The Dumb Are Mostly Intrigued By The Drum

Director extraordinaire Bret Ratner was recently interviewed by MTV and talked about the possibility of bringing the phenomenon of Guitar Hero to the big screen. Ratner, you fucken hack! I really hope that Mr. Ratner can get this project off the ground and see what kind of artistic angle he can come up with as far as translating the video game experience over to the big screen and not turn it into a 2-hour long commercial for the product. Check out the story over here at Aintitcool for the details. Would you go see a Guitar Hero movie?

So Shia got his hand smashed and they decided to write that into the script so the production is moving along and Transformers Live Action Movie Blog has been keeping track of everything. This week, the production has been filming some scenes in downtown Long Beach including the awesome action scene you can check out in the video embedded up there. Pretty cool, huh? It's always cool to see shit blowing up. And although I couldn't find embeddable video to post, you can click here to check out some more footage of the cars driving down the street in the LBC, including a surprise: it seems Chevy has let Mr. Bay use the upcoming, top secret, game changing Volt in the feature. The final production car is supposed to be revealed in November at the LA Auto Show but it's shown up on the internets a couple of months early. If Chevy can live up to the projects lofty promises, I think I'm looking at my next car. Sure, it's super good for the environment, gets 40 miles on a single charge, hardly uses any gas. But the coolest part? It was in Transformers 2! Be sure to hit up TFLAMB for a crapload more pics and info on the film!

I wonder how much of a furor this is gonna spark. After I attempted multiple times to write an entry to go with this post, I've decided to give up and merely go and listen to N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton (track #2) to calm down and try to figure out why shit like this is happening on U.S. soil. Breathe....Wait, the dude was just chilling in front of a hotel for like 2 hours and the owner filed a complaint? Maybe he should of moved his shit if he was causing a disruption with the business' flow. Hmmm.... Still, it's a weird image to see a proper looking, white man arrested and man handled the way he was. Social commentary? Perhaps. Check out the full story over here at ABC & let us know what you guys think.

A while back we posted the trailer for the faux-documentary Rain Of Madness for the film Tropic Thunder. Well the full, 30-minute film is available right now for free over at iTunes here. So if you were a fan of the film or just can't get enough of Robert Downey Jr. as a black man, download it now and let us know what you think of the film.

Well this week marks the beginning of Edwards' Flashback Features theatrical series of screening some classic films and it begins this Thursday evening with Sean Connery's James Bond film Goldfinger. Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to make it out there for the screening but I hope to go to a lot of these this year. You can't go wrong with this people: Classic films, $5 movie ticket, 10pm showtime....awesome! Maybe down the road we can arrange a pre-movie meeting up at an area watering hole to get a few drinks with some fellow movie fans. If you guys head out there, let us know how it went and give us a report!

So back in 1998 when the Michael Bay classic Armageddon was released, I wonder if Australian Mary D’Souza was watching the film thinking "I will prove this movie wrong." You see, Mary isn't just a normal human being. Nope she's a PhD student with the University of Queensland's School of Engineering and she apparently knows her astro physics since she recently won an international contest for solutions to avoid a giant asteroid to impact our giant rock we call home. And what was the technique she came up with? The very one deemed stupid in the film by grand master Billy Bob: using solar sails to disrupt the path of the evil asteroid. In yer face, Slingblade! Swear if the earth is saved by going against something a Bay film has taught us to be stoopid, I sense no better poetic justice. A special shout out to Mary for saving (potentially) our home planet and our blog! Check out the full story over here at Slash Film.

Even though Clint Mansell's Requiem score can make any film look ten times better than it actually is, it wasn't enough to save this little abomination. It seems like Fox came in and took over for the director Mathieu Kassovitz when he couldn't deliver a PG-13 rating and edited the crap out of the film and essentially turned into a turd (although who knows if it was already a shit film before). So continues the tyranny of Fox Studios and their reign of terror (unless they're looking to hire me, then they're all good in my book!). Check out the full details over here at Slash Film, including the secret connection between Vin Desiel and Osama Bin Laden. Interesting stuff....

(click to enbiggen)
Have to say, pretty cool poster. The film itself is quite a question mark as it has yet to get picked up officially by any film studio. The independently funded 2-part epic is a hard sell to movie studios mainly due to it's length (reported to be around 6 hours) and because it's predominantly in Spanish. Yup, so that means we may never see it theatrically. Another little tidbit, the film was shot entirely in digital using the über-cool Red camera. This comes from the homies over at Film School Rejects.

