“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ― Sun Tzu

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Good Things are not Easy! CDI Updates

(On the genre front CDI makes a development deal on three films) * See bullet point #5

On a rather mild morning in Michigan I have my hazelnut coffee beside me and I’m sitting down to chat with all you fine folks from around the world. The buds and the spouts are starting and soon will be the mushrooms. I did trim the prime mulberry tree when it was still cold. Speaking of the berries on the property, I took the 20 lbs of 2025 season raspberry, mulberry and rhubarb and made BERRY KA-POW: Chuck Norris Tribute Wine! The yeast got added this morning and soon we’ll have the magic bubbles that start the process. I’ve been doing some other property clean up and I’m looking forward to all the Spring projects. I love seeing all the birds at work and I soon I plan to once again seed the property with the clover. Our hens are producing 4-5 eggs a day and have been loving having the snow gone.

On the personal front I’ve been adapting to my new glasses and I will get to pick a second pair on Monday. It is an amazing technology to adjust everyone’s sight. Now at a distance things don’t look like an abstract painting. I can see faces before they are right upon me. If you saw me in the last couple years in a room or store and I did not say hello it was because you were a painting to me. So being able to read all these signs and see faces has opened my world back up. I like glasses and got use to them over the last few years with readers. I don’t like anything poking or touching my eyeballs like contacts. I remember filming in Otty, India and they kept trying to put these brown contacts in my eyes over my baby blues. After a half an hour they got them in and I smiled for a continuity photo and one popped out. Finally the director Shah just said, “you just stay the blue eyed devil”.

I’ve been doing a bit of PR to try and bring more artists to this blog. If you know someone who might enjoy our weekly visits pass the word and blog address along. I’ve had several people say the official title of CLAWING MY WAY TO THE MIDDLE should change since I am past the middle. What ideas do you have? Comment your ideas. I might engage to put a 2026 acting highlight reel together but right now other priorities in front of that. I LOVE the 30 Years of CDI video that Adam Towner did. Right now I’m working with him on a Making of AI Jesus video. I’ve been trying to get the IMDB site updated with all our making of’s and BTS as they are awesome projects made by some very talented folks. We try to preserve the adventure and experience of filming a movie to have many years later. JOIN the CDI Youtube and you can see many of these videos. I need to upload more videos but I am getting there.

FILM UPDATES:

  1. I mentioned the Making of AI Jesus video. AI Jesus movie has the first solid round of dialog clean up and sound design done. Soon the music composing will start in earnest. Also we’ll start the end credits. This film has one investment unit still open and I’ plan to assign that so we can start on the next film adventure development. We are awaiting the AI Jesus poster being done by TEG that will serve as both theatrical and home video. We are all very excited to see what this film does in the general marketplace.
  2. ROM COMS MUST DIE had a great meeting this week with the theatrical hub that will assist in delivery of the film to theater chains. Those that know Adam Towner know how funny of a fella he is and this first co-starring role really showcases that. IF you have a podcast or want a written interview please do let us know. We are looking at several festival showings along with some limited theatrical and home video Q3. Have you seen the trailer or BTS video?
  3. WILD FAITH CHRISTMAS gave a small taste of theatrical being finished at last year’s end but will do a final theatrical push this Fall before rolling out on streaming and DVD Q4 before the holidays. The film just got selected by an IndieFest and we’ll know nominations soon. Same with the Red Letter Awards, it is up for Best Film and individual nominations to come. ICFF has the film up for several awards including BEST PICTURE. My schedule is allowing my to attend my first ICFF which has been recognizing our work since FORTY NIGHTS in 2017. The Will Rogers Award event that asked for the film will have more announcements in June but said it was an absolutely wonderful movie. I think so too. I always say the best Christmas film since SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA.
  4. I’m asking everyone who previously loved watching THE QUEST TRILOGY or CDI’s three biblical adventures to watch them again and invite others. Forty Nights, Chasing the Star and The Christ Slayer because they will prepare you better to watch AI JESUS this Summer.
  5. I did release some PR this week on a three picture development deal with Lynn Drzick and Katharsys Pictures. He was once a biz partner pre-CDI and directed my first starring role in IN THE WOODS as Alex Kerwood, master fighter. The film was released around the world and put me on the map. I remember when we had only the trailer and I played it for Wes Craven when I auditioned for SCREAM 2. The film can be gotten on Blu Ray now with two versions of the film and many extras. We will work to get it to streaming this year. But we have agreed to work together to launch three genre films. READ HERE: https://www.prlog.org/13134408-collective-development-inc-and-katharsys-pictures-announce-multi-film-development-deal.html
  6. I’m holding off on some official PR until some ink is dry but an agreement has been made developing a sequel to a CDI film. Now I’d already spoken about a MBF2 and WF3 that I’ve been working on. But a follow up to another beautiful film is in active development. The screenplay is underway and I’ll be announcing something in the next two weeks. It comes with a chuck of financing and the other half might come on the board very soon. How soon will determine if we film this year or next. I’m open to either one you just have to follow the process. More soon. Sorry for the tease.
  7. On the literary front I’m working with Shane Hagedorn on the layout for Making of THE QUEST TRILOGY book. I need to send some artwork and intro for the script and making of book of KNIGHT CHILLS to Katharsys Media overseeing our literary. Dean Teaster did an updated intro for the re-release of the GHOST TOWN novel also heading back out to market very soon. We will keep building this division over the next several years.

