Blogging “City Island”: Filmmaker, hype thyself
In the summer of 2008 I finally got to shoot my screenplay "City Island," a movie that I'd been trying to make literally since the turn of the century. I was fortunate to have finally assembled an...
View ArticleBlogging “City Island”: De Niro? Willis? Or Michael Chiklis?
"City Island" was written in a kind of fevered rush in the infamous month of September 2001. I was seized with the idea and, unlike any of my other scripts, proceeded without an outline, watching the...
View ArticleBlogging “City Island”: Exit Chiklis, producers. Am I doomed?
By far the worst state your as-yet-unmade/unfinanced movie project can fall into is one of inertia. This is generally the death knell for most would-be projects, the state of mind that causes everyone...
View ArticleBlogging “City Island”: Andy Garcia, the man, the legend, the casting lure
One afternoon in the winter of 2007 I drove out to the San Fernando Valley, to a modest house where I was scheduled to meet Andy Garcia. The house, which had been an early home of his family's but was...
View ArticleBlogging “City Island”: The (leading) lady vanishes
Now, if you were looking to finance a movie what would you think of the following package?Star actor (Andy Garcia).Well known and super-respected actress (Marcia Gay Harden).Super hip indie queen...
View ArticleBlogging “City Island”: After Sundance said no
Those of you who have been following the saga of "City Island" for the past few weeks may have noticed that I've been taking you -- painstakingly -- through the improbable set of events that led to the...
View ArticleBlogging “City Island”: We survived opening weekend!
When last we met, my movie "City Island" had just opened the previous weekend and, presumably, you followed its fate (which has so far been as good as it can get). But I have to hand these columns in...
View ArticleBlogging “City Island”: Why I did it
From the beginning of its production, "City Island" was positioned by me as a movie based in the era of information democracy. It's a movie about ordinary (sort of) everyday people and their trials and...
View ArticleBlogging “City Island”: My fat-chick manifesto
OK, so what's up with my thing for fat chicks?I'm sorry. Did I really say that? What I meant to say was: How did I get interested in exploring the cultural divide that exists between the unhappy...
View ArticleBlogging “City Island”: My movie’s a hit! Why am I up all night?
So what's left to blog about?We sit at the beginning of our fifth weekend. "City Island" is continuing a slow and effective rollout around the country. Our per-screen averages are extremely encouraging...
View ArticleBlogging “City Island”: Anatomy of an indie breakout
Another picture of mine opened at Radio City Music Hall. It opened quietly with no great beating of drums of baiting of breath ... so quietly did the picture open, it failed to merit the usual...
View ArticleBlogging “City Island”: Until we meet again!
This is my last Salon column. How the hell much more horn-tooting can I really do and still retain the faintest amount of self-respect? I'd like to thank Salon for generously offering me this space and...
View ArticleAfter “City Island,” time for Hollywood meetings
Yes, I'm back. Like a hammy vaudevillian who takes one too many encores thereby dissolving whatever goodwill the audience may have had for him, I'm still onstage. I have my reasons. Chief among them is...
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