Sorry for the unexpected hiatus–I returned home to LA after sixteen weeks in New York this past weekend and found myself far more exhausted than I expected to be. The past four months of filmmaking have been essentially riding a wild bull–starting with our prep period in late May/early June,
Forgive the shameless self-promotion (to say nothing of the unattractive need to point out positive things about myself), but click here to read an excellent review of my last film, a documentary soon to be released on DVD called “Tis Autumn; The Search For Jackie Paris”. The film is rolling out theatrically
Welcome to City Island. Above is a view of this magical and strange place where I am currently living, working and blogging. We wrapped our first week of shooting Friday night at eleven PM. I took off for the city in the morning and somehow a day and a half
Today I met the liquor store owners. They were relaxing, in the shady (as in dark, not dodgy) store eating mangoes. They gave me gifts and advice; below is the ‘Official’ postcard for City Island from JGL Wines & Liquors. Go there, they are lovely and sell intoxicating substances. Bonus!
This past Wednesday, I became the luckiest filmmaker in New York when the fabulous Julianna Margulies leapt aboard the runaway train known as “City Island” and agreed to play Andy Garcia’s wife, Joyce Rizzo. How the hell can a movie be one week away from shooting and still not have such an
The great actor, writer, director, comedian, folk-singer and children’s book writer Alan Arkin is–I’m proud to say–a member of the “City Island” cast, playing a slightly worn out acting teacher named Michael Malakov. Though he appears in only a handful of scenes, Malakov is an important character as he is
One of my directing mentors, Edward Dmytryk (“Caine Mutiny”, “Murder My Sweet”) once told me that he always picked simple things to do on the first day of a movie since he it always took him a day to brush the cobwebs out of his eyes, get his footing and
At the end of last year I was doing a little public relations work in New York to promote my documentary “Tis Autumn: The Search For Jackie Paris”. Accompanying me on my round of interviews was a very nice young lady, an assistant who worked at the firm handling the
For the handful of faithful readers of my weblog, I hearby apologize for switching gears from old movie and music epheremra to my other–you might say primary–obsession; the making of my own films, a maddening and utterly addictive puruit which I’ve been doggedly…um, pursuing since I was a kid (GAF