The Dumb Are Mostly Intrigued By The Drum

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!

So Tarantino been real busy as of late. He's got his grand opus Inglorious Bastards in preproduction (I'm currently reading the script and I'll post a review as soon as I get through it) and he's also got his other much talked about project: a remake of the cult hit Russ Meyer's Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Now this morning The Telegraph (via SlashFilm) is reporting that the director has just cast Britney Spears in the lead role (I perfer the old Tera Patrick rumor). If this is true, there has to be a reason behind it and I'm going to hold judgment but let me tell you; this doesn't look very good. And the press is gonna have a field day with this is it comes to light that it is indeed done. But lets just say no for now and pray to God this is the last Spears related post on this blog...EVAR! So should we give Mrs. Federline a chance? Or are we just in line for another Crossroads (sweatergod I've neverseen it)?

Wayne Barrow, the man who managed Biggie's music career along with Mark Pitts, is currently producing the film Notorious which is set for 2009. The film is based on the life and times of Christopher Wallace, Brooklyn crack dealer turned Hip Hop megastar Notorious B.I.G. You can follow production of the film on the producers blog and check out behind the scenes clips like the one posted above. Get to know the man behind the legend come 2009. Anyone interested in this one??

Remember Larry Gomez from the titty bar in Kill Bill Vol. 2? Well, Larry Bishop, the dude that played Gomez, wrote and directed this film which will hit theaters this Friday. The film stars Larry Bishop himself as "Pistolero", Michael Madsen, Vinnie Jones and Dennis Hopper. The film will open in select theaters and I don't think we're getting it here in Fresno, which sucks. But maybe it'll make it's way here eventually like some other films have such as The Fall. Either way, do yourself a favor and check out the trailer. Oh, one more thing, redband trailers are usually NOT SAFE FOR WORK. This one does not disappoint.


"What are you trying to convince me of, exactly? That you're as useless as an asshole...right here?"


Trailer:MovieWeb

Beautiful Losers film trailer from beautifullosersfilm on Vimeo.
In the spirit of DIY this week with all things swede going on, this trailer appearing (thanks to Kirk for the heads up) kinda encapsulates the whole movement. Beautiful Losers showcases artists such as Terry Richardson, ESPO, Ed Templeton, Shepard Fairey & Harmony Korine in it's celebration of the subcultures which were offspring of skateboarding, hip-hop, surf, punk & grafitti. No word if we'll get it here in town (I'm guessing not) but I'll def keep an eye out for it. Go to the official site for screening info or check out some clips over at Vimeo here.

"Whoever can get me cheaper gas, fuck it, I'll vote for them!" Awesome....This comes via SlashFilm.

So last week, Geometry Wars 2 was released and I was pretty excited since I was a big fan of the original. Little did I know that the sequel was going to totally take over my life for the next couple of days. Wow. I mean, just check out that video on top. It's like getting hit in the face with a rainbow mallet after taking speed and pounding a case of Redline. Yeah, it's intense to say the least and it really gets addicting. It's the simple gameplay mixed with the high definition, yet vastly simple graphics: a truly excellent experience and anyone who was a fan of classic early 80's video gaming must give this game a spin. Feel free to drop me an email and let me know what time you wanna come over...well, maybe. Only if you bring the Redline!

So this weekend was completely seized by our swede. Spending all weekend in front of the computer or behind the camera really wears a person down on you but it's all for a good cause, right? Yup, indeed our 1st Swede Festival is right around the corner and the entries we've received so far are phenomenal! Can't wait to see what tonight's deadline will bring us tomorrow. (If you look hard enough, you can find the entries online but I'll hold off posting them here in order to keep it spoiler free for those who rather wait) Now, let get into the weekend:

• Seems like those Batman rumors continue to swirl around (Jolie as Catwoman? Philip Seymour-Hoffman as Penguin?) as the film continues to dominate the box office. Well SlashFilm has an excellent article dispelling all of those Dark Knight sequel rumors and what might actually happen (if it happens) when we see the caped crusader on the big screen again.

• And speaking of The Dark Knight, the Batman curse has struck again and this time, it's put Morgan Freeman in the hospital after a car crash and left him in serious condition. Man, if I were Michael Caine, I'd be watching my back right about now.

• A photo from Evil Beet gave us a chuckle this morning as a movie theater marquee was switching from Hancock to The Dark Knight. Reminds me of another incident with a Hancock sign.

• SuperHeroHype has some cool ass hi-res images of the character posters that were shown at Comic Con for Watchmen. They'll make some cool desktop images to decorate with!

• So the last Spider Man film sucked donkey balls, right? Well, it looks like Sony is looking to head in another direction with the franchise and give Venom a chance to star in his own film, The Hollywood Reporter is reporting. As long as they recast Topher Grace (sorry, that was one of the most horrible casting fuck ups in a long time) then that might be cool...

So here it is: the final weekend to work on your stuff is here. Oh wait, you think the deadline is today? Nope, it got extended until Monday in order to give you some more time to tweak and perfect. But that's just right around the corner so stop lagging! As a reminder, email the links to us here at thedumbdrum@gmail.com or to Corridor 2122 at info@corridor2122.net and entries are due by midnight on Monday, August 4th. Don't forget to make plans to swing by Corridor 2122 on Saturday, August 9th at 2pm to see what your fellow Fresnans were able to come up with (spread the word!) as well as experience all the cool stuff that will be on display at the gallery for William Raines' SPLASH show. NYUP!