Hazelnut coffee cheers! I’m sitting down after a long and busy week to sip a little coffee and chat with you all. I had to take a bit of my own advice as to not riding the rollercoaster. When trying to put this big projects together with moving parts you have highs and lows. I had a few of both this past week but overall it was still a win. Let’s take a look at some of the new developments.
Harsens Island Revenge – We’ve been waiting for the studio films to clear some so we can get some dates. This week we’ll be announcing the film is coming to Riverside Theaters in Michigan not far from the actual Harsens Island. Aug 22-28th is what I’m being told. Also our director spoke to the owner of the Emagine Theaters and if their booker doesn’t get back to us by Tuesday he will get involved. The city of Detroit will really love this story. It has been long enough now that I’m ready to watch it again on the big screen. We’ve been doing some planning for the home video and have a marketing meeting next week. I know they’ve started having discussions on key art and that is always exciting. So stay tune and we hope to break the ice and having several showings you can attend. I know Iowa has some screenings coming up as well. I’m also going to turn my attention to planning a few dinner/movie showings. I want to discuss with our team if that would be better once DVD’s are released so we could sign and sell them at the event.
Wild Faith Christmas – We are already in the planning stages for the theatrical and home video is working on a poster for both theatrical and home video. The plan is for it to hit theaters in Nov 2025 and home video likely Oct of 2026. In between will be some festival showings to get the market ready for this powerful tale. If you were a fan of the first film you will really enjoy this one. If you haven’t seen the first one WILD FAITH take a watch! We will be having our producer watch through and we are doing some final touches on the end credits.
ROM COMS MUST DIE – I’m in studio this week to do my little ADR pieces for the film. We are close to locking that film up and moving it to Dennis Therrian for musical score and mixing. This has been such a fun project and McGraw Multimedia has been a true joy to work with. Adam Towner just got the color corrected 4k footage so we can get the trailer into release shape. The idea is we hope to have a fall premiere and do some festival showcases before a 2026 theatrical and home video release.
The Secret of the Kingdom Chip has been the rollercoaster as it always is in pre-production. My goal is to have the whole business foundation in by the end of the month. So about 11 days. We are working to get those final pieces in play and I had some great talks this week. A few set backs in a few areas but also some huge leaps in other areas. Again we have partner with McGraw Multimedia and I’m happy to announce Haptix Studios which may be changing their company name. But either way they will be handled all the VFX work and the Real Engine management. This is the software that controls the images on the LED wall screen. It is a good thing that we are constantly learning this new tech as it will be an even bigger part in the years ahead. We plan to release some PR soon on Haptix or whatever name they land on. We are still reviewing a few reads for casting and next month once the business is in place with the bank account open we’ll start to fill in the rest of the crew. A few already had some schedule conflicts but that always gives opportunity for new growth. Where we are heading we will need many artists. Follow our FB page for some fun weekly updates.
Looking ahead-
As I’ve noted we have several other projects in the development process from Spirit lake Massacre to Gotch to an undisclosed Shane Hagedorn project. This past week was getting some film disbursements out the door and thanking our supporters. People have busy lives and don’t always understand the film deadlines we are under. The “boat” aka film doesn’t move on a dime so you need to start things early and time is your friend. We have a few interviews that will be coming out such as a good one with Shane Hagedorn and Tony Hornus. If you review films or have a podcast reach out and we’ll try to work something out.
WRAP UP: I’m almost through the coffee and after I will go eat a few eggs. One of the new chickens is now producing. The berries have been bursting and I eat several dozen berries a day off the tree. Everything is growing like crazy and so come Fall a harvest will be had for sure. I also might stop down at a flea market and see if I can find any treasures. I’m going to keep the faith and keep putting one foot in front of the other. We have a train of great stories rolling down the tracks with some new ones in development to boot. I hope you are all working hard to follow your dreams. I appreciate each and every one of you. We’ll chat next week and I should have even more exciting updates. So until – coffee cheers!
Good morning good people. I’m once again here sipping the hazelnut coffee. This morning I was looking over some questions on schedule with our developing film. Pieces fit. Pieces don’t fit. Readjust. It fits! This is what I do. I dream. I devise a plan. I work with others to detail the plan. From the plan comes the budget. From the budget comes what is needed. Time windows. Trying to get everything to meet at the right point in time. Every film is hard work and that is why so few can actually achieve it. It is also a reflection of my life aside from the precious moments spent with family and friends. I am discussing with others the merits of these stories from preserving history to a unified endeavor that brings together artists for a short period of time. Only so many a year and only so many in a lifetime. This is what I do. This was the answer to my meditation this morning.
This past week was nurturing several projects in post production and putting pieces together for the upcoming. This coming week I’ll also be writing checks to the investors/supporters of the previous CDI films. We have a great group of supporters who help make these endeavors happen. For some they go without a new ‘toy’ in order to make these project happen. They want to be part of a positive, powerful story that will live on beyond them, me, us. On the new SECRET OF THE KINGDOM CHIP, I finally released the PR on my own involvement acting wise. I’ve got the long hair and beard in this humid heat and it is truly suffering for your art. You can read about it here: https://www.prlog.org/13086932-ai-jesus-movie-moves-into-production-this-fall.html – I’m excited to tell this story. The script alone has created so much energy and feedback. It will be a worthy addition to the CDI group of films. We ended the week with another step towards full financing but still have a little ways to go. The goal is to have it completed this month and we are on course to do just that. We’ll be opening the LLC and bank account soon. The business paperwork will soon be drafted and we’ll be starting the more intense pre-production work. This week we are also going to start fishing for product placement partners and sponsors. We’ve had many large and small who are just as important as our investors. They help with the unseen issues. They help make the ride a little bit more special and memorable. Let’s look at some of the other developments.