Yes, we have other people who occasionally blog here but people are busy and really don't have the time to dedicate to a crappy film blog. But yet today we welcome another member to our team: Bryan Harley! Yup, the local filmmaker will be blessing us with his gift of gab and enlightening us with his vast knowledge. Bryan will also become my official co-host on The DUmb for the foreseeable future. You can check out Bryan other works at his official site, AMF Productions. Lets all give him a hug when you see this guy in person. He loves hugs. LOVES THEM! Welcome, sir!

(click Michelle's teeth for the Quicktime trailer)
Fast & Furious

UPDATE: If you can't wait for the Quicktime, here it is for you streaming!

Here it is. The trailer I've been waiting for all my life. Well, at least since the original TFATF in 2001. A continuation of those characters' story. Will it suck? Probably. Will I enjoy watching it? Yup, pretty much going to love it. The stunts look pretty cool, actually. Overall a dope trailer. Hopefully the craptacular dialogue and acting will be held over enough to give us all a reason to go check this out when it drops next year. If only I could watch this at the drive-in like the last one. Check out the trailer here and more some exclusive pics here at IGN.

Cineculture is a student club (and 3 unit class) at Fresno State that strives to provide culture awareness through film screenings and discussions. The club released their new fall line-up today, plus details about their first screening which will take place this Friday, August 29 at 5:30pm in McLane Hall Room 121 on the Fresno State campus. Best of all, entry is free!

Iron-Jawed Angels. Dir: Katja von Garnier, 2004. 123 min.
This film recounts for a contemporary audience a key chapter in U.S. history: in this case, the struggle of suffragists who fought for the passage of the 19th Amendment. Focusing on the two defiant women, Alice Paul (Hilary Swank) and Lucy Burns (Frances O'Connor), the film shows how these activists broke from the mainstream women's-rights movement and created a more radical wing, daring to push the boundaries of political protest to secure women's voting rights in 1920. (www.hbo.com). Post-screening discussion by Jenny Whyte (Women's Resource Center Coordinator).

I'm gonna try to make it out there myself. Sounds like an interesting film, eh? Scope out the trailer below.

I still have yet to throw on my copy of Paris, Je T'amie but the concept of a love letter-film is something that has been running around my head for the last couple of years. Of course, it's kinda hard for people to compare Fresno to New York but the stories exist. Anyways, the second installment (can you consider is a sequel?) of the "...I Love You" series is getting ready for it big unveiling and here is the first trailer for New York, I Love You. The cast is ridiculous. The directors...well, it's kinda cool. I would of liked to involve Woody Allen, maybe DeNiro some more of the New York peeps. But still, looks interesting (I'm always down for Qi Shu). I think I'll throw Paris... on right after this. So what do you guys think? Can we collaborate and do a Fresno, I Love You?

Long story short: So I informed my mom that Hillary Clinton was going to be speaking in downtown Fresno at the UFW. She, being a über-Hillary supporter really wanted to go so I did what any good son would do and took her. We listened to her command the crowd like Fidel as people chanted "Si Se Puede!". As we were leaving, KSEE 24 asked for an interview and I obliged, asking only my name (made sure they spelled it right), some questions and that was that. The end result? I'm a UFW Member, according to the graphic below my face. Awesome. Good thing they didn't ask me what I thought of Cesar Chavez. I hope I get something in the mail soon confirming my membership...maybe a bottle of wine like the one they gave Hillary. That would do! Check out the video of my ugly mug over here, if you must.

His name is Kaze, he's a Jack Russel Terrier and he loves his Alpo (who doesn't, that stuff just looks so delicious) and he's proven it so far but helping propel his video to the semi-finals of the national Alpo Real Meat Moments Video Contest. But Kaze needs a little help from you...yes, you! Head on over to the official page here and look for the video (it's the only one from Fresno) and cast your vote to help Kaze get his golden bone. I looked at every other single video and I can assure you that none of them are as cool as Kaze so don't waste your time, just go over and vote and take my word for it. Lets put Kaze in the victory circle where he belongs and we'll keep you updated on his progress. Vote now, vote often and spread the word! The voting end tomorrow so don't put it off! Fresno represent!

