The streets here are full of music as Manny “PacMan” retained his heavy weight boxing title. Tonight I have a final producers watch through on “Darkest Night” before our premiere this week in Manila. The theater is beautiful and the people here are excited. I’ve been chilling here in my adopted country or I should say they’ve adopted me. I’ve been eating great food that includes LOTS of seafood! Washing it all down with some local beers but one of the most popular beers from US here is Colt 45 so that is a change. I bought new underwears and T’s since getting laundry was gonna be a pain. I’ve been treated so well here and I’m happy that DJ Perry and the Philippines are getting to be fast friends. I was treated to a familiar sight when I saw by actor buddy Taymore Ghazi on a TV show last night here. I also watched friend/mentor actor Rance Howard on the flight over. I do enjoy seeing my friends in movies and on TV. I will have more to write after the premiere but I thought I would do a fun top 10 on here. Let’s do top ten things I’ve learned, saw or experiences here in the Philippines.

1) Being called “Chuck Norris” on the street – I know I’m looking older but DAMN!

2) Noontime means after lunch between 1-4 not 12:00

3) Participating in traffic walking I see where the game FROGGER was inspired.

4) I saw a traffic cop breakdancing while directing traffic (moonwalk, pop locking, etc..) you don’t see that in NYC

5) There is not an active EPA for car pollution and so things are like LA 10 years ago

6) Cheeseburgers with egg on them are quite good

7) It must be a National law against getting one beer they always bring you two

8) Only here can you eat two RED LOBSTER + level meals and wash it down with 6 beers for a few dollars – won’t find that in NYC or anywhere in the USA

9) Santa will have to shave his beard and wear shorts here

10) Manny “PacMan” is like SUPERMAN, Mr. T and Bill Clinton rolled into one.

This is DJ signing off until next time!

Have a great Sunday!

Greetings from the Philippines! I’m here safe and sound reunited with my “Darkest Night” family once again. Our premiere is Thursday and after the amazing success of our press conference the interest in the film has left me speechless. Those that know me or my blog know this is rare as I usually have something to say. TV, radio, magazines, print all celebrating this hybrid horror film. It was slated for a showcase at a local film festival but the committee had concerns about the English usage in the film. I think the public interest in the film illustrates they made a mistake. The festival director contacted yesterday to say as much but we’ve invited them to our premiere. The world is truly getting smaller with the web and the people here are truly ready to embrace both Eastern and Western films. I think many great foreign films don’t get seen by English-speaking audiences because they don’t have a character to relate to. DARKEST NIGHT fixes that by using a character KEN (played by me) who returns to the Philippines with his soon-to-be wife at Christmas time to meet the family. Audiences get to experience many of the rich traditions because the family speaks mostly English out of hospitality to their American guest. The film than takes a dark turn that will let audiences experience Asian filmmaking without it being re-made as an American version which almost always falls short of the original. The film is the 1st for me using the doc or “found footage” style. It has been a great honor for me to take part of this project and I want to keep this post short and ask you all to check out the http://www.darkestnightmovie.com site and search out the DARKEST NIGHT Facebook site to see the many pics from the press conference the other night. I’m eating seafood daily and so I’m in heaven. I’m suppose to attend an awards show Tuesday night and we’ve got many more media events leading up to the film premiere. This film will get a USA distribution set-up as I’ve been given interest from several of my distribution friends. Once we get past this event we will start taking meetings on the film I promise! It will be heading to theaters here and is the 1st of a slate of GPI/CDI films. I appreciate all the support and will blog here again soon!

Happy Sunday!

DJ