Harsens Island Revenge – I’m told that we have dates for Riverside Cinemas by this coming Tuesday. It is close to the actual Harsens Island and should be a great showing. Also Forest City in Iowa is looking like September and I’m guessing Fridley’s in Algona and other Iowa locations. I think we’ll start booking and finish the Summer strong. We are putting things in motion for the home video release on 10/6/2025. They are also working on DVD artwork which will be exciting. This is a special movie and we’re so happy to be ever-expanding our audience.
Wild Faith Christmas – The film minus a few tweaks and a few VFX shots plus final end credits is about done. Director Shane Hagedorn and composer/sound designer Dennis Therrian are extremely happy with the story we have. Very moving and the beautiful score just magnifying powerful performances. We have a date for a producer’s watch through. From there we will start our theatrical planning which will be here in no time. Holiday 2025 will be theaters and holiday 2026 will be home video. This is a follow up film to CDI’s successful WILD FAITH. Please do watch that film or rewatch it to get ready for the sequel.
ROM COMS MUST DIE – This dark comedy is also powering towards a finish line. VFX and sound design is being laid atop the color corrected cut. I watched it just recently and loved the flow. It is so funny and makes fun of our beloved industry. The idea here will be a premiere. A few festival showings. Theatrical followed by home video. The trailer is waiting to swap out the shots for the best res and color corrected shots. I think folks will really enjoy this film that surprisingly somehow has you cheering for the bad guys. Go figure.
DEVELOPMENT – We talked about The Secret of the Kingdom Chip which is a stand alone film but has loose tie-in’s to CDI’s biblical trilogy part 1 Forty Nights, part 2 Chasing the Star and part 3 The Christ Slayer. If you haven’t seen these three films they are also worth a watch and it will give you some background information.
The SPIRIT LAKE MASSACRE film developing in Iowa behind our SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA is gaining more supporters. I have to set up a few calls this week about this project. It would be a powerful, ‘based on a true story’ historical drama. Also I’m exploring a few avenues with the GOTCH biopic also to be filmed in part in Iowa.
I teased that I had started on another sequel script to one of the films. This film I’ve been asked about sequel more than any of the others. I don’t have any plans for active or immediate development but I wanted to get the blue print where I like it. In the original film the protagonist was left in jail heading to prison. Any guesses?
WRAP UP – Once in a while I feel the difficulty of managing all the variables but with a team many things can be achieved. I also am a diligent worker putting one foot in front of the other. You have to have faith in yourself, your team, the story and the life path you’ve chosen. I had a great talk with a VERY successful 88 year old businessman this week. Neither of us truly believe in retirement. There is always something to create. He had some wonderful things to say to me and I was appreciative and humbled. I have faith that this week a few more pieces will fall into place. I have some great meetings being set up this week.
On the personal we are back at soccer after a rain out and two weeks off. We had an off game and lost but the battle is the reward. I like that pushing oneself to the max. As for the homestead – we keep waiting for a time to seal and stain the deck but we keep getting rain. The plants are growing like a jungle and I’ve kept it more wild because of the chickens, bees and butterflies but I think another mow is on deck. The berries are at their sweet peak and we’ve got tomatoes about to ripen soon. The herbs are really growing and I need to step up my harvesting. I will keep working to keep up with it all. I have several friends with more property and that must be a chore to keep up with.
There is a flea market which I might attend. But I think today I will focus on taming some of that yard stuff I mentioned. I will end with a little story that I’m sure many artists deal with or have dealt with. I was looking up some of the ad-based video on demand platforms now carrying SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA like Tubi, Roku, Xumo and Encourage TV. I saw someone from our state being negative towards the film. While I’m not sure I have the resources to ever make a film that is a 10 I can say that even if something isn’t your cup of tea we’ve never created a 1 or 2 rated film. But when people trash a film 9 out of 10 times jealously is at the heart of it. They want to know why their script, their team, their film never gets made when others do. We simply out work people. It is that simple. It is always hard work and even our crew members never know all the work that goes into a project months or years before ever hitting set. But this individual was checked by one of our past crew members. They have moved onto some full time endeavors but it was nice to see the gesture. It is like that saying of what people do or say when you are not in the room. I’ve done horror films, action films and what some might consider ‘cool’ films versus our positive, heart felt films. That feeling of healing ala helping people cope with issues they have is hard to beat. Those films give back to the storytellers and is a real motivator. I’m not against a good scare film or taunt thriller but I’m also about character development. I’m about unique perspective and stories. If I just wanted to make genre fluff I would be missing something. Anyway, I commended this past crew member for his words in defense of 200 plus artists. A story that captured a true story from history so it would not fade away. An endeavor that had our cast and crew in another state fighting the elements and the day to day issues of production. Many truly love the film and it plays yearly in theaters. Many people travel to the museums that hold the remaining history. The film will have a special place at the museum as big things are being planned. Or we could have made a film of teenagers poking around in a scary place and random psycho with this or that mask kills them one by one maybe leaving one alive for a sequel. Been there. Done that. Got that tee-shirt. Nothing wrong with those films they are early proving grounds for storytellers but try creating a new time period and that is challenging.
I’m off to make some breakfast. One of the new chickens has started kicking out eggs. I hope you all have a great week ahead and wish me luck as I try to put the remaining pieces in place on the new film. We are close as I mentioned, and once we get this schedule worked out we’ll be locking in the final cast and crew. We are awaiting some cast reads and some of the crew are already planning ahead. You only have this one life so don’t be afraid to go after your dreams. I’m living proof that you can achieve it.
DJ Perry's Official Blog 'Clawing My Way to the Middle' 