Okay yeah, the second one of these sucked giant donkey balls...HUGE donkey balls. But the first one was fun, man. Maybe it has something to do with Qi Shu looking all nice and stuff. So I'm pretty sure that this one doesn't include her. Plus, the director's "last name" is Megaton because he was born on the day the A-Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.... I shit you not. Can't make that shit up! At least Jason Statham is still in it. So what do you guys think?

UPDATE: Tatio, the owners of the Space Invaders IP has issued an official response....a pretty pissed off response, actually. Check it out here.

So what's going on this week in video game news? Well, the Leipzig Games Convention is going down in Germany and at the show, digital artist Douglas Edric Stanley has produced an installation to help celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of Space Invaders. So what did he do? He had the alien spaceships attack the Twin Towers. Yup. Offensive to me? Yes, but not because of the 9/11 reference but rather that something as simple as placing an 8-bit picture of the towers behind the classic video game that is Space Invaders is being considered art. You can read the different reactions people had, including family members of people who died in the attacks over at Fox, AFP, UPI & the original source at Kotaku. I gotta go now: I'm going to superimpose an image of Mother Teresa's face over Tera Patrick's head on her newest video and submit it to the Rouge. So what do you guys think: Was it offensive to you? Is it being blow (sorry, poor word choice) out of proportion? Or should we find this guy and go America all over his ass?

I've been raving & ranting about the awesomeness that Kick-Ass (the graphic novel) for a while now and although they announced some of the cast before, today they rounded it out by bringing out the big guns: Nicholas Cage. Meh. Yeah, not very impressed as I'm not a huge Cage fan but whatever gets the investors money to get the film made, right? So the word is the script was so violent that none of the studios wanted to touch this hard R-rated film involving kids beating each other and killing everyone (reminds of why Battle Royale never got a proper release here) hence the search for independent funding which they found. Keep your fingers crossed that Castor Troy doesn't mess this one up. Head on over to Slash Film here to see the full cast lineup with the characters they're playing, pretty cool. For the official story, The Hollywood Reporter has it here. Production is slated to start this Fall in Canada.

So as to make it easy on my pocketbook, I've decided to take the easy way out and instead of creating a whole new site here to consolidate all local film projects I've gone and created a dedicated group over at Vimeo in order for people to upload their projects for the world to see what people here in the Central Valley can create. Hence the name of the group: They Came From The Valley. Head on over to the group page here to join the group and as soon as you become a member of the group you can immediately start uploading your vids! Hopefully we can start a group where anyone wondering "What the hell are local filmmakers creating nowadays?" can go and find out the answer to that very question instead of having to scour You Tube or the infinite internet for the same result. Full length features, short films, music videos, swedes, WHATEVER (Okay, not whatever. Please don't upload your nephews birthday party video or that commercial you shot for you friends car dealership....unless it's got something of artistic merit in it) So bookmark the site, spread the word and hopefully we can start building the library of films from our locals! Can't wait to see some of the local work!

I love the children. One of the things I'm hoping for in our next Swede Festival is to get some more entries like this one: involve the kids. As for the exact plans for the event, be reassured that we're working on it as we speak and we'll have details coming out pretty soon. In the mean time, start preparing a list....

Unboxing videos have been around for a long time. Recently, I saw an actual report on a major news site about the phenomenon and I thought to myself "It's only going to be oh too soon when we see a company use this in a viral or advertising campaign." And here it is. Pretty cool, I thought. How awesome would it be to open up your Playstation 4 or your new Sharp HD TV to something like this. Everyone would be clamoring to push the red button! What do you guys think?

Can't vouch for the films themselves, but red band is always a good way to see how the film is going to be.....yeah, not too sure about these end of summer gems. But the Van Damme talking poster was good. So if you had to choose one to see, which one would it be, based strictly from these 2 trailers? Lionheart!

"Get 'em, boys..."

