Keeping secrets

Dammit, secrets are ruining this blog.

They're making it impossible for me to be open and honest about what I'm up to, and therefore taking away the fun of regular posts. It'll all make sense later in the year, I promise, but at the moment I've got to keep schtum.

I got an email asking whether the secret project is a feature, a short or what. Well, the answer is that it's...

..Drumroll..

A feature. But not a feature that's anything like what we've done before. Very, very different indeed, and I think (hope) that it's going to surprise a lot of people.

Just don't give up on the blog, guys. I'll unglue my mouth and normal service will resume.

KillerKiller on Amazon

Just a quickie, (running about like crazy today), to let you guys know that KillerKiller has appeared for pre-order on amazon.com if you fancy getting your order in early. It's the US version, (thus Region 1), but it might be a little wait for the R2 and surely everyone's multi-region nowadays, aren't they? August 7th is the street date.

http://www.amazon.com/Killer/dp/B000RO8UBK/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-1801306-5647828?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1183041683&sr=1-1

We've also just got our first images from pre-production for the Secret Project in. I'm dying to show you, but I can't.

Rock on,
Pat

Releases, rereleases and that pesky secret project

After a week's delay, the UK rerelease of TrashHouse is actually in the shops today. It's got a funky red cover, all the same special features as the last release but is only £5.99 (or even less if you're lucky). Go and buy it, because it's great.

KK's release, on the other hand, has been confirmed as August 7th in the US. You can preview the artwork, (and pre-order if you live in the USA) over at;
http://www.yorkentertainment.com/cgi/searchvideos.cgi?Action=lookup&Key=YPD+1416

And the secret project is progressing at a fantastic rate. We've sorted a lot of casting, we're deep in pre-production and we're shooting in August. Pippa's fully producing this time, freeing me up to concentrate on writing and directing, which is a real relief. I only wish that I could say more, but it wouldn't be wise at this stage.

In other news, I've also been taken on to direct the video for Jim Bob's next single, Battling the Bottle. It's the former Carter USM frontman's first single from his new album A Humpty Dumpty Thing, out later this year.

All good stuff...

Secret Project

TrashHouse is getting rereleased on UK DVD on June 11th on the Shriek label. It's got nice new red packaging and you can pre-order it for the frankly obscenely cheap price of £3.99 including delivery from HMV. So what are you waiting for? Get your arse over to HMV..
http://www.hmv.co.uk/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=280;-1;-1;-1&sku=652691

York Entertainment tell me that KillerKiller is set for US DVD release in September, and I should get a firm date for that within the next week or so.

Hellbride is currently heading out to various critics and festivals; we'll keep you updated when it crops up somewhere near you.

BrainBath is set to be the biggest budget, most brain-mashingly dark, surreal and funny Jinx Media movie yet. We're putting together the funding as we speak, (potential investors feel free to get in touch at bbath@jinxmedia.co.uk ) so things might take a little bit longer as the various elements fall into place.

This therefore frees me up for...

The Secret Project.

Can't say a word yet. I just thought I best explain why I'm still so bloody busy all the time...

Hellbride Screening Aftermath

Been a hell of a couple of weeks, culminating in last Friday's double whammy of;

1) Hellbride having two evening screenings at the london BFI office, (cast and crew/invite only), which went fantastically well.
2) The conclusion of the KillerKiller delivery list saga, meaning that all of the masters are now winging their way over to York Entertainment in California and the movie is now officially 'out of our hands'

The screenings were great. My favourites of the cast/crew premieres of all three flicks, by quite a long chalk. The latter screening in particular was extremely lively and loud, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting cheerfully drunk and smoking a large cigar at the aftershow, (I quit the ciggies over two years ago, but allow myself the occasional celebratory cigar; this one came courtesy of Dutch Dore-Boise). We had a couple of guests from Gorezone and Horrortalk in attendance, (Rosie and Dan; hi guys if you're reading), and hopefully they didn't have to put up with too much drunken bollocks from us all.

The start of this week has been somewhat quieter, naturally; we've been sorting out some publicity and reviews whilst I've largely been working on the Brainbath screenplay, which I'm jazzed as hell about, (I keep reading sections of it out to Pip whilst she's trying to work on other stuff, which must drive her insane. I'm lucky I find my own jokes so funny).

Good times. And more to come.

