Hollywood is Mental!

I had a good day today, busy. Up at eight, chatted with Noel online for a bit before heading off to West Hollywood and Hugo's restaurant for breakfast with a friend of mine, Alfred. He introduced me to Orian Williams, who I believe I've mentioned before as the producer of Control. Nice guy. We had a good breakfast and chatted a while.
The reason I call this blog 'Hollywood is Mental!' is because while we were having breakfast Terrence Stamp was sitting at the table next to us! The Limey! Mental!
Then I hopped on the bus to Santa Monica where I met Elliot and Hilary. So a bit of a heartland reunion today. It was fun. THeir cool. I like 'em both. We had coffee on 3rd street prominade, went for a stroll down the peer and stopped of at the Ivy for a spot of lunch. Spposedly a celebraty hot spot, I don't know, I didn't see anyone, all I know was that it cost $20 for a ceaser salad!


Elliot


Hillary

After our stroll and expensive lunch we walked around to the kings head, which is an english pub, but it also has a food shop attached that sells English, Irish and Australian produce. So, look at what I got...


It's funny the stupid little things you miss when you've been away from home for a few weeks!!! Yum!

I've also been invited to the premiere party to Richard Kelly's new film, Southland Tales, thanks to Elliot. Richard Kelly directed Donnie Darko, so I might get to meet him. Also in the film and attending the party will be Justin Timberlake, The Rock and Sarah Michelle Gellar! I'm so worried about meeting them! But it should be fun.

Here's some images of Hollywood.

LA Baby...

I'm in LA. I've been here for two days I think, two days and a night. It's been fun so far. I'm staying with my friend John Burton, good guy, great artist. So we've had a good chance to catch up over the last couple of warm late nights. John was also kind enough to house Thomas and I at last years Disasterous Moondance Film Festival (Avoid with extreme prejudice. Really bad festival.) SO it's good to be back on better terms.


John, working on his latest project.

LA is burning. I flew in last night and saw the fires to the south, incredible looking. Long rows of fire sweeping across the landscape. Was wuit something to behold. Luckily for me the city isn't on fire, it's way off in the sticks. But it is effecting the city. I walked out of the house yesterday and thought it was overcast, until I realised that it was smoke. I've also had a headache since I got here, it seems most people do, which I guess is from the smoke.


The smoke in the skies above LA.

In other news. I met with my friend Trampas last night. Another good guy, I've know for about ten years now. He's a stunt man here in LA, worked on Pirartes of the Carribean and Iniana Jones, the new one, which he told me about last nignt in a very secretive fashion "We were on this thing, that I can't tell you about, and then something happened, which I can't tell you about and then this guy walks in, who I can't tell you about..." so I think it's going to be great!
Then we went for dinner, past a homeless guy carrying a hammer, which was a little disconcerting and then a film crew shooting CSI NY... welcome to LA!


Tramp.

So we went for some dinner, didn't talk more about Iniana Jones! And caught up, which was nice. FUnny thing, we talked anout His Dark Materials, and of course the up coming film The Golden Compass (Spit... should be Northern Lights... anyway) Anyway, turns out one of his best friends, Mercedes, who he talked about alot a while back, married the Director Chris Weitz... small world. Apparently he's a great guy and extremely intelligent, well learned and very smart, studied at cambridge, which gives me some hope for the film.

So, I'm basically just here to meet friends and reconnect with people I haven't seen in a while. I'm not expecting anything to come of it career wise, but if I meet some new people along the way, then all well and good. I do have a meeting however with the producer of the film Control on Saturday morning, so we'll see what comes of that.
I'm also going to the LA screening of Mia Sarah, so it should be fun to meet with Gustavo, Alvaro and Cesar again. Should be a good night.
Well, that's all for now. More updates soon. Goodbye from Los Angeles.

Just so you know...

Well, I'm off to LA in a few hours, just packing at the moment. It's been a great couple of weeks in Indianapolis, and not the last before I fly home. I've had a greta itme at this years festival. I have to admit I was a little sad to have been one of the filmmakers this year, but it was great to meet most of them and to hang out with them.
THe highlight of the event for me was Mia Sarah, a wonderfully swet romantic conedy with a real throw back to the Hollywood romantic screwball comedies of the thirties and forties. The guys are still trying to get distribution but should they succeed it is film well worth checking out (Click on the link at the side for more info).
Another highlight was hanging out with the guys who made it, Gustavo, the writer/director, Alavro, his brother and the Producer, Cesar, the composer, Andreus, the Executive Producer and Manuel, the Star. Great great guys, we all became good friends, in fact Gustavo invited Maryann and I to his house in Spain next year.
I'm meeting the guys in LA, two of them are based there and Gustavo is in town to screen his film for distributors etc. So that should be fun.


The festival was great this year, a strong selection of films and a desent turn out by the filmmakers. Also some interesting sides. ONe of which was a presentation by disney of there next few films, National Treasure Book of Secrets, I heard the first wasn't great, but they seemd to have amped up everything, more action, bigger stars Helen Miren and Ed Harris and this looks pretty fun. Also a new CGI Carton called BOLT, about a tv super hero dog who thinks he really is a super hero and then gets lost in the real world and has to find his way home. I know it sounds a bit naff but it looks like loads of fun and the snimation is great, the character design are reallly cool and the background are like nothing I've scene before in CGI, they're like N.C. Wyeth paintings in 3D, very cool.
We also looked at new footage fromt eh next Narnia film. I have no real interest in seeing it, might be fun, but it looks beautiful, great epic shots, very reminicent of Lord of the Rings. THey also revealed that Micheal APted is directing the thrid one.
But the absolute highlight of the night was a sneak peak at Wall.E, the next pixar movie. I can honestly say I have never seen anything like this. It is... and I cannot emphasis this enough... absolutely stunning looking. I was BLOWN AWAY!!! They showed a teaser first which was great, and then a five minute clip, upon which my jaw dropped and stayed hanging for the entirety.
This is going to be something special. First of all the character design and animation is astounding. It's basically a rusty box on track with two big eyes on top, but within the first few seconds you are completely invested in this character and love him.
It looks beyond belief. I was watching it thinking, how in the world can they possibly make it look that good??? How??? The colours are beautiful, rich, vibrant, hyper real, the effects, shadows, lighting and dust are just incredible. They have raised the bar so high in this I can't how it it's going going to take something mind boggling to surpass it.