Yeah, an amphitheater isn't exactly the best place to hold a Hip-Hop show, I found out this weekend. Maybe it as the fact that i didn't spring for the seated area, opting instead to pay $35 to stand at an angle and therefore destroy my ankles with all 800 lbs. of me. But I'll take it as a lesson learned. The performances were all great, except for MF Doom, who apparently a couple of days before the concert was officially removed from the lineup. Last year at the same festival, he was a no show and I was hoping this would be the time for to see him but I guess it wasn't meant to be. But everyone else rocked: De La Soul was awesome, Red & Meth rocked that shit, Ghost & Chef kicked some Cuban Linx & lead the crowd in a rendition of Shimmy, Shimmy Ya in honor of the late ODB. Beers were $12, food was ridiculous and I heard quite possibly the dumbest song of all time come from Spank Rock. Or maybe I'm just getting old. Overall, an awesome show with some classic Hip Hop groups. Tribe, Pharcyde, Nas, De La, Rakim....that's a pretty fucken awesome lineup! And some of the weird things I saw there: a girl with more hair under here arms than me, a lemonade vendor taking a hit of a joint mid sale and a couple in which roles were reversed when the dude's drinking a Cranberry Smirnoff and the lady was pounding a giant beer. Good times!
This was a promotional item they were giving out for the upcoming release of the Street Kings film on DVD. Kind of an odd thing to be giving out at a Hip Hop concert, no? I'm a sucker for buying stupidly expensive stuff at concerts. But I've been wanting to make this shirt for a while but never got around to it. So I just bought one.

Yup, you wanna see 50 Cent get verbally abused by Robert DeNiro? Then this lil gem if for you. I'm really surprised they haven't been playing up Fiddy's role in the previous trailers for the film. Could this be the DeNiro/Pacino team up film we've all been waiting for? Perhaps....this red band trailer really helps it's cause. And if your really interested in the film, check out this little art exhibition based on the works of it's stars done on behalf of the films upcoming release and involving some cool street artists. Pretty cool marketing.

click pics to enbiggen

So Indy 4 might not have been the bad ass movie we all hoped it would of been. I'm okay with that, it was still entertaining. Well, last week, Paramount announced specs for the DVD release (on October 14th) of the film that will undoubtedly have some behind the scenes footage of local origin. And with the announcement comes these exclusive pics Dumb Drum received from the Fresno Film & Entertainment Commission, who worked hand in hand with Indiana Jones producers from Paramount Pictures when they came to the valley to shoot some scenes at Chandler Airport and Eagle Field in Firebaugh. Lookit Harrison taking a glance over at the SPCA down the road from Chandler. See him take in the beautiful Eagle Field scenery as his ride takes off. Oh yeah, there's Shia in the shots, pre-hand smashin'. So buy the DVD (can I say "support local films"? They did pump some Hollywood cash into our economy) and if you see a fat dude behind the fence holding a camera, looking all paparazzi-like, that's probably me. Check out IGN here for all the specs on the DVD and Blu-Ray releases on October 14th.

Tried as I might have, I couldn't come up with a better headline than the one Slash Film came up up, which is where this story comes from (I even stole their image). No more words, click on the link as read what Silent Bob thought of the film.

So the news was that Wu-Tang Clan member Ghostface Killah, who also goes by Tony Stark & Iron Man (among a whole slew of nicknames), was to make a cameo in the Iron Man film at Jon Favreau's request. When the film was released, all we saw was the Tony Stark bumping the emcee's video on his private plane. A little disappointed but still, it was cool that the director threw that in there. But with the upcoming DVD release on Sept. 30th, we get a little expanded role from the rapper. Check out the clip as Pretty Tony gives Tony Stark a little gift. A lot of threesome related posts on the blog this week, huh? The clip comes courtesy of Access Hollywood.

With $400 million dollars worth of people seeing the trailer in front of The Dark Knight this summer, I wonder how many of those will translate into people watching this film when it's finally released next year. I wonder if audiences will be willing to sit through a complex story as the graphic novel was...that is, is Snyder decides to not dumb it down. But it sure doesn't seem that way.

Sorry, Potter fans. Slash Film is reporting that the studio wishes to capitalize on the summer audiences ($$$) and have decided to push the film from it's original Nov. 21st, 2008 release date back to July 17th, 2009. Yup, so that means almost a year to the date The Dark Knight was released is when you'll see the next Potter film. Another reason given was due to the writer's strike, an open gap was available and they seem poised on taking advantage of it. In the mean time, just keep watching that pretty cool trailer they released not too long ago. So what do you guys think? Can this only make the film a better end product?

