I’m enjoying my second coffee indulgences of the day. I’m almost packed for my trek into the world of “40 Nights”. The pre-production crew is heading in to finalize locations and get the ship ready to set sail. I’m excited to go tell this story and return home in time to see spring enter. We are all anxious in Michigan for warmth to return. We all love the yard, gardening and landscape fun tooling about on weekends. The animals also miss being outside for long, lazy days. I plan to bring the warmth back to Michigan with me.

This week I’ve been so happy as the team prepared what was needed to be done in advance of our arrival. We’ve got 99% of the cast and crew in place. Michigan will be represented heavily. While I love shooting in our state you have to be loyal to your story. We’re going to once again go do what we do as artists- tell stories in moving pictures. I can’t recall if I shared this last blog or not but I found myself pondering this next role. While many of my characters were created in the minds of a writer(s),  this next role is based upon an known person. His doings are as disputed and varied in descriptions as many known figures. Think George Washington, Gangis Khan or Buddha. But whenever people have a set idea in their mind’s eye you always run the risk of going against that grain. I just sat that all aside and I’ve given into the script, the story, the role and the words. I think as an actor, that is all you can ever do.

I’m the first to point out that EVERY film I’ve done has had some negative critics. A sizable portion of that feedback can be jealous actors, writers, producers, filmmakers, old associates, people who don’t like your face or someone you failed to hire.  Or just maybe they sincerely didn’t connect with a film or character. I’m still always amazed at what lengths some people will go to bash a performance or a film. I think EVERY film has audience members who just didn’t like it.  But someone who writes extensively about it often has other issues at play.

EXAMPLE: Sorry Will:)

I watched (I use that term loosely) ANCHORMAN 2 recently and my point – I didn’t take a half hour plus of my life to write a  thesis on how bad a film it was. To be fair – I like some of Will’s movies (Step Brothers, Talladega Nights) but that sequel seemed to be a “cash in” on the original. Well…they got my money:)  The  long-short is that I’ve never really concerned myself with what people think. I’ve always just done my thing the best I can and let it go. This role made me pause because of others excitement and expectations. But I say that at the end of the day – same method. “Be the Ball Danny! Be the Ball!”

So I’m a person that loves to be ultra prepared. I always feel I owe that to be fellow cast and crew. We have about 80% of the business done. We’ll have almost all the other business prep done in the first couple of days of on-location pre-production. From there much of my duties are to study lines (Several of them) and get tan. What?

I’m not much of a “get a tan” type anymore but it does fits the role. So perhaps I will soak up the Vitamin D and work on more line prep. As talent I work every day on this one. It’s been a short while since I’ve been 1st billed and had to do the bulk of the scenes.  I’m been a happy co-star to let other actors do the heavy lifting for a change in terms of scenes, lines and days. Well, rest time is over. I’m back to the front line but I’m good. I love this stuff. It’s just like when as kids we would recreate our favorites TV and movie scenes. The difference now is that my scene comes from our script. We’re shooting in supremely beautiful locations and I’m have fun with friends old and new. Bottom line – I’m ready.

Other great developments.

WASTELAND is about done with the edit. Music is being considered although we may score it in Michigan. I saw a peek at some FX work. Overall – very good stuff. David Gries as a bad ass – he’s that good. I have always seen him friendly and smiling. Little did I know what was just under the surface. The small teaser released a week or so back doesn’t do the film full justice. I think the finished film will be playing festivals this fall.

BESTSELLER – Color correction is happening as we speak. The FX are all laid in. Dennis Therrian just did a complete system upgrade for this film and the ones ahead. Yes. He will be doing sound design and score on “40 Nights” so excited to have the upgrades. Stay tune for details about the May media and public premieres.

I’m waiting to hear how test screenings of THE TERRORIST went. That film has been polished up and I’m happy that it’s finally going to roll out to audiences.

DEAD QUIET is supposed to reveal a trailer at some point. I only worked it a few days but enjoyed working with those folks. I’m curious to see how that all turns out.

We’re also going to have a film marketing summit over WICKED SPRING, ASHES OF EDEN and DONORS with our distributor while out west. They release May, June and July with rapid fire release dates. The last time I had a trifecta release like this was AN ORDINARY KILLER, JUDGES and The 8th PLAGUE I do believe. I’m ready to get these films out to the fans. Thank you out there for all the emails, messages and notes of encouragement and anticipation. I encourage fans of one film to cross over and see the art of the other artists I’ve worked with. I’ve got a large film family.

TV and foreign sales continue and we’ll be seeing some new announcements soon. I can also say the same about theatrical. We’ll have updates on that front likely starting with a May showing of WICKED SPRING (Civil War film) in Grand Rapids and perhaps Lansing. We’ll also be working on dates for BESTSELLER theatrically in June/July.

When I return from out west we’ll get “40 Nights” into post. I do have a CDI commercial job we’re overseeing. Yes. We do take on larger commercial projects. Additionally,  I have an offer on a script writing project coming. I’m also finishing up two personal scripts one of which IS “Knight Chills 2” the follow-up to our 1st role-playing film (Dungeons & Dragons like) we shot back in the late 90’s.

The back half of the year I would enjoy acting in one studio film and maybe do a guest spot or two on TV shows I like. My management has been working down that path and things are moving into alignment. I’m going to close this down as I still have packing and want to spend some family time. By next week we should have even more new exciting announcements from on-location. Maybe a distributor announcement on “40 Nights” ??? Maybe 🙂

Have a great weekend everyone and keep clawing at those dreams.

DJ

One of the locations for the upcoming CDI feature “40 Nights”