It has been bitter cold this weekend and I’ve been trying to keep a small cold at bay. At least we’ve had a few days of sun which is a good change from the dark clouds over Michigan. This past week was our first week of official pre-production on “The Christ Slayer” so.. busy, busy – let’s take a look back at our week. (Coffee sip)
Teaser poster for “The Christ Slayer”
The Christ Slayer
We’re moving forward with shooting our third and final installment of The Quest Trilogy – entitled The Christ Slayer. I’ve been ignoring lots of the angry noise flying about around us in the news and just focusing on the load of work before me. That in itself has been quite consuming and refreshing. Friday we opened our new bank account and we’ve started to fuel up the ship. It was a two-hour bank trip dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s but now that’s set. Casting and crewing is about 80% complete since we’ve had the pleasure of team building over several films now. We’ve got many returning faces and a few new ones and in a few weeks we’ll again be in Yuma, AZ filming.
Casting – I’m very excited about several of our new casting choices. Christine Solomon and Carl Weyant will be wonderful to work with. This week we’re announcing a few new supporting actors via PR but I will let you faithful readers know in advance. Ms. Lana Wood and Mr. David Gries will be joining our cast. I’ve worked with both of them and I’m excited to have them onboard. We’ve also been reviewing reels and reads and feel very close to making a few additional casting decisions.
Crewing – we’re still in talks on a few crew positions but those cards are falling quickly into place. I’m excited to have our chef Eddie back on board. Great food goes a long way with people working away from home.
Stay tuned for more updates!
Chasing the Star – we’re getting to the last VFX shots and the mixing of the final film. We’re also about to go over end credits which is painful because almost always you end up with a misspelled name or worse yet, miss someone completely. I’m excited that we’re so close to being done. I am going to try to set up a screening of the film for our Yuma folks prior to filming the third. We’ll also be doing a premiere in Michigan before moving into certain theatre chains. Our deal with Bridgestone Multimedia is complete and we’ll be getting the home video street dates very soon.
DJ Perry and Jesse Low (Director) on set of “Forty Nights” – the camp of John the Baptist
Forty Nights –
We should have some new artwork to review in the coming weeks. The release date for the remastered “Forty Nights: film will be 4/4/17 and we’re also exploring some in-store signings. This film was beautiful before but we had such a tight release schedule last year with Wal-Mart that the film wasn’t as polished as we wanted. That said, people enjoyed the beauty previously but now we’ve got a film that’s a bit closer to our director’s vision. I’m also excited about foreign sales to start rolling on this first film.
Wild Faith
As of Friday our director/editor was working the last scene of the film. After that we’ll review, polish and lock it up. From there we’ll move it into post sound/music as “Chasing the Star” is moving out. I’m going to start looking at trailer and teaser poster work on the film. We’ve had LOTS of interest in this movie and so I do want to explore the possibility of the tv series.
FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
As mentioned above, the tv series could put our teams to work for several months. We’ve also got a few feature films in development. I also had an update on C.U.J.O. which is moving a bit slower but larger budget studio films tend to follow that pattern. The dog trainer may come visit us while in AZ. Aside from those developments I’m focused on the role at hand. I’ll have a clear head on what I want to pursue once “The Christ Slayer” is behind me.
Have a great weekend.
DJ
February 5, 2017 | Categories: Blogroll | Tags: 4/4/17, 40 Nights, artwork, AZ, bank, Bello Pizzimenti, Bridgestone Multimedia Group, C.U.J.O., Carl Weyant, casting, CDI, Chasing the star, chef, Christine Solomon, coffee, cold, Collective Development Inc, credits, crewing, CUJO, David Gries, developments, director, DJ Perry, dog trainer, editor, faith, films, food, Forty Nights, Garry Nation, Jesse Low, Jesus, John the Baptist, Lana Wood, MI, music, poster, premiere, Randy Spence, ship, sound, studio, supporting, team, teaser, The Quest Trilogy, trailer, TV series, VFX, WAl-Mart, Wild Faith, Yuma | Leave a comment
“In the misty morning on the edge of time, we’ve lost the rising sun – the final sign” – I think that was Ronnie James Dio lyrics but outside in Michigan reminds me of that. I’ve got the hazelnut hot and ready as I chase the haze away from the brain and ponder the past week and the week ahead.
This weekend has been one of quiet recharge at the fortress of solitude. I’ve been prepping the office for more meetings ahead this week as I work hard to finalize our commits on “The Christ Slayer” shoot. The ship is almost built with many of the cast and crew falling into place. The week ended with me getting the paperwork around so that the bank account can be opened and we can start fueling the ship for our voyage. It’s exciting that we’ve found two of our new leads and I plan to announce them tomorrow. One I’ve known a good handful of years and we’ve played opposite each other a few times but in an antagonistic way. No! It is not Terry Jernigan, he was our John the Baptist. I’m really looking forward to working with this individual and he will be great in the role. Opposite him is a wonderful actress who brings the perfect mix of emotions we were looking for. We’ve actually read several ladies for this role over the last couple years but she stood out strongest. I’m excited to introduce them to all of you. C.W.C.S. that is my hint to all of you on the identity of these two talents stepping into the third film. In the supporting roles we’ve been looking at many wonderful talents and we’ll be making offers soon. That is part of all the business work so we can actually do that. I wanna thank my entire team that works so very hard to make all these things happen.
“Forty Nights” is being remastered and delivered for the 4/4/17 release date. I know that the paperwork delivery in underway and we should have new artwork in the coming weeks.
“Chasing the Star” has just completed color correction and I saw the concept art for the teaser/theatrical poster. We’re looking at this film hitting select theater’s shortly after the “Forty Nights” release and will release on digital and DVD in September.
“Wild Faith” is moving along and we will be getting close to an edit here soon. Music and sound design is just finishing “Chasing the Star” and so once that film is complete “Wild Faith” will move in. We’re going to start having some story meetings and develop our series package once I finish the business tasks at hand. I’m really excited for everyone to see this much-needed story of unity and hope. It would be a great series and if it is meant to be – it will. Also it would shoot in Michigan which would give me a great opportunity to work with many of our Michigan actors.
Aside from all this pre- and post film business I will continue to get in my daily writing. I’ve got many scripts finished but always good to keep moving. I truly enjoy writing and it goes so well with coffee.
Today I’m going to a memorial for my Aunt who was spunk right into her 90’s with a love of Willie Nelson and technology. My heart also goes out to another good friend who lost his wife. It is not really my place to promote that loss so I won’t, but she was a good woman and will be missed. I’m going to wrap this up and get a jump on some of my Monday business.
Be good to one another. We’re all on this spaceship Earth for this short ride together.
DJ
January 22, 2017 | Categories: Blogroll, Uncategorized | Tags: actress, antagonist, April, brain, cast, Chasing the star, coffee, crew, digital, DJ Perry, DVD, fortress, Forty Nights, haze, heart, hope, John the Baptist, lyrics, meetings, Melissa Anschutz, Memorial, office, poster, Ronnie James Dio, scripts, September, Shane Hagedorn, ship, spaceship, Taymour Ghazi, teaser, Terry Jernigan, The Christ Slayer, theatrical, unity, voyage, Wild Faith, Willie Nelson | Leave a comment
DJ Perry's Official Blog 'Clawing My Way to the Middle' 