GREETINGS FROM PINE VALLEY

Hey Friends,
 
Just handed in a brand new pilot to a major network. I got the call last week saying “we need some pages, we know Detectives is made, what else ya got?” So I dug deep, I had an idea and pulled out a few pages of a basic outline I had where I’d hoped my friend Mike McGrath would play the lead. (see the clip below, Mike can do anything, but him busting out this commercial, that's the spirit of the great Mr McGrath, he also played Jerry Jones in LEAF and NAILED IT)

I still hope he plays the lead! I took the few pages of outline and by Friday night, handed in a lean mean 28 page sitcom piece. I think it’s solid, it pops, it’s funny. If this certain major network passes on this, I’d love to grab a few great actors, an RV a single camera and these pages and just head off for a few days and do the work, and see what we come up with. I think it could be a lot of fun to make and hopefully, a lot of fun to watch. 

 
Speaking of watching things, I need to put my hands together and applaud the wonderful crowd that came out for the first night kick off of “DOWN WITH THE BOOGEY”, this screened at the Anthony Wayne Theater, which is always great for me, because the people at that great theater are always welcoming, wonderful and accomodating, and writer/director Jack Knapp was on hand, and ended up having a huge Q&A afterwards that didn’t end til almost 3am the next morning! He’s a great story teller and brings his self deprecating humor and his "no subject off limits" approach, as a result, people hang out to talk with him, it’s funny, I spent a lot of time on the BOOGEY set, yet still, at these Q&A’s, Jack will say something about the film that I never knew before. 3am though, our Q&A started to be more about Harvey Keitel movies than our movie, so we decided to wrap it up. A great time and a great crowd, I can’t wait to get to places like New York, Chicago and LA for more of this. It’s a fun movie and it’s going to be a lot of fun on this tour to see how it plays to so many different audiences in so many cities. Also, I must recommends having a conversation with JAck, he's available to everyone on the myspacefacebooktwitter as well as his own site www.CowBellFilms.Com make him tell you a story, about anything, you will not be disappointed.

 Photo: This is what Philly theaters look like at 3am when snapped with a blurry blackberry.

Wanted to share this with you, a little clip the good folks at Hollydog Films put out there, a “throwback” to the good old days in Pine Valley on “ALL MY CHILDREN”, I played COLTON, basically a character that didn’t do much except for taunt other characters, if there was a young character being taunted, chances are I was there somewhere. If there were kids mocking Jesse McCartney’s character, I was there, if there were character smoking and drinking and being a nuisance, I was there, if it was prom time and time to be mean and then bust a fancy fancy move. Yep, there. Colton was sort of plugged in a few different storylines over the year or so that I was on the show, and I had a great time, even if some episodes, I’d say a line or two the entire show (like the clip below!) But the show and its writers were always kind to me, and that core cast has been working together for many many years, and even still, they were always kind to the newer castmembers. I always got along with Michael E Knight who played TAD, I even reached out to him when we were there in NYC  filming LEAF. It was a great cast and they were really good to me, so all I can to is hope to return the favor sometime. It was a great time in New York on both All My Children and One Life To Live, and when I heard these 2 shows were being cancelled after such a long run, I felt bummed for the cast, and was grateful for every opportunity that this show afforded me. I hear some people speak ill of their soap opera days, but all I have a great memories, great feelings and some great stories that I've even told here before. (go back into the archives, I think under some cobwebs there's at least one Pine Valley story or 2) 

Also, before I sign off, I'd just heard some awful news that a great filmmaker Tim Hetherington had been killed in Libya. Tim was an Oscar nominee for his film "Restrepo" and had only been in New York 2 months ago to talk about the film. This is a huge loss, and an eye opener to just embrace life, because you never know what's around the corner. Here's the trailer for his film "RESTREPO"

Heading off to the never-dull Tribeca film festival in New York this week…hope to see some of you there.

 
Big love,

TIM