WRAP UP: This coming week will be some Bday adventures celebrating my better half and also a few meetings and some writing. Two out of town adventures and some solid Spring prep as well. At the end of the week I will likely be doing the 1st rack of the Chuck Norris Tribute Wine. I do have ingredients to make two different beer runs. Maybe end of Summer intake for Fall. Or I believe I have a lighter and darker beer so maybe one Summer and one Fall. I don’t drink much these days but when hosting meetings where they want something we enjoy it.

Business-wise I have the business taxes about all done and will be settling up with that. I just am trying to get some face time with our legal to make sure I’m following the right next steps. My personal taxes are almost done. It always costs me to have them done as they are too complex for me to do solo. But looks like I might be paying in some this year. Death and Taxes they say. It is funny that sometimes after someone passes away I get sad, slightly mad and then motivated. Like you are still alive so get things done. I wanted week before last to finish a few deals but they were not ready. Sometimes you have to settle for movement on the chessboard vs a checkmate. So I’ve been working right along and just letting things happen naturally.

Everyone wants to know when we start the next adventure and I’m still just wrapping up the last piece of business on AI Jesus and after I will put my full attention forward. We will have a great year of premiere showings and awards events. Doors of opportunity always open because the work has been done. Yes. I too want it to happen faster and struggle occasionally with patience. But sometimes you have to left the soup simmer. We have also had a few disappointments as a project or two with great promise lost some momentum. But a better path will be found, and when it’s found, it will happen. All projects at CDI happen like that. You mainly hear of the success but the setbacks are there too. That is normal so keep on pushing. Great things are not easy.

Until next week be good top one another! Coffee Cheers!

DJ

Posted by  |  March 22, 2026 | Categories: Blogroll | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

CDI Updates! Don’t take any of it for granted, get busy DOING!

Good morning! Hazelnut cheers my friends. So my week started with some unexpected events. My day was winding down early this week and I got an email from a person I don’t often communicate with. It was to inform me that my friend and artistic collaborator Greg Zivic had been found passed away. At first I had hoped it was a hacked email account spreading a vicious lie. But 24 hours later that was found to be the truth. I had been in conversation with Greg as we were looking to sit down with another friend of his over films. We had settled on St. Patrick’s Day. He was an artists who did many other things including ER doctor. He had owned a gallery prior that was a showcase for artists often with food, drink and music. He had various ventures with other close associates from real estate to medical R&D. He was a doer, a dreamer and a damn fine fellow who I never saw angry. I know he helped family, friends and of course the wounded who came into whatever ER he was working. It is hard to say goodbye to such people but as we get older that goodbye becomes more often. So RIP Greg.

We had a few really nice days of sun and warmth before winter made a return. Cold with even a bit of snow. But the signs of Spring are everywhere from little sprouts coming from the ground and lil buds on the trees. I need to do a trim on the mulberry trees while it is still cold. The chickens are almost at full production with 4-5 eggs a day. I enjoyed a few days of working the property save maybe all the dog poop pick up but it had to be done. The upside has been a few more fires in the wood stove before the season is over. Every year we make a few small improvements to the property. I have a few in mind for this year.

Out of respect for above mentioned Greg, I did not release some of the PR we had planned. I will do that this week. I did spend a few days catching up on all kinds of desk work. The streamlining has been moving along and I’m happy to be evolving. I had to get our next wrap book digitized. A wrap book is a book of all the agreements that are executed for a movie during production. These are required for distributors to take your film on especially if they are presenting to 3rd party companies. So WILD FAITH CHRISTMAS is almost all delivered and now ROM COMS MUST DIE is almost done as well. I would say by month’s end for those two films.