First Hellbride Screening Tonight

Yup, it's that time. The cast and crew screening of Hellbride is happening tonight, which is something I've been really looking forward to... Less than half a dozen people have seen the movie thus far, and tonight around 80-odd folks will get to check it out. Hope they like it!

I've been so madly busy with the KillerKiller delivery list that I haven't had time to draw breath or blog lately, so apologies for that. Delivery lists, for those who don't know, are the fun lists of items that a producer has to deliver to a distribution company when their film gets signed. Certain things are pretty standard, but some stuff varies from contract to contract and there are usually some surprises. Much as we've had to run around like mad to get the list crossed off, I'm extremely glad that we didn't have to deliver an item that I saw on a delivery list for one of the companies that we didn't sign with; a digibeta of an 'airline version' with no sexual content, nudity, violence or bad language at all, yet the same running time. Trying to get that together for KillerKiller might have been sort of fun but I doubt if the result would have been watchable...

KillerKiller signs

We're proud to announce that KillerKiller has signed an all-media worldwide sales and distribution deal with the fine folks at York Entertainment ( http://www.yorkinternationalinc.com/ ). As soon as territories and release dates are confirmed we shall, of course, let you know.

Hellbride locks

Well, as much as any of my flicks lock until the day they get delivered to the distributors. It's done and dusted, and I hope folks agree that it's a cracking little flick.

Of course, only four people have actually seen it yet. I'll be booking the cast and crew screening over the next few days, and can't wait to see what other folks make of it. It's certainly a quirky one; probably the funniest of the three flicks, it somehow feels both a bit more mainstream than KK yet also somehow weirder. I guess we'll see how folks respond soon enough.

The main priority right now becomes sorting out the distribution for 'em, since movies ain't nothing without people actually getting to see them. Details once we've nailed 'em down, folks...

Avoiding Oscars

Sitting here trying to work out what sites are actually safe to visit during the day; I'm trying to avoid finding out the Oscar results, since time-delays and work requirements meant that Pip and I were unable to watch 'em live, (as if often the case), and I've got to muddle through to 7.30pm without finding out the results if we're going to enjoy watching the show through this evening. The oscar show is one of our rituals; a few years back, we used to take it extremely seriously, and watch every flick nommed in every category just so we could have an educated opinion. A few years' worth of worthless shit like A Beautiful Mind picking up every award under the sun kind of beat the fun out of doing that, though, (shit, there goes my chance of ever working with Ron Howard), but the tradition of watching the ceremony straight through with a bunch of good snack food and a bottle of bubbly still holds true. But where is safe today? Where can I actually visit, in the real world or the virtual one? I have BBC News set as my homepage, so everytime I open a browser I now have to avert my eyes. And i know some bugger will get me with a scrolling tickertape somewhere.

Gave the current cut of Hellbride over to Phil and Richard, our scoring guys, at the weekend. They've done some amazing work thus far, and I can't wait to see it all coming together. Pip sat down and watched the current cut yesterday, which is the first time she's seen it since first assembly. It's all very exciting. I should probably start looking into booking a venue for the cast and crew prem pretty soon.

Oh, and I'd also like to point you fine folks over towards http://www.cinescare.com/index.php?page=stories&family=discoveries where the Cinescare folks ran an interview with me, along with reviews of KK and TrashHouse.

Rock on,
Pat

James Kavaz

Went to a funeral yesterday.

Less than two weeks ago, our friend and colleague James Kavaz, who played Harris in KillerKiller and Lesley Meadows in Hellbride, died. He was only in his mid-forties, and had only been diagnosed with cancer about a week beforehand. What can you say about something like that? All the words become obvious and trite.

Having said that, here are my own trite ones for the record. James was a fucking superb actor and a great bloke to have a pint with. I cast him for Hellbride, then watched his audition tape again and offered him KK too without another audition, (despite the characters being vastly different). He had a way of nailing a character down; of bringing them kicking and screaming off the page and onto the screen.

I have no doubt that I would have kept casting James Kavaz in each of my movies from now until retirement, but things don't always work out the way they should. It's strange to be surrounded by his face on everything from the KK poster to the Hellbride footage that I'm still editing; all the while being painfully aware that we're never going to actually see him again.

Words fail.

Sleep well, mate.

And BrainBath joins the party...

Anyone who has visited http://www.jinxmedia.co.uk in the last six months or so might have noticed a mysterious banner for BrainBath which when clicked goes... Dum dum DUUUUUUMMM... Precisely nowhere. Thing is, it's always tricky with things in pre-production to know exactly when to announce them and make them official. One or two of the Jinx Media projects that I mentioned in interviews between the completion of TrashHouse and the commencement of production on KillerKiller and Hellbride have yet to solidify, but it's always difficult to keep your mouth shut when things are at that exciting time when the project is coming together.

