Guido Lives!

Surviving the Alive Not Dead anniversary

Now I know how that guy in Fellini's '8-and-a-1/2' and Rob Marshall's 'Nine' feels. AnD parties are always great, and I try to attend if I'm in town. The most recent one (which was a while ago, by the time I got around to writing this!) left me feeling like a wanted man, and not for the right reasons.

If there's one thing I've learned over the last months that my B&E Productions has been in existence, its that just because you have the money and ability to make films doesn't make it any easier to cast them. There are people you want who you can never afford, and people you can always afford that you just don't want!  There have been times when you make an actor an offer and they don't even reply, or else they turn you down for reasons you don't understand, or in the end you have to pass on them because there manager is too difficult...

It makes me realise how lucky I was working with animated actors on the T-Films 3D animation Little Gobie: if they didn't behave, we could delete them!

Of course, virtually every female cast or passed on our films was at Racks for the Alive not Dead party, and I felt my life, or at least career, flash past me.

Fortunately, my new friends Karen and Kat were on hand to witness my Guido moment.

There was the lovely Celina Jade who had to bow out of  'Blood Bond' at the last minute. This had everything to do with her lawyer and nothing to do with her, but I hadn't heard anything from Celina since, so...

Happily, this was because she was working on recording her new CD (which is terrific) and she had had nothing but warm things to say about what she had read of 'Bond' (on And), and of Phoenix Chou, who played Deva. Celina is a real trouper, and we are planning to produce a  musical about the life of Buddha together. And we are still friends, see? :

Next up was Ankie Beilke, originally offered one of the two bad girl roles in our action sports comedy 'Beach Spike!', who declined, which was a shame.

We had then offered the same role to Rosemary Vandenbrouck... who declined. Of course, she also turned up at Racks, and explained why she couldn't play the part, and we're still friends, too, see?:

We finally found our 'Porsche' (that's the characters name) in the person of model-turned-actress Jessica C, who will be just fantastic in the role. And I also look forward to working with all the ladies above, and with at least some of the ones I didn't mention here...

The thing about the film industry is that, no matter how many years you work in it, it doesn't get any easier... (Or, thankfully, any less fun!)