OTHER UPDATES:

  1. The poster for ROM COMS MUST DIE is done and we have a meeting Monday about getting that ready for our theatrical run. We are still in talks about where the premiere will be which might tie into the first local theatrical run. We are going to try and target fewer theatrical with more precision. Also the film will be traveling to some festivals as well. More on that as we know.
  2. AI JESUS: The Secret of the Kingdom Chip – is moving down the post production line. We will be listening to the dialog mix with sound design this week. Once that is locked up the composing of music and mix will start. The home video distribution team has been already preparing and it looks like we will be tying the branding of the posters together since it is a short window of theatrical to home video. Art is always subjective but in the home video world you have seconds before someone decides to RENT/BUY by pressing play.
  3. WILD FAITH CHRISTMAS got done in time for a bit of Christmas play but we will be going back into theaters before rolling into streaming and DVD Q4 2026. We are up for a few awards at various event shows and festivals. ICFF has us up for many of them. The RED LETTER AWARDS will be announcing nominations soon. Interesting talk on the future of the franchise. The original film has been successful for us and the follow up should reach the same success even faster due to the built in audience. I do have eight shows for a TV series written and we will explore a few funding possibilities. But it needs to be done right which means creative control. The social media funding path was brought up again which I’m not a fan of. Is it my ego? Is it that I’ve been taught to pitch and partner? The path of THE CHOSEN is always used as an example but you never hear of the thousands that never make it. We will make a good go to set up the TV series. I have also been working on another stand alone feature film working title WILD FAITH 3. Any way you cut it we will be continuing the adventures of Emmett and friends.
  4. I’ve been also working in my free time on the sequel to MAN’S BEST FRIEND. Right now just the working title MBF2. But the script is shockingly powerful and I’m over half way through it maybe 3/4 pending how it flows. I’ve got a handful of scenes written for a LOST HEART follow up that I’m tinkering with as the mood hits me. I think as these films grow in their fanbase and people fall in love with the characters they want to see more. I’m also working on another follow up script that might have a path to production. The ink will be dry on this writing endeavor this week but writing has already started in good faith. I will be talking about that more next week and some PR will roll out.
  5. One of the PR announcements I’m looking to release is the CDI development with Katharsys Pictures of three genre films to be directed by Lynn Drzick. He directed the first feature film I starred in. A creature feature called IN THE WOODS. Get the Blu Ray and watch the old version and the updated version. One of the films on the slate is IN THE WOODS 2.
  6. Speaking of old school, I’m looking forward to seeing some restoration tests on CDI films 2, 3 AND 4. The hope is that we can release back into the marketplace at some point in time. I’ve also been playing catch up on data entry on IMDB and getting some of our short form projects listed such as Making of’s and Special Events. It all takes time.
  7. The development direction with GOTCH did not pan out as we had hoped. It is not fair to just share the successes without the setbacks. One of the issues on this or any project is control of the funds. As the supervising producer and manager of the project I need to know that every agreement I make has the funds locked up to support that. A couple of earlier career burns has taught me this important lesson. So even with promises of big money, if it’s not set up in a way that you can protect and assure your team of being paid, that’s a hard pass. Now we have some great things in play on this script and we really got everything tight and ready for pre-production. We just need to make the right deal. In the meantime, I want to do a follow up to FOR THE LOVE OF CATCH documentary. We will have some talks on that soon.
  8. As I’ve almost put the last little business piece in place on our AI JESUS we are starting to look ahead. The project it pushed was a great little comedic ‘who done it’ film set at the turn of the century. It might be what we do next with our friends and collaborators the McGraw’s. We will see once they are back from LA/Hollywood visiting family. We’ve had two great collaborations with them and we hope to make a third very soon.

WRAP UP: I covered quite a bit of development in the above list. I’m gonna send out a last few business emails and maybe do a bit of script writing. I hope the week ahead doesn’t bring any sad news like last week. I went from disbelief having just talked with him and made plans. To sad and mad at why such a great person would be taken so soon. Although he truly did pack two lifetimes into one. To now being motivated that I am still here and can keep creating. One day people may remember my doings fondly but not now. So don’t take any conversations or visits for granted. And don’t be afraid to go after your dreams. I will talk with everyone next week and I hope you have a great rest of your day.

Coffee Cheers! DJ

Posted by  |  March 15, 2026 | Categories: Blogroll | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment