So, as mentioned in my prior blog, I wrote and co-produced this film, A Fatal Obsession, in Connecticut this past January. Film stars Eric Roberts and the very dear Tracy Nelson (she has been in two other movies of mine for the Lifetime Channel - The Night Caller and Her Perfect Spouse). On Saturday evening, February 22, Entertainment Tonight featured my young producer, Richard Switzer, wherein he discussed the movie and how he found the script that attracted such notable talent. He was quite generous with throwing my name about as well.
Please enjoy the link below to the show's segment on Switzer, myself and A Fatal Obsession.
Sorry,
folks - I've been off the radar these past few months, but my excuse is
terrific: I've been producing back to back movies since late December.
My first film, which started shooting January 1, was A Fatal Obsession,
starring the fascinating personality of Eric Roberts and the veteran
talent, Tracy Nelson. We're shooting for a Lifetime Channel sale.
Shoot was great but it was shot entirely in Groton, Connecticut, which
was enjoying the wrath of the polar vortex (if you remember that sexy
climatic term) and thus I was freezing my nuts off most of the shoot. I
was one of the co-stars, and as luck would have it, a lot of my scenes
were exteriors, i.e., outside in the friggin' cold. But it all went
well, so no complaints.
I returned to L.A. and a few days later, began shooting a movie I did NOT
write, but had a decent role in and co-produced, Buddy Hutchins,
starring Jamie Kennedy and the legendary Sally Kirkland. We wrapped that
a week ago, and since that time, I've hustled to finish the first book
of three in the series, The Lynx Factor. Fans of Russell Blake, John
Irving and Robert Ludlum will enjoy this action story about an ex-Seal
and mortician who must deal with terrorists taking over his apartment
complex and threatening to destroy L.A. with a dirty bomb launched from
stinger missiles smuggled in from abroad. I's not your conventional
adventure - Peter Lynx is a quirky hero who suffers from perpetual bad
luck, which he refers to as The Lynx Factor. I think you'll all love it.
I launch the first book this weekend, so look out for it.
I have another movie I wrote shooting in Moscow, late March, early
April, so will be out of commission again until mid-April, but will be
better at keeping you all apprised of activities in the next month or
so. Hopefully, things will have settled down in the Ukraine by then.
A very happy November to you all!I have a trailer to the movie I wrote with
Brent Huff, “Black Rose”
Looks pretty
cool, I think.Black Rose will be
released in January nationwide (Russia
nationwide, that is) in theaters, and will be seen on DVD some time in 2014. My
second film to be shot in Moscow,
The Boy, goes before cameras in December of this year.I’ll be heading to Red
Square this time around, hoping to see Katherine’s jewels and
shoot some groovy vodka. In January, I co-produce a film in Connecticut from my script, A Fatal
Obsession, which stars Eric Roberts, Tracy Nelson and yours truly as The
Beaver.Busy 90 days ahead, providing my
cirrhosis doesn’t take over and I’m forced to kill some baboon for his liver.
The news continues to demoralize
as do politics, so I shall remain shrewdly quiet on such matters.On a more personal animal note – and it
reminded me how kind animals can be to one another (a trait I wish was more
apparent with human beings) – I walk by a street corner daily to fetch some
fresh gourmet coffee.Every morning,
someone comes over and pours out a ton of bread crumbs in a shallow sand basin
for a kit of neighborhood pigeons.The
birds enjoy breakfast, as such, on a daily basis.Two mornings ago, I recognized a stray bird –
actually, a banded pigeon, clearly someone’s property, perhaps just hooking up
with the flock on his travels or simply lost and joining in the festivities.
He looked exhausted, and after
eating pecking about for a bit (I watched the birds dine for about ten minutes)
the guest bird crouched to a resting position and blinked sleepily at the
feeding throng around him. A small hen approached this more sophisticated rock
dove and began gently picking out mites from the weary traveler and in such a
way that could only be construed as altruistic rather than bored abandon at
scarfing down a dessert mite. The guest bird continued to blink sleepily and
allowed the nuzzling.It was a very
touching sight to behold and made my entire day.
A truck passed suddenly and the
group took to the sky, with the guest bird flying off on his own, toward his
own personal destiny.I watched him
disappear over the horizon and whispered to myself “safe journey, brave soldier,
safe journey.”We all travel alone in
this life, whether we have a mate or not.Our own singular journey is very private and complex.We can either traverse the course with some
degree of happiness and a sense of adventure, or alternatively, with an
inconsolable sense of dread and fear.I
choose the former, for better or for worse, whether there is a Great Creator or
not. Life is a blessing. We should endeavor to celebrate it daily and with an
inviolate sense of gratitude to whatever gods may be.
Now please glance at Amazon and peruse
my many literary offerings.I need bread
for the birds should the old homeless person who feeds them daily suddenly keel
over dead and leave his feathered children starving in the streets.
So, just got back from the sweltering jungles of the Yukatan Peninsula
wherein I climbed one of the highest pyramids in North America (located
in Coba) and reflected on all things spiritual and literary. That and
consuming my body weight in tequila and beer on a daily basis.
Fascinating people, the Mayans; a clearly advanced society in terms of
science and architecture, yet horrific in terms of their approach to
humanity ... it was nearly non-existent. Human sacrifice was the hobby
of any given occasion - not just virgins (a horrible waste under any
condition) but adults, children and babies.
The Mayans had a ball game, for instance, wherein they played in a huge
court (beautifully intact) at Chichen Itza. Much like soccer, they
played with a rubber ball utilizing their knees, feet, elbows, head,
etc. ... but no hands. The captains of each team struggled desperately
to win for a great prize rendered only to them should they emerge
victorious: they were allowed to be beheaded. Yay! I win. I get to
naked above the shoulders to honor the gods. This is because the Mayans
believed that the next life beat the shit out of this one (arguable at
cocktail hour).
They also followed the planet Venus and its cycle and it matched NASA's
calculation to within an hour (you can google for more detail - I'll
spare the reader the voluminous info in this blog). All in all a
fascinating adventure and I recommend it to one and all (it is now one
of the 7 wonders of the world). So far I've seen 3 of them: The Coliseum
in Rome, The Christos in Brazil and Chichen Itza. Gonna try to see the
Great Wall of China and Stonehenge (and possibly the pyramids in Egypt),
by hell and high water, sometime in 2014, depending on the $$$ coming
in from all of you reading my books, dear fans.
So get going, read up on the Mayans and buy my crap. Please.
At the risk of alienating some of my readership, I am posting the below on a subject I feel too strongly about to ignore.
I
find it fascinating and depressing that the international community
remains largely quiet on the Syrian debacle vis a vis that regime's use
of chemical weapons against civilians and in particular, children. It
voiced various degrees of outrage or support for the ill-advised
criminal Iraq war perpetrated by the recidivist Bush regime but with
clear evidence of inhumanity alive and well in Syria, well
deserving of punitive military response, the world wishes to remain
silent or, worse, like the UK, inactive and Neville Chamberlain-like
passive. Only the United States is contemplating decisive action
against the death merchant, Assad, and his evil retinue of murderers.
Obama should exhibit no hesitation in committing U.S. forces to pounding
the hell out of Assad and his minions; that should be the measure of
U.S. resolve, and the longer we wait on such action, the more the
salient message reverberates: My name is Assad and I can murder people
with impunity. Go f__ yourself, world, and particularly you, America.
Let not wickedness triumph, Mr. President. Attack now. Unlike Bush, show
the world you risk war for moral and decent reasons outside of political
and territorial expansionist interests.
I quite understand the UK in one way inasmuch as their resources have been over-extended in both the Iraq and Afghan theaters; people are simply tired of fighting an enemy which is consistently horrendous in terms of civilized behavior (or lack thereof). War has taken toll on the democratic peoples of the world and folks are weary. But now is not the time to shy away from a clear, egregious example of virtual genocide, perpetrated by a regime clearly lacking in any moral foundation and contrary to all rules of not only war, but the basic precepts of decency and humanity.
It is my prediction that President Obama will not wait long to hit Assad hard. The question is will the President's characterization of 'hard' deter Assad from further acts of murderous euthanasia against the Syrian people? He has stated that the U.S. is not interested in a 'regime change' - by which he means to say he plans to allow Assad to continue living and holding sway over a defenseless population - and that he has no interest in committing America or its allies to another protracted debacle in the Middle East and beyond, such has been seen in the Iraq imbroglio and the Afghan landscape. So that leaves the 'surgical' alternative: carefully calculated attacks on targets in Damascus designed to deter further weapons offensives and to demoralize the Syrian leadership sufficient to arrest Assad's homicidal acts against the native population. Will it be enough? At this stage of this ominous game, we can only wait and see. But if action is not taken, America's message to the world as the only remaining superpower is: weapons of mass destruction and their utilization by outlaw regimes and/or governments will be tolerated ... because we're all so tired of fighting for the right thing. And that, dear friends, would be the most tragic thing of all. For it was once said by a poet or some philosopher that evil prevails when good men stand by and decide to do nothing about it.... I would like to believe this is not the tacit mandate for the United States of America. Because, after all - and this is no joke - we're the good guys. We must act as such, then goodness will continue to be blessed upon us. On a lighter note, please note my books on Amazon and buy my crap accordingly.
So here's a fun little tidbit: my partner, whom I wrote and produced
Mutant Vampire Zombies From The Hood with awhile back, ends up writing
"Sharknado". As you may know already, that little pix has gone more
viral than your basic herpes outbreak. We've acquired the Gersh Agency
as our reps and are now pitching a parody of the old Voyage To The
Bottom Of The Sea series to networks. It's called DIVE! Please wish us
luck.
My last three books of the year remain sequels to Gray Area and the nearly completed action-thriller, The Lynx Factor.
Do try to catch Sharknado, as my partner Thunder Levin, will be most
appreciative. It hits theaters next Friday. They don't make the
classics like they used to! It be raining sharks, mon!
Black Rose, a crime-thriller I penned some time ago with Brent Huff, is finally shooting in Moscow, as of June 19. Wrap date will be July 8. Great cast w/Robert Davi, Adrian Paul and Kristanna Loken (she was the hot Terminator-bitch in T3- Rise of the Machines). A press release is below.
I'll head out to Moscow for my second picture, The Boy, sometime later this year.
In the meantime, The Lynx Factor, a new action adventure book, will be launched in July and am finishing up Gray Area 2 and 3 - sequels to the very successful Gray Area last year.
