Movie Updates from the ‘CDI Tribe’ – ROLLING!
Hazelnut coffee cheers! I’m a touch slow moving today as we had a physical yet fun soccer match on Thursday losing 4-2. But even in a loss it is a win by way of workout. Also we have been putting in the time every day sealing and staining the deck and will likely finish up today save a few touches here and there. I was on the ladder doing karate kid paint the fence last night after we worked in one of our upcoming film locations. More on that in a bit. So I’m a touch sore and we have a make up game on Monday from a rainout and again a game on our regular Thursday. Also I have to tell the story of the ‘Black Mamba’ for those who don’t follow my two social media sites. I am not a big car person and it is a way to get from point A to B. In 2010 I bought a Saturn Vue in slick black hence ‘Black Mamba’ as the name. I paid it off in 2012 and drove it until last week. The muffler dropped from MI winter salt that finally caught up to it. I had it in the shop for a fix up when I got the call. The frame and such had some intensive rusting and the car was unfit to drive. It would be too costly to fix versus the price of the car. So looking at the two closest car lots three vehicles that interested me were found. In 24 hours I traded in the Saturn Vue and was in a beautiful 2017 Trail hawk Jeep. The name is still yet to be revealed but many people gave some great suggestions. I really do LOVE this new ride. Enough you say of these car ramblings. We have many movie updates underway. Let’s look at a few-
MOVIE UPDATES-
- Working backwards, Monday we open the official account for the new movie, The Secret of the Kingdom Chip. We’ve been gathering up our paperwork and funds for deposit. We have been adding sponsors and yesterday we had a team working in one of our prime locations preparing it for filming. It went great and with the help we made great progress on the location. This week I started having talks about the remaining crew and those will continue this week. A few last castings and we will be good to go. We should be locking our actors schedule this week and getting that distributed. But the ball is rolling and we have some other great developments that I cannot yet talk about but will once I am able. Again if you want to align your company with our project and other great brands please reach out. You can follow along on our Facebook site just search the movie title.
- ROM COMS MUST DIE our dark comedy thriller has all the VFX inside of it and the sound design and dialog was checked at our studio by Dennis Therrian who will be doing the music, mix and help deliver. It will be awesome to see the music bring more life into this film! The trailer is forthcoming and I’m trying to get a status report of where we are at with that.
- Speaking of Dennis Therrian we are doing a listen through and watch of the final Wild Faith Christmas movie this Friday at the studio! After we will do a watch on the big screen and start our theatrical meetings. We are in talks with a few possible collaborators to help this heart touching film get seen in more theaters. The original film WILD FAITH is still going strong on all the platforms with tens of millions of fans. We hope they enjoy this new installment and that it opens the opportunity for the TV series to launch.
- Harsens Island Revenge will be playing the Riverside Cinemas and Emagine Macomb from Aug 22-28th! The real island is buzzing with excitement and we are happy they will get to see a movie on their history taken from the book of the same name by Karl Manke. I know we are about to release some Iowa dates so we will be promoting those soon. I know Forest City but I don’t know if it is one night only or a run of days. Algona Iowa should do a run we will see. Meanwhile we are preparing for the home video release on 10/6/2025!
- If you want to watch the last Karl Manke book to film we did and the last film Shane Hagedorn directed, take a watch here and let me know your thoughts in the comments. Best Years Gone WATCH HERE: https://youtu.be/U4lxhZ2CQkc?si=pWzggmWvb4oEyQ78
- Many people are asking about the CDI films here are several of them that can be watched free with ads. WATCH HERE: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2Tn2MhKrkFOCsmKZaxoZCT1R5GEOEL3E
WRAP UP: These movies take a lot of hard work and they are hard work by a lot of artists. We have a good tribe of artists at CDI. I’m excited for this next role (The Secret of the Kingdom Chip) because it will be a lot of motion capture type work. I play an Avatar of sorts and I’m looking forward to that process. We will see if we can get the deck completed today. What is done looks so nice. We have been harvesting tomatoes and herbs from the garden for fresh eating. The mulberries are still kicking and are at their peak sweetness.
