Your upcoming movie Finding Waldo - in a few words, what is
it about?
When an ex pro-footballer who fell from grace and an eccentric novelist
break out of a psych ward, a crazy adventure through the Arizona desert
takes them both on the path to redemption. Blu, what were your inspirations when writing Finding
Waldo? Being a writer, we are sometimes burdened with
lunacy and to tame that madness, we sometimes turn to drugs or alcohol or wild women. Often it's all three, and having my own battles with two of
those three (booze and drugs), I found it therapeutic to let Waldo run
amok and do things I know I'd be arrested for... What can
you tell us about your key cast?
I like to think that the characters are authentic, or at least existing
authentically. Far too many people don't live authentically. Sure, they're
real, but are often just placeholders in the long queue of man's
existence. I can honestly say Chance Reed and Waldo Greene live with the
authenticity of what all of us wish we could do from time to time, and that
is to let go of who we think we are and embrace who we discover we truly
are. Truth is a naked swimmer.
The parts of Waldo and Chance were written for Matthew Jacobs
and Bo Keister [Bo Keister
interview - click here]. The true serendipity of indie filmmaking
is you can write a character and you find yourself searching to fill that
character, and the beauty is Cyrus Motley is Richard Riehle [Richard
Riehle interview - click here],
I just didn't realize it as I was writing the script. It's an amazingly
organic experience to have an actor fit the character with such ease and
having Richard for that role, just happened to be perfectly aligned with
the universe.
We are still casting several roles, and one great talent, Tom
Proctor (Guardians Of The Galaxy) is coming on for the role of Bruno, the
owner of Crazy Eights Strip Club, which has an all you can eat seafood
buffet on Wednesdays. We are also casting for the part of Pogo, an
African American, cross dressing psych ward orderly with a fabulous
head of hair. Pogo's pink convertible Mazda Miata
with California vanity plates "Cocopuf"
was stolen by Chance and Waldo. Let's just say, Pogo is going to get his
car back one way or another, so the hunt is on.
Do talk about Finding Waldo's brand of
humour for a bit, and how would you describe the film's comic
approach? For me, I am a fan of films like Raising
Arizona,
Mad Max, Planes, Trains and Automobiles. As far as humour, I wrote the
script with two elements in mind. The audience must fall in love with the
characters and make the film watching experience fun. Kind of like life,
you need Love and Fun. With Finding Waldo being a road movie
of sorts - what kind of a challenge will that pose from a producer's point
of view? A logistical challenge for sure. Without giving
too many secrets away, there
are little cheats we're doing that filmmakers who don't have a studio
backing them will do. There is a scene where Waldo drugs Chance and loads
him in the backseat of a crop duster airplane. Nothing like waking up in
the backseat of a crop duster as it does aerial acrobatics and yes,
there's vomit. This scene is very complex, but when we put our ideas
together, we figured out ways to make this expensive scene work on little
money and still get the effect we're after. Your director David Mun [David
Mun interview - click here] - what will he bring to the table? Back
to what was said earlier: Putting our heads together to get the best
result. Dave is a natural leader with vision. Having worked with him on House Of Good And
Evil, which won 8 International Best Picture awards,
he's proven himself. Also, he works on many studio films and television
shows, so he grasps what the quality needs to look like, while making it
happen as an indie director. As
far as I know, the film's still in its fundraising stages as we speak ...
so what can you tell us about your fundraising efforts? We
have raised nearly half the budget through our co-production company
Planet Capricorn, the company behind the music series Welcome To
Soundwaves.
The company has great vision and is helmed
by Robert Krueger, Dennis
Willis, and Steven Kirk. Another great team. We are raising the balance
mostly by having Bo Keister
work at Crazy 8's on Wednesdays, otherwise we need help from our friends.
Every Dollar helps. If anyone wants to help, please visit
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/finding-waldo
and if you can give cash, please help share the campaign for this
FUN film everyone will LOVE. Once
your budget's in place, what's the schedule ... and any idea when and
where the film might be released onto the general public yet?
We
plan on shooting in October, with a spring release. We have access to many
great distribution companies who are anxious to see a finished project,
based on the success of our last few projects. Any
future projects beyond Finding Waldo? Always. We are
working on a werewolf genre series to shoot in Floyd Virginia, the same
community we shot House Of Good And
Evil. The Lycanthropist
is a new spin on the werewolf character. Your/your
movie's website, Facebook, IndieGoGo, whatever else?
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/finding-waldo
https://www.facebook.com/FindingWaldoFilm?fref=ts
Thanks
for the interview!
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