Well, there's nothing much else to say than that. No, you won't have sex with her but you can at least have a chance of being in her presence at a screening. This promotion for the upcoming Woody Allen film Vicky Christina Barcelona seems pimp out Scarlett Johansson (my future ex-wife) just a bit and I wonder how many weirdos (unlike myself) will be entering this little contest. Oh and if any of you guys win and need someone to take, I'm sure I could make time in my busy schedule you join yooz guys. Head on over to the official site here for more details.

...but what a fake it be!

When I went last night to see Tropic Thunder, I was privy to find out that the Flashback Features program is coming back again (we were just wondering if they had killed this, too)! This year, the films will be shown at Edwards 21 in Riverpark every Thursday beginning August 28th. at 10 p.m. (that's kinda late, huh?) and the price of admission will be a mere $5. "So enough of this nonsense! Show us the films!" you say? Calm down, here they are:

Aug. 28th: Goldfinger
Sept. 4th: Scarface
Sept. 11th: Annie Hall
Sept. 18th: Back To The Future
Sept. 25th: The Great Escape
Oct. 2nd: Monty Python And The Holy Grail
Oct. 9th: Midnight Cowboy
Oct. 16th: Army Of Darkness
Oct. 23rd: Raging Bull
Oct. 30th: Spaceball
Nov. 6th: Rocky
Nov. 13th: Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas
Nov. 20th: Some Like It Hot
Nov. 27th: Beetlejuice
Dec. 4th: Westside Story
Dec 11th: The Goonies

Yeah, pretty good list, I must say. Army Of Darkness FTW! I think I'll post this list over to the right pretty soon to keep a running tab of what's coming up, maybe set some meeting ups beforehand or something. So which ones are you guys looking most forward too?

And to top it all off, they even posted the footage from the San Diego Comic Con Panel...noice!

And it's that time again for another episode of The DUmb! This time (again) we welcome back some of the usual suspects from our Swede Festival entry as Adrian Rodriguez from Late Update, John Rios from Dead Days, Bryan Harley from AMF Productions and Jay Montes from....Sanger join us for the round table discussion, which includes:

• A wrap up from this past weekend's Swede Festival over at Corridor 2122 and we address some negative feedback over at The Beehive's comment section, some discussion on the actual swedes and some early details on the next festival.

• Talk about the new "Cheap-O Theater" format the Clovis Towne Center has adopted and probably bumping The Wackness out of playing here in town.

• The Tropic Thunder & Star Wars: The Clone Wars controversy.

• Bryan tells us how he met the stars & creators of the BBC series Spaced.

• How I tried to buy Henry Perea's support for the new Film Ordinance.

• John discusses his workflow with Dead Days.

• Bryan reveals another word in the title of his upcoming secret project.

All this and and more! Download it, listen and let us know what yout hink. If your interested in coming on as a guest, please drop us an email at thedumbdrum@gmail.com. Thanks to Late Update for hosting our podcast!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE DUMB #8

Also available in HD over at Yahoo! here. So does that bearded Leo bother anyone else?

Yup, who knows how long this will be up but the studio taking this down might actually be a good thing. Man, I honestly never thought that The Spirit was going to make that big of an impact in general but every time we get a trailer or leaked footage (coming via Slash Film) my hopes sink even further. Now I hate to judge before the film comes out but this looks pretty bad. I'm wondering what kind of trump card Frank Miller can pull in order to save this little film. What do you guys think?

All kinds of Hip Hop-ness going on this week around here. The Readnex poetry squad will be performing tonight at the Smokehouse. Immortal Technique will be performing over at The Exit tomorrow night and again this weekend at a little concert going on at the Shoreline Amphitheater called Rock The Bells. Yup, I'll be there for that one. I mean, lookit that lineup up there. No serious, check it out. Crazy, huh? Yeah, that's bananas. I've heard bad things about this venue from other people but still, I'll be there. We got lawn seats for $35 (which I thought was a bargain, quite frankly) and that should leave us some money for a shirt and 1 beer with a $100 bill. So far we have a packed car but if some of you out there are planning on heading up to see the show, we should caravan! C'mon, I know there has to be some heads wanting to go see this lineup! Who's in?

Mountain Dew has been doing this promotion for a while now, getting some top artists on board to create unique designs for a series of aluminum bottles. But up until earlier in the year, the only way to get them was through some special process and they were never available to by in store. That changed earlier in the year when they released the first commercially available line, the Green Label Art series. And I had to have them all. Now, they've gone ahead and revealed the designs for the next series and they should be out there somewhere. Now I'm off to the nearest AM/PM (the best place to get them I found out last time) to become the milk maid in search of all of them. Check out the design up close here at the official site.