I hope you all have a great week as you move ahead on your own ventures be they personal or business. I’m ready to tackle the week ahead and keep the creative ball rolling. It was such good energy yesterday to be with good folks all working towards the common goal of telling a beautiful story. I might have to put a few eggs down before jumping into some work. The chickens have been doing great with everyone getting along and producing eggs. Until we speak again next week where I’ll be able to comment on the Wild Faith Christmas watch, be productive.
Coffee Cheers!
DJ
‘Knight Chills’ Blu-Ray, Sequels, Sept 5th Releases, ‘Silent Night In Algona’ at Red Letter Awards and ‘Harsens Island Revenge’ Gearing Up to Film!
(Wardrobe test as ‘Axel’ in the upcoming Harsens Island Revenge)
Good morn to you all! I’m here sipping my hazelnut coffee and taking a few moments to try and report on the many past week events. Starting next week I’m going to go to Sat updates during the Harsens Island Revenge shoot. Next Saturday I’ll be moving in up North, and so with that being our day off it will be easier to blog on Saturdays. I might even go to the vlog updates to give you all a more exciting experience while we are filming. Once up there on the 9th, we have a week of on-location pre-production before three weeks of filming. Once home I’ll return to my Sunday blogs. We are doing Saturdays off because more things are open should our cast and crew need to do things on their day off. Above is a pic from my wardrobe tests. I have variations of three outfits, the above being one of them. More on that later. On the home front it has been getting things ready for me to be gone for a month. I’ve finished harvesting the hops and rhubarb. I’ll have to put another mow down on the lawn but soon that should slow down. My soccer season ended with us coming out on top of the lower division. Last year we won the upper division but we had injuries and several of our players coaching. The nice part is I had a good season and no injuries. Let’s jump into some movie talk.
HARSENS ISLAND REVENGE – We are all excited to tell this story. The departments are all kicking strong. I transferred many of the props to our art director. Great meetings with wardrobe and hospitality departments. We are down to our final cast and crew hires and some are being interviewed by department heads. We had a fun read through on zoom with some of the cast participating. I will comment on one funny comment we had to a news story. It was a snide comment on us not shooting on Harsens Island. That is false. We will do some filming on the island but we need 1920’s. Also filming or staging a small army on a island with zero big stores, hospital and dependent on a ferry is not good producing. How many films on the Alamo have been made but they did not film at the Alamo? When we get to shooting SPIRIT LAKE MASSACRE do you think that the lake appears as it did in 1850’s? A more primitive lake will surely need to be used for many shots/scenes. We will do some shooting on Harsens Island to get some of the exterior beauty shots but we needed a place more friendly to filming with an army. So this individual obviously has no experience in filming and was just chiming off. People do that quite often these days but I saw it as a chance to educate.
We have many sponsors that have been coming on board and this past week we added Red Cedar Spirits and SE Growth Corp. They join a host of great businesses aligning themselves with our film. Some of that sponsorship will be used to help transport some of the great cars to the area for use in the film. It is exciting to be able to showcase so many cool vehicles from the time period. These amazing cars, boats and even a plane will be able to add this movie to their long history. Two other sponsors Nash Nurseries and Ace Pyro will play a part after the main shoot working with the FX unit for a spectacular moment in the film. We still have a few more coming on board that we’ll announce very soon.
SOME PR:
SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA – Our fixes should all be done this week and we’ll be able to announce the hard release dates for DVD and streaming. I’m getting asked daily about this and I will answer as soon as I can. We are all super excited to bring this story to the world. Our own Donna Kitzinger, our Algona coordinator will be traveling to TN to attend and represent us at the Red Letter Awards where the film is up for many awards. But honestly, we already feel like we won after all the beautiful responses from our theatrical run.
THE PATCHWORK GIRL OF OZ – This was the first animated feature collaboration for CDI and the film has been remastered to HD and will start streaming on Encourage TV on Sept 5th! This is a great watch for the approaching holidays for the entire family.