So fuck it, I might as well beanspill now and repent at leisure.

The next Jinx Media flick to hit the lens will be BrainBath: a futuristic comedy/horror with far and away our most insane script yet. We're in the process of sorting out finance at the moment, (had a very positive meeting on that very subject yesterday), but it's all looking good for us to get together a significantly higher budget than our movies thus far. The script isn't finished yet, (Jesus, we work hard here, but there are limits... ), but a certain popular character from one of our other flicks makes a return appearance in the current draft. And there are an awful lot of brains in it. Beyond that, we're keeping quiet.

I know it's probably odd to be talking about this, seeing as most readers of this blog are still waiting patiently for KillerKiller and Hellbride. Rest assured, however, we'll have some distribution details on those two bad boys before long, and good things come to those who wait.

Still not sure if I'm going to make it out to Cannes this year, although it's looking altogether more possible than it has done most other years, (I won't be chained to an edit suite in that particular month, at least). Be good to finally meet up with a few international contacts and hopefully make a few new ones; we shall see.

In Love With Hellbride Again

Funny old business, creating stuff.

In order to get something from the starting point to the finish line, you've got to stick with it through the good times and the bad. This is something that I've seen an awful lot of folks fail at; they have a brilliant idea, they start to make it and then when things hit a difficult stretch, (and they will... Of course they will), they abandon it. They never say they're abandoning it, it's just that they've been so busy lately and there just hasn't been time and so on and so on.

Of course, if they were still in that first flush of love for the project they'd make time, but once that's gone you don't often get it back again. And sometimes the bad times can suck, and to stick at it takes real determination. Which is all a way of saying that Hellbride and I have recently found our way out of a really big rocky patch.

Looking back through this blog, I realise that I've sometimes been guilty of treating Hellbride as a bit of an also-ran to KillerKiller. Considering that the two movies were shot back-to-back, it was KillerKiller that got the expensive location. It was KillerKiller that got edited and premiered first, despite being shot second. And KK has probably been the one I've pushed hardest in terms of publicity.

HellBride has always been a bit more fiddly, a bit more awkward, needing a bit more love. KK edited together like a dream, but Hellbride has needed massaging to get it into fighting shape. We've had reshoots, additional scenes added, more special effects. We were due to be at final cut this very week, (sorry for those waiting for screeners), but we're only at mid-cut. Another month of extremely hard work, I reckon.

But here's the thing. I sat an watched the mid-cut through for the first time yesterday and I fucking love it. I haven't felt this 'up' about the flick since we were shooting, and on that run of insanely good luck that we had for the first half of the shoot. It's actually working, and somehow the movie seems more personal to me than KK. I'm not sure why, exactly; maybe because it's got a soft heart where KK's got a little dark lump of coal. It just feels more 'me' somehow.

God knows how that will translate commercially; I always figured that KK was a fearsomely commercial proposition, and didn't really realise how wordy it was until people started pointing it out in reviews. I always thought that Hellbride would be the less commercial of the two, but looking at them both now I'm really not sure.

Sod it, I love 'em both. And I still love that weird older sibling that is TrashHouse, too.

I enjoy doing this job more than anything else I've ever done. All I want to do is tell stories and get them out there, and have some folks love them and some folks hate them. Because it's the folks that hate them that make you appreciate the ones on your wavelength all the more.

Right now, I want to keep doing this until they put me in the ground.

Peace n love,
Pat

Christmas and New Year

Back at work today for the first time in a couple of weeks. Had a rather lovely Christmas off, and am revitalised and refreshed and looking forward to kicking arse in 2007.
The multitalented genius known as Cy Henty has been producing some artwork for Hellbride's new opening sequence, which I should get to see later this week. He's got a great eye for such stuff, and you can see some of his work over at http://www.cyhenty.co.uk/gallery.htm
Speaking of Hellbride, there was also a nice little bit of coverage about it in this month's SFX magazine, (the one with Dr Who on the front, we're on page 27), which was a nice little early Christmas present. While I push the edit towards fine cut, Phil Sheldon (who scored KillerKiller)is also hard at work on the score. It's all coming together very nicely indeed.
Merry Christmas/Happy New Year and all that. Now it's back to work...