Yup, there it is. That's your prince Dastan lookin all yummy (I'm assuming that some women read this blog and maybe some of those enjoy Jake Gyllenhaal half nekkid. Soak it in ladies!) The movie, based on the video game Prince Of Persia, was recently pushed back a bit and is now on track for a May 28, 2010 release. This comes from Just Jared via SlashFilm. You feel the need for more Gyllenhaal? Click on him up there....

A cool take off from the original music video and the song is just very much a smile maker. So what do you guys think?

About 20 mins. or so before after making a run to the downtown Smart And final to pick up some ice and random stuff, Bryan Harley brought a good point up as we headed back to the gallery: we were living the community screening at the end of the film Be Kind Rewind. It was true. The windows in the gallery were covered up by a patchwork of sheets, the projector made the images on the walls dance as all the other pieces on the gallery walls remained frozen and the most important part, the community, showed up. We didn't have a final number of exactly how many people showed up but the rough estimates that I received ranged anywhere from 30 to 50 people. Yup, Fresno came through and nothing could stop me from smiling this past Saturday. Ear to friggan ear. The entries were entertaining, people were laughing, conversations were being had...it was good times. I started to think that this is one of the few film festivals that occur here in town that actually made up mostly of local entries. I think that's what my original plan in creating this event was: to showcase what Fresnans can create. And I do have to say it was pretty tight! Hopefully we can continue this tradition with our 2nd Fresno Swede Festival. What's this I hear about a horror themed festival around Halloween?

A special thanks to everyone who attended and those of you that helped support the thing. Without everyones participation, there's no way it would of come out the way it did. If you guys have any comments, questions or suggestions for the next one, leave us some comments here or email us at thedumbdrum@gmail.com. And since I posted almost all the other entries here (at least the ones I had permission to post) here is Bryan Harley's instant classic, Robocop:



Thanks to Jay for the pics!

I catch flak from people for being a lifelong Canseco fan. It's true. Ever since I was a child, I remember seeing this latino dude hitting baseballs out of stadiums and breaking ground by creating a whole new category in America's favorite past time and that inspired me greatly. Dude was badass. Then he began to suck. He tried pitching, the whole baseball off his head thing and then he stopped playing baseball. Then came the entire steroids thing. Never held none of that against him. No matter what happened, he has been and will always be, that guy who was blasting baseballs and along the way inspired me as a child. So when I heard that he was going to be in town last Friday, I told myself I would meet him. We drove to the casino, asked a lady if he was still inside and she confirmed it. Then I bitched out. So we drove over to Full Circle Brewery in search of a little liquid courage. The $10 cover charge killed that plan and directed us over to El Torito. After a few, we headed back to tackle Canseco. And I did. Well, not for real but I did take that pic up there and walked up to him, asked to shake his hand and he agreed. I said thanks, walked away with a smile on my face and this thought running through my head: For being Mr. Steroids, he sure has a pussy-ass handshake. But the kid inside of me was back on the Little League field in Firebaugh doing cartwheels with my Jose Canseco glove.

The Usual Swede-spects from Roque Rodriguez on Vimeo.
A collaboration of The Dumb Drum, Late Update & Dead Days, this was our entry into the Fresno Film Festival which went down earlier today and turned out to be a success. It was awesome meeting a lot of you guys out there and It truly showed how much community is interested in this kind of stuff. Thanks again for everyone's support and we're already planning our next festival...what can it be? Stay tuned! I will post some of the other swedes that were shown at the festival later on. Thanks again for all the support and I really believe that this was the first step towards thrusting Fresno into the filmmaking spotlight! Let us know what you think of the swede! Just for shit's & giggles, I've posted the original trailer right here:

So tomorrow is the big day of our first event so I will continue to use this blog as a promotional machine and I don't care what you say! I'm sorry, I do care what you guys say! I apologize for the lack of posts these last couple of days, just trying to get this thing going has sucked up all my time. That, plus there's been a relatively stagnant amount of cool shit happening in the nerdosphere, quite frankly. Hopefully, we'll get back on track next week!

