINGS is coming out better than SCARLET MOON, but
you need both movies because they are the same movie.
DARK BEGININGS is actually chapert 1 of SCARLET MOON and
SCARLET MOON is chapter 2. Its like THE GODFATHER and
STAR WARS movies - the second movie goes back to a time
before the events of the first.
One more thing - I
have gotten complaints from people who have helped in
some way with the movies that they are not mentioned
here on this web site. This web site is far from
finished. There are lots of people I will include when I
am able. Sometimes I work 18 hour days trying to
accomplish everything I'm involved in and I wish I
didn't have the need to sleep and that days were longer
to get more done faster. Everyone will be included
eventually (if I don't drop dead first; if I do drop
dead you'll have to bitch to my tombstone but
at least I'll finally be getting some rest!).
December
16, 2006 - FANGORIA magazine has decided to help promote
the January 2, 2006 NYC showing of Scarlet Moon.
Go to Fangoria.com and look in their News section. There
are two new pages there, one on me and the movies in
general, the other is all about the January 2, 2006
theatre showing. I want to thank Tony Timpone and
Michael Gingold of Fangoria for their kindness and
support. I means a lot to me to be in Fangoria, a
magazine I've purchased and enjoyed since issue #1
published back in the 1970s. Thanks again guys, Tony and
Mike, for helping.
December
14th, 2005 - A lot of things are happening folks.
First,
on December 4th, as promised, the NY Times ran the
article on me and my movies. I was, and still am, happy
to get coverage in a New York newspaper,
particularly the New York Times. It was a fairly
large piece and had two color photographs with it. The
article itself, written by Michelle Falkenstein, wasn't
too bad, but left a lot of important things out. I
believe she actually wrote a much bigger article and her
Editor stream-lined it.
The
Title of the article was, I'm sorry to have to report,
the invention of a real creep. Michelle told
me she had no control over titles or photo captions, so
a guy who never spoke to me, and probably didn't
even take the time to watch my movies, pulled this out
of his ass:
"CERTIFIED
GRADE Z HORROR FROM NEPTUNE NJ".
Whoever this guy is
owes me an apology.
The tone of
Michelle's article was not demeaning, so the loser who
came up with this title didn't even come up with a title
that matched Michelle's material.
As I said,
Michelle's piece, though edited, wasn't bad, and its
nice to get in the New York Times despite the
crummy title. And the very flattering quotes from Lloyd
Kaufman, President of Troma, in the Times, were nice to
read. And quotes from Mike Mayo of the weekly radio show
"Max and Mike at the Movies" saying he liked
INVASION were nice to read too.
Moving on to what
is happening with the next movie release - Troma
is doing a much better job this time on the SCARLET MOON
DVD than they did on the DVD for FLESH EATERS FROM OUTER
SPACE/ INVASION FOR FLESH AND BLOOD. (The SCARLET
MOON DVD is being released across the USA and
Canada in April 2006).
The box art I
submitted (shown above) was changed by the art
department but still captures what I wanted, only in a
different way. (I'll post a picture of Troma's design
as soon as I get their final version ).
The DVD itself is
being prepared and its coming along very good too.
Because Michael Bruce
didn't have the authority to grant us rights to the
Alice Cooper music he sang in SCARLET MOON
(SCHOOL'S OUT and SECOND COMING), those two concert
scenes of his had to be removed (easter egg time?) for
purely legal reasons, but that is the only thing Troma
is removing. All the nudity, language, violence are
intact. Mike is also a supporting character in both
SCARLET MOON and DARK BEGININGS, so he is still in the
movie, just not singing!
The DVD menus are
really great too. Very arty and very pleasing colors.
For the music to be used under the menus I requested
that they use the full 8 minute song GOD DREAM by
Glorion Blak, which is my favorite music on the SCARLET
MOON soundtrack.
One day I was
talking to three different departments at troma all
afternoon, all doing different aspects of the SCARLET
MOON DVD, and it was exciting and funny too. Months of
nothing but waiting, then all this rush of activity. I
just can't wait to see the damn DVD in the stores.
On that same day I
got a call from Troma's publicity department too.
"Would you
mind if we put Scarlet Moon in a theatre?"
Would I mind??? Actually they had to ask permission
because I held back theatrical rights in the contract,
but of course I said yes. So here is that info:
Scarlet Moon
will be playing on Monday, January 2, 2006 at 8:45pm at
the TWO BOOTS PIONEER THEATRE, located at 155 East
third street, between Avenues A and B (closer to A), New
York City. The number they give is: (212) 591- 0434
Advance tickets:
click by the Show Time on their web site or call (800)
595-4849 (service charges do apply). Admission: $9.00.
Their web site is :
I'll be there with
Prof.Hertz himself - Warren Disbrow Sr., as well as other
cast and crew members from SCARLET MOON, including actors
Annie Donato, Dominic Gregoria, Ruben Santiago, Ted
Landers, Ron Toth and Henry Irons. Unfortunately, though
they are in SCARLET MOON, Michael Bruce of Alice Cooper
fame, and Forrest J. Ackerman, are not expected to
attend at this point.
Getting back to the
SCARLET MOON DVD for a second, Lloyd Kaufman promised
that he would do a brand new, respectful introduction
for the SCARLET MOON DVD. The generic intro used for the
FLESH EATERS FROM OUTER SPACE/ INVASION FOR FLESH AND
BLOOD DVD wasn't flattering. When we showed INVASION in
a movie theatre last May 19th, Lloyd took the time to do
a brand new intro for us that was far better than the
one used on the actual DVD.
One final
note - I'll be putting a free download of the Glorion
Blak tie-in SCARLET MOON rock video on this web site
ASAP. It's free and shows bits out of SCARLET MOON.
Anyone who downloads it can burn copies for friends and
family. This is a free gift. The only thing I don't want
to see is anybody selling copies anywhere. Anybody
selling copies will be prosecuted if we catch you. But
you can duplicate it and give it as gifts to as many
people as you like, just as long as you are not making
money off it. I think that is more than fair. Glorion
Blak is a great band too, so I'm sure you'll like the
SCARLET MOON music video. I requested Troma also have
the music video on their web site as a free down load to
promote the SCARLET MOON DVD release in April. All
rights to the music remain with Glorion Blak and Visual
Experiences, Inc. and the music can't be used in
any other way without permission. If you have
any questions ask me, don't assume anything. That's all
for now folks!