The main character in the film “Two Family House” (and our new musical “Buddy’s Tavern”) is a kind of mid-century, outerborough everyman named Buddy Visalo. Oddly, ever since I made the film, people have asked me if I “knew the real Buddy”–as if there was something about him and his
Onward, blog-ho. Here’s how we got here, re: this musical of ours, “Buddy’s Tavern”, now playing in Norwich, Connecticut. But first, click here for Wikipedia’s unexpectedly informative page about my film “Two Family House”, on which the musical is based. “Two Family House” began life as a screenplay which I wrote
Last night I attended the official opening night of a musical we made of my film “Two Family House”, which I wrote and directed and which was released in 2000. We call our musical “Buddy’s Tavern”–really I should have titled the film that but was stupidly talked out of it
We did it! We won the best award any festival has to offer–the Audience Award. At 8:30 PM last night, me and my producer Lauren Versel and my editor David Leonard mounted a small stage at a Union Square boite upon hearing that “City Island”–the movie that many of you
Below: Mickey Rourke and Andy Garcia chumming it up at our premiere night. This photo appeared in AM New York and will no doubt go down in history as one of the great “odd couple” pairings of all time. Andy told me that Mickey loved the film… NOTE TO PEOPLE
It’s official: “City Island” will have it’s US Premiere this April at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival. Click here for the New York Times “Carpetbagger” mention of our film’s inclusion in this increasingly prestigious film festival–a welcome addition to the New York film scene and a relief from the once omnipotent but
Here is the great Alan Arkin (represented both in the flesh and in portraiture prominently displayed behind him) in the role of acting teacher Michael Malakov, whose class Vince Rizzo (Andy Garcia) attends. In talking with Alan before filming his scenes, I suggested that Malakov might not be a complete
Lo. A previously forgotten, unposted but fully edited little scene between Ezra Miller and Carrie Baker Reynolds was just discovered among my copious download files. This scene didn’t make it past the first assembly–not due to quality but simply because we streamlined the timeline of the story and this connecting
As a convention, the credit sequence is as old as the hills. Movies used to open with a formal presentation of the credits of the major stars and major technical help (cameraman, costumes, sets, editor, music) responsible for the movie you were about to see. Over the years, though, styles
A large plot point in “City Island” (no spoiler, no worries) has to do with an acting class that Andy Garcia’s character is attending and their assignment for the week, which is to think of their worst personal secret and turn it into a monologue for the class to hear.