Well, that's me for now. I better get back to packing. I'm off soon. More news and pics on the way.

Take care.

Views of Indianaoplis

Brat Kid Day

Wow, hard to believe I've been here and week and a half, as I suspected time is flying by. It's all been gret fun. I thought I'd up date you on what I've been up to. Today we took a walk along the cannals, which run all through the city. They're great, peaceful, picturesque and it's funny to think they're so close to busy streets. Sculptures, parks and bridges run all along the area. Along the way is the Zoo, so we stopped in for a couple of hours. It seemed to Brat Kid day, but it was fun none the less, some pictures below.
Yesterday, we went to Maryann's home coming, which is a yearly college reunion thing. That was good, I met more of her friends and got to see where she went to college, nice campus, nicer than the crap hole I went to anyway! More pics below!
Then we stopped off at this really dodgy looking chinese place, it was in the middle of all these fast food resturaunts, and car sales garages and next door to a strip club. Maryann said it was great, but I had my doubts. But she was right, it turned out to be really nice inside and the food was amazing, and huge portions, we could only mange have, so the rest did us for supper that evening and the whole lot only cost $11!
It was funny because the family who own the resturant we're having their dinner too! We felt like we had interupted them as ten of them milled over food in a large centre table while we sat quietly in the back! It was cool though. A nice experience and again, great food.
The night before we hung out with two friends of Maryann's, Kristi, who she works with at the festival and her boyfriend James, both really nice people and both actors. We went to a Comedy Sportz, which is a sports related comedy improv night. My buddy John Burton in LA works for them too, so it was nice to finally attend one.
It was loads of fun, a bit nerv wrecking at first, when I hear improv I think audience partisipation! The thought sends shivers down my spine. But it was fine. Then we went on to a pub... sorry, Bar! Drank beer, ate nachos and talked. Kristi and James are fun people to be around and James and I hit it off, having movies in common... it's always good to find someone to rant about movies with. Plus, his favourite movie is Back to the Future, so we were instant friends.


This was cool, we were coming home from Bloomington and all these birds were perched on the wires, thousands of them and they stretched on for miles. It was funny too, because every time a bird landed the entire row would shuffle down to make room, like a domino effect.


Just a pick of Downtown Indy.


Us on Maryann's Campus.


A baboon having a dental check up


Penguins... can't say much more then that.


Walking by the Canal.


The affore mentioned Canal, with Indy in the background.

Bloomington and Nashville

Hello Hello,
The last three days or so have been fun. I've had a good chance to write and get working on my new script. I'm 30 pages into my first draft. So hopefully I can keep that up. I may not get much of a chance, the festival is coming up fast.
I had a chance to see Marc Forsters new film, The Kit Runner, based on Khaled Hosseini's novel of the same name. It's not out until December, so it was a rare treat. It's an excellent movie, well worth checking out when it arrives. A very interesting choice for him in between Stranger Than Fiction and the next James Bond movie.
Today Maryann and I took a drive to Bloomington, a small college town outside Indy, a very nice place, kind of reminded me of the small town along the east coast of Australia. We had dinner with a friend of hers, Angelo Pizzo, who is the Writer and Producer of the films Hoosiers, Rudy and The Game of Their Lives.



It was really nice to meet him. He's a good guy. I liked him a lot. We talked about scripts, sports, writing, Ireland, Indiana and ideas for stories. So it was an enjoyable afternoon.
Then we took a trip into Nashville, not Tennesee, Nasville Indiana, which is a small tourist village. It was nice, quiet, quaint. Here are some pictures from there.

Oot n Aboot

Here we are by the LOVE Sculpture outside the Indianapolis Museum of Art


Maryann Treehead... it's part of a series I'm working on.

The Neighbourhood

Some typical Indiana houses!

Trip to the Park

Indy

Took a trip dowtown here in Indianapolis and here's some of what I saw...

Maryann's Building... well, it's not hers, she just lives there.


Part of the Circle, Indy doesn't have a town square, it has a town circle, that's why it's also known as the Cirlce City... so there.

First Stop Chicago

Hello!!! I decided to set up this blog so everyone could check out my pics and read my stories about the trip! The flight was good, flew by! It was quite relaxing and went by quickly. Arrived in O'Hare at 2pm. Maryann picked me up and we headed into town to the hotel.
Right now I'm in Maryann's apartment in Indianapolis, it's great to be here, great to be back in Indianapolis.
OK, here's some pics.

Together at last after Nine Months apart!!!


Driving into Chicago.


Back at the Hotel, nice suite!


Downtown Chicago.

More pics coming soon.

I attended a function last night to do with the Heartland Film Festival. I was put to work straight away as a past filmmaker! I pulled names from a hat for a raffle and then gave an interview on what I've been up to since last year. It was fun. It was good to see everyone again.

It just remains for me to thank Jay Cooney for the lend of his laptop! I'd be lost without it on this trip. So thanks Jay, I owe you one.

Bye for now.