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2003 Updates in (Green parenthesis)

A lot has happened since I temporarily relocated from the Windy City to the West Coast for the Semester in LA program (which is why this is now a quarterly, not a monthly newsletter). Here’s a brief overview of EVERYTHING. (This is a long one)

HBO FILMS & REVOLUTION STUDIOS
With a Chicago internship under my belt (CLTV) I decided to go all out in California. I spent some time interning in the story department of HBO Films and, since March, in the development department of Revolution Studios. Needless to say I am very plugged in.

Most people know what HBO Films is all about, but few outside of LA have even heard of Revolution Studios. Under Sony and Columbia, Revolution is the baby of Joe Roth, the defected Disney President. They only do medium to large budget films ($20 - $90 million). They have about 18 films in late development, production, or post, and they all star big names. For example Al Pacino, Ben Affleck (both in “Gigli”), Jennifer Lopez (“Uptown Girl”(Later named "Maid in Manhattan")), Nicole Kidman (“The Forgotten” (Nicole Kidman later dropped out of "The Forgotten" and was replaced by Julianne Moore)), etc.

Their most recent release was the critically unclaimed “The New Guy.” It may not be very impressive, but if you can turn a $12M budget into a $30M domestic box, something is going right. Their biggest success to date is “Blackhawk Down,” but even that is expected to be surpassed by “XXX” (Vin Diesel), a new generation James Bond that will be released in early August. A sequel is already in the works. On Aug. 2nd they are going to release “Master of Disguise” with Dana Carvey.

In the future when you see Adam Sandler (“Anger Management” & “Punch Drunk Love”), Julia Roberts (“Mona Lisa Smile”), or Bruce Willis (“Unt. Antione Fuqua Project” (After going through titles such as "Man of War" and "Hostile Rescue," the film was eventually titled "Tears of the Sun"), it will probably be a Revolution Studios film.

Lately, I’ve been working on “Daddy Daycare,” a family film starring Eddie Murphy and Angelica Huston and an as of yet untitled Ron Shelton buddy cop flick with Harrison Ford and Josh Hartnet.

OTHER PROJECTS
I’ve also been working with Michigan scribe Scott Ray in getting his spoof, “Erotic Thriller Satire,” off the ground. So far we’ve attracted the interest of actors Amber Smith ("L.A. Confidential") and Scott Carson, director Rolfe Kanefski ("There's Nothing Out There") and producer Emmanuel Itier ("Speed Queen").

VOICES FROM THE CHICAGO GRAVE
With this project almost entirely finished, I’ve left it to Gino Guzzardo to create the interface and computer animation. Gino is a Flash wizzard!  For the unenlightened, “VFTCG” is a CD-ROM with 300+ pages of text 100s of photos and dozens of videos. The topic is the haunted history of Chicago. It has a focus on history just as much as it does of ghost stories. AND we already have Chicago and LA book stores interested in buying it!

VOICES FROM THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GRAVE?
You got it, but don’t hold your breath waiting for it to come out. For the most part I’ve been in the research phase, but I have made a few trips collecting pictures and video. This isn’t really expected to go into heavy production for another year or two.