The Beehive posted a wonderful write up on the Swede Festival and they also posted some of the entries that will be shown there. I wanted to try to keep some of them as a surprise but I told them to go ahead and post them so now I'm going to repost them over here in case you guys missed them:

Iron Man (produced by Brittany Stapleton, Katie Howden and Michael Banti)


When Harry Met Sally (produced by Will Albritton, Josh Tehee and Jaime Holt)


Yup, so there's a preview of what to expect. Also, head on over here to Fresno Famous to read an article they wrote on the festival in which I kick down 5 Tips For Swedeing! Check 'em out and I hope to see you all tomorrow!

No excuse, you should go out there. The date is finally here and the entries have been received! This Saturday, 2pm is the date & time for Fresno's 1st Swede Festival and I'm hoping to meet some of your guys out there. At the show, we will be premiering our newest swede, The Usual Swede-sepcts. That shot up there is the only official screen shot released so far as to not spoil the surprise for those attending the gathering. If all goes well, I'll post it up here after the show sometime Saturday evening as well as some of the other local entries (which, if you really wanted to check 'em out, you could find online). So if you haven't made plans to attend, do so now! Mark it in Entourage, your iPhone, Crackberry's, whatever. Just show up and bring some friends. If we get a good response, maybe we can expand this to an annual or bi-annual event to keep the community here growing! Now I'm off to go buy some Swedish Fish for the event!

What: Fresno 1st Swede Festival

Where: Corridor 2122, 2122 Mono St., Fresno, CA 93721

When: Saturday, August 9th at 2pm

Who: Presented by The Dumb Are Mostly Intrigued By The Drum & Corridor 2122

Variety (via SlashFilm) is reporting that Mr. Jolie has done it! He's on board for Tarantino's "grand masterpiece" Inglorious Bastards. Yeah, I'ma fan of the Pitt, sorry. Dude's pretty versatile and his fucken laugh...shit's great! So far that's 3 cast members: Eli Roth & BJ Novak & now Brad Pitt. The cast is begining to take form now but is still far from the epic dream cast the director had said he wanted years ago. Wait and see....

When I was a kid, I was the type to head on over to the soda fountain and pour all different types of soda into my big ass cup and get the best of all worlds. Nowadays, not so much but for some reason, seeing this trailer mix all types of different cultures excites me. I've always wanted to do a samurai movie taking place in modern times and all Mexican actors and this is kinda pushing back into that world. Takashi Miike is hit and miss for me (Ichi The Killer was disappointing but Audition was bad ass) and Tarantino's involvement always leaves me worried. But the title alone forces me to fork over my hard earned cash. So what do you guys think?

This email was transmitted this morning via MindHub from Kristi Johnson (Fresno County Film Commission):

Attn: Writers & Filmmakers -- Rare opportunity to pitch your ideas to an award winning producer actively seeking new scripts and filmmaking talent - at the 9th annual Sacramento Film & Music Festival.

Meet Larry Meistrich, producer of Sling Blade + many other award winning films, and founder/CEO of Nehst Studios - at the Sac Film & Music Festival on Saturday August 9th at 1:30pm for a special Nehst production screening of 'Running America', and an enlightning and informative discussion with Larry afterwards on the future of the film industry, the plans for Nehst Studios, and get some great tips on pitching to industry professionals - which helps filmmakers prepare for the one on one pitch sessions the following day!

Then on Sunday August 10th, Meistrich will also hold one-on-one pitch sessions on for filmmakers and writers who wish to present their best script / story idea for financing and/or production consideration. Nehst has secured a $250 million film fund and is actively seeking new scripts and film talent to fill a slate of upcoming productions! Are you ready for your big break??

Register for the Nehst pitch session online at www.pitchnehst.com to schedule an appointment. Be the next one to get a development deal for your script!

The 9th annual Sac Film & Music Festival is scheduled from Friday August 8 thru Sunday Aug 17th at the Crest Theatre in downtown Sacramento. Visit www.sacfilm.com for info on 10 days of amazing films and music you won't want to miss!

Kristi G. Johnson
Fresno County Film Commission
Phone: (559)262-4271 / Fax: (559)442-6969
www.filmfresno.com

Don't think I quite have the sack to do a pitch quite yet, but for some here in town who's not as big a pussy as myself, here's a perfect opportunity! If anyone out there attempts this, let us know!