Video diary

New Hellbride video diary clip at;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsMnM7mMngY

Second Assembly

After my somewhat vague entry last week about finding solutions for Hellbride's structural problems, I called a member of cast back at the end of last week for some dialogue looping, which has done the job fantastically. Sometimes simple solutions are all that's required; I must admit I'd been panicking that we might need another reshoot. Funny old business.

Still being trying to sort out certain leads on distribution for KK, but it's getting increasingly futile as everything winds down for Christmas, and come Wednesday I'm chucking in the towel for the rest of the year and taking a couple of weeks off.

Hellbride is looking pretty damn good in Second Assembly actually. I'm getting this cut over to our composer over the next couple of days, so that he can start putting together some score for it. Funny how music brings things to life so much. I can't imagine KK without the score and the soundscapes.

Solving problems

Still trying to suss out exactly how my brain works.

Either way, the Hellbride issues are now considered sorted. The solution came to me fully formed yesterday, and I've been babbling about it ever since.

We might even hit our deadline.

Woo, and hoo.

And another...

http://www.horrortalk.com/reviews/KK/KK.html

Been spending my time sorting out various enquiries from sales agents and distribution companies. Hit a bit of a bummer earlier in the week with the news that my 'ideal option' isn't dealing in horror any more. This is not only a pity from a KK angle, but also as a customer; they did some of the best horror releases out there. Won't name the company as they don't seem to have made the change of direction public yet.

Watched the current assembly of Hellbride straight through again this morning, and it needs... Goddammit, I'm not entirely sure what it needs. It's got a whole bunch of brilliant stuff but doesn't quite seem to be heading the way I want it to as a whole. I've been very eager for it to be done and dusted by January so that it stands a chance of getting premiered at a certain festival, but I think hand-on-heart that we're probably going to miss that date because I want to get the sucker perfect. I'm still scratching my head about it, to be honest...

Another good KK review

Can be found over here...

http://www.mjsimpson.co.uk/reviews/killerkiller.html

Good to know that folks are enjoying the flick!

New Forum

Just spent the last few hours tweaking around trying to get a new forum for Jinx Media. I've set one up and there's a link to it at the bottom of http://www.jinxmedia.co.uk

Go, sign up and start talking, otherwise it's just me talking to myself and what fun's that? Well, other than this blog, obviously, which is a whole ton of fun with a slice of lime. As a special incentive, there's a video clip linked to in the TrashHouse thread that was removed from the Behind-The-Scenes documentary due to a very high swear-count. So go and join up, watch the clip and then talk about it. Go on, otherwise I've wasted a whole fucking afternoon when I should have been editing Hellbride.

Screenings, screeners, screaming...

A good few folk have seen KillerKiller now. There's a review over on the IMDB at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0848551/ from a chap who was at the HorrorFest screening, and there will be more going up online over the next few days, I should imagine. A couple of other reviewers also now have screener DVDs, and I'm sure they'll be letting the world know their thoughts before too long.

Oh, we had a Fangoria News item go up last week, too. You can find that over at http://fangoria.com/news_article.php?id=3200 if you fancy checking it out.

'Crazy Man Michael' also posted a nice review of TrashHouse on the British Horror Films boards... You can find that at http://britishhorrorfilms.co.uk/board/index.php?act=ST&f=25&t=7438&s=2104f51d27390b30851fabfa47bea956

I've been having trouble staying focused over the last few days. Trying to juggle screenings, sending out screeners, keep KK's profile high whilst actually working on Hellbride to ensure that we make the delivery date. I wish there was more than one of me; I wish the company was bringing in enough money to have more than just me as an employee! Hey, maybe you can help. Go and buy copies of TrashHouse for everyone you know, seeing as it's under a fiver. Go on... I'll wait. Just click here...

http://tinyurl.com/y24mob

Oh, you're back already? How many did you buy? Really? That many? Maybe you should go back and buy one more for luck. Even if you fucking hate the film, the special features are really good. Honest.

Ok, now that you've helped me on my path to world domination, maybe I'll share a secret with you. I'm probably having the most difficulty focusing because I've got a project rattling around inside my head that's just desperate to be produced. I've been working on the treatment for BrainBath for a little while now, and it's something very very special. But it's going to take money. More than the last three flicks combined, to be honest. But, my God, it's going to be worth it.

I don't want to be in post-production. I want to be back in pre-production on a new one. But I guess that's always the way of things...