Show your support and we just might have to kick off a new film from one of the other amazing books. Speaking of Encourage TV – one of our most popular films MAN’S BEST FRIEND just celebrated crossing the 2 million viewer threshold on the streaming platform. You can watch it free with ads and help us get to 3 million!
WATCH HERE free with ads – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afDYPOiL5pY
KNIGHT CHILLS was CDI’s first feature film. Jeff & Juanita Kennedy and I had been shopping scripts around Hollywood with a few close calls. Finally, we decided to produce our own. This micro-budget feature shot released 25 years ago has become a classic. The good folks at Saturn Core approached us about doing a 25th anniversary Blu-Ray. This required a new digital transfer and audio remastering. We also had some wonderful Tom Miller fan artwork and dug into the archives to bring you some true gems. We were able to get a few new retrospective interviews and even a great film historian talking about the special place this film holds in horror history. Vinegar Syndrome just released a pre-order link for the special edition 1000 unit run whereas they moved about 600 units in the first 6 hours. This is the special slip cover version and will be a true collectors edition.
(Special parody slip art of the new Knight Chills Blu-Ray)
Claim one of these unique collectors edition now! Click on the link below-
(IN THE WOODS– Yes that is Jim Greulich in the background)
We are in hopes to give CDI’s 2nd feature film FROM VENUS the same Blu Ray treatment. Did you know Sir Kallio from Knight Chills makes a cameo? In other remastering news, I had a great talk with Lynn Drzick the director of IN THE WOODS, my first feature film. An ambitious creature feature that now has a director’s cut. The entire film retransferred and re-edited with added scenes. I imagine a blu-ray with the original version and the director’s version. Lynn is going to start talking to various distributors and following a limited theatrical of the new cut, a BluRay and streaming release. What is even more interesting is the sequel that is in the planning stage. I’ve agreed to once again play reluctant monster hunter Alex Kerwood. Also I’ve agreed to co-star in another supernatural thriller that Mr. Drzick will be directing. It is fun to return to the genre that gave me my start. I also recently had to pass on starring in another horror feature due to an overlap in schedule with Harsens Island Revenge, but I was deeply appreciative of the offer.
(Above is Tom Miller’s cool fan art part of the new Knight Chills Blu-Ray release)
WRAP UP: I smell eggs and bacon and so that is my cue to wrap this up. It is gonna be a few more hot days in Michigan before fall truly settles in. MSU my alumni college started slow but pulled out a win. I hope our Lions are off to a good season. I think I’m going to grill ribs today and get a few things done around the homestead. As always, I so appreciate you all. I hope you have a safe and enjoyable Labor Day. I’ll speak to you again next Saturday after settling in to my home away from home for a month.
Be good to one another.
DJ
NEW ‘Silent Night in Algona,’ trailer, ‘For the Love of Catch’ DVD and more…
Good morning. I’m sipping the hazelnut coffee and enjoying the last few days of October, one of my favorite months. I’m a bit slow getting going as I stayed up a bit later last night watching my alumni school MSU play U of M. Not there year, but it started pretty exciting. Cleaning. Organizing, Winterizing. The leaves are almost all done and I’ve been staying on top of those. I’m still cutting wood in prep for the winter ahead. I actually finally bottled my Frankenwine, finishing with either a raspberry or blueberry in the bottom. I like using a berry of fruit versus just adding a sweetener. The Frankenwine was made with raspberry, black raspberry, mulberry and a touch of hops. I tried it and while it’s strong, it is very drinkable.
I had to get some antifreeze and a new battery for the “Black Mamba,” my ride. I can saw that I’ve never really been a car guy. I like cool designs and such but really I just need reliable A to B transportation. My old Saturn Due is customized to my liking and has very low miles but now it’s ready for winter. Some folks are really into their cars. I could just not imagine driving some of these house on wheels, cars. I’m also going to wait a good decade before considering an electric car. I have friends that work in fire safety and new guidebooks are being done to deal with auto crashes containing lithium batteries. So I think I’ll just wait a few before going in that direction.
Let’s get to some film updates.
(Above – DJ, Tony, Dennis, Carl at a post session for ‘Silent Night in Algona’ )
- Our recent release FOR THE LOVE OF CATCH will release on DVD, November 1st. many are enjoying this film streaming but soon it can become part of your library. Order here-https://www.amazon.com/Love-Catch-DVD-Curran-Jacobs/dp/B0BH96VCDX/ref=sr_1_1?crid=31IFQIHVO2APF&keywords=for+the+love+of+catch+dvd&qid=1667135347&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIwLjAwIiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&s=movies-tv&sprefix=%2Cmovies-tv%2C138&sr=1-1
- Conversations have happened about another doc in the For The Love Of Catch series. We’ll be looking at gathering the needed resources this winter for Spring 2023 shooting. A promotion event was also discussed but more on that later.
- November 1st also begins the holiday window which is perfect for watching THE QUEST TRILOGY. Three films, Forty Nights, Chasing the Star and The Christ Slayer. We’ll start promoting them and one of them has hit a new benchmark at Encourage TV. (Passing TWO MILLION VIEWS) Again, that is only one platform. When you add up all the platforms, DVD’s and broadcast we’re at tens of millions. We thank you all and hope your family will watch these classics together.
- We’ll have some big announcements coming concerning, Harsens Island Revenge. Some establishing shots will be filmed on the island and maybe a scene or two but having to rely on a ferry for schedules and/or getting last minute needed supplies, isn’t good for production. Right now, we have a town that we’re seriously looking at to double for parts of our island. Having interiors that haven’t changed too much from 1926 is also key. I’m about to start next week on my final script polish with our soon-to-be announced director. Once it is locked, my hands are off as a writer. We’re looking at a few key roles in the script now but will be opening up to looking at reels and doing reads this winter. We will be shooting in Oct/Nov 2023 and we’re all very excited about this roaring 1920’s story.
- Staying with writing, I am over half way through on my first draft of SPIRIT LAKE MASSACRE. This will be the follow up project to film in Iowa. We don’t have any dates set as of right now just getting a powerful script is the goal.
- SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA, is the front and center. The music and sound design is getting closer to done. Our composer Dennis Therrian, is scoring a beautiful soundtrack. Color correction is about done and the VFX are being finalized. Our editor/VFX supervisor will be coming in to help marry everything together mid November. I see some grilling in our fall future out at the ole Pine Studio.
- Additionally, a new two and half minute SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA theatrical trailer is almost done. We had some major director/producer meetings this week over adjusting a few shots in the trailer. We’re all so close to it all but I sincerely think folks will love it. It will be shown at AFM market to a few networks and foreign territories. Home video will be on the lead up to the holidays next year in 2023.
- But starting in December many will be able to see SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA, in theaters. We’re working with the town of Algona in setting up a premiere showing and afterglow on December 9th. Following our premiere, public showings will start at the Fridley Theaters, starting with Algona. The plan is to start with 2 weeks of showing and some companies are planning to buy blocks of tickets for their employees to go watch together. That’s a great idea. I know other theatre chains in the Iowa, Michigan and the midwest are being talked to. I’m just so happy with the final product. It is a beautiful story of unity, healing and hope that many people could use about now. Soon, my friends. Please do feel free to call Fridley theaters and encourage them to get movie times for the public shows listed.
- This week, I have to send out one of the Knight Chills masters to see if we can get a better initial transfer. This is for the special Blu-Ray being put together for 2023.
- Ghost Town, is also getting the digital enhancement treatment and a new 2023 release trailer is being cut. I’m excited to revisit that film with it being digitally enhanced. The Smoky Mountain western will ride again!
I might be missing an update or two but there is a good ten point snap shot of our most current updates. To all the ghosts and goblins, be safe tomorrow night while collecting candy. I remember those days fondly. In elementary school, we had parades and classroom parties. I feel bad that the children don’t get to do that anymore. The world has its challenges and I try to help doing what I do best, tell stories. Thank you again to everyone that has reached out. I love hearing about your favorite films, moments and such. Keep watching and we’ll keep creating.
Happy Sunday!
DJ
DJ Perry's Official Blog 'Clawing My Way to the Middle' 