AMERICAN CANNIBAL

Distribution - about to pull the trigger...

2006-09-14T17:50:00.000-04:00

I now believe Gil Holland's film mantra: "There is an Independent Film God."

We have had 3 offers on the table for theatrical distribution -- since freakin' July!
But as we've heard, and we are learning all the time, these things take forever.
A 2006 release, we realized recently,is going to be dang-near impossible.

Bad day when that truth hit home.
My moose was honked!
Really honked!

Until, that is, this stat came roiling into mix: There are more than 100 films being released between now and Christmas (that's more than one-a-day).

Insanely fierce competition at the box office.
Perhaps unprecedented, I don't know for sure.

But I will say this with certainty, the films being released during that stint will have their work cut out for them grabbing eyeballs from each other and pinching each other's asses-in-seats.

So - thank you Indie Film God! - it looks like we'll avoid that, and make 2007 the year for American Cannibal hits theaters.

As soon as we choose what deal (and ink it... and get a release date) we'll post it.

We're going to keep moving forward

2006-04-17T12:55:00.000-04:00

An extraordinarily odd end-of-the-week for us here at Acme.
Kevin Blatt filed a cease and desist against the film, trying to prevent it from being screened at Tribeca. Next thing I know, there are reporters and cameras outside Acme’s offices and Perry and I are scrambling, attempting to write a statement for the press. I haven’t been that uncomfortable since… since… Okay, I don’t think I’ve ever been that uncomfortable.

BELOW is the official statement that we read and disseminated to the press...

April 13, 2006

From: Acme Pictures

Re: American Cannibal: The Road to Reality premiere at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival (Producers: Perry Grebin, Michael Nigro, Denis Jensen)

The filmmakers are sad and disappointed that Kevin Blatt has chosen to threaten litigation to prevent our documentary from playing at the Tribeca Film Festival.

His fears that the film will damage his reputation in the adult industry are unfounded. Kevin Blatt is presented in the film exactly as he is -- as a porn king who likes to push the envelope of entertainment. He's an vital but not the only part of the documentary, which follows the path of his ill-fated reality show "The Ultimate, Ultimate Challenge."

While we followed him –with his permission– for several months, KB blabbed a lot about the celebrity sex tapes he constantly buys and sells. We could not help but record his comments about Paris Hilton, Colin Farrell, Cameron Diaz, this film is not about the sex tape industry: it is a documentary about reality TV and the lengths people will go to for entertainment. It tells none of his secrets: that is a job he can do himself.

All is a go for Tribeca

2006-03-28T14:37:00.000-05:00

We have picture locked.
It comes in at 91 mins
So much more of to explore, tho...
All materials now in the hands of Duart.
2006 Tribeca Film Guide

Oh... the trailer is up too...

CLICK FOR THE TRAILER

Change of The Documentary Title

2006-02-07T14:29:00.000-05:00

Ug. We may have to change the title of our movie...

What I will say... what I am loath to say

2006-01-24T20:08:00.000-05:00

One of the principal people in our documentary is looking to make life very difficult for us in the future.

That's all I will (can) say for now.

Tribeca it is

2006-01-20T13:05:00.000-05:00

American Cannibal: The Road to Reality , the film we have been working on will premiere at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival; We will not know date, time, logistics until later. Probably in February.

Film Festivals

2006-01-19T17:01:00.000-05:00

Three of the top-10 film festivals in the U.S. have requested our film, American Cannibal: The Road to Reality to premiere at their festival. South by Southwest, Tribecca and Florida all contacted us and, oddly, excellently, each programmer proffered the following caveat: if we want to be eligible for Best Documentary at thier festival it must be a premiere. This, obviously, is a problem, but a problem I don’t mind having. Perry says to me: "Think about what we've been through."
So I have. Below, is a rough catalogue of the combined personal issues – satellite anxieties, if you will – that had harassed the principals of Acme Pictures during its 2 year production of American Cannibal. The list is still open for addenda.
1 case of pneumonia.
1 arthroscopic knee surgery.
3 bouts of food poisoning.
1 lawsuit (dropped)
1 back, the lumbar region, completely thrown out.
3 break-ups (girlfriends).
1 attempt to go cold turkey from the evils of coffee.
After a viciously difficult 3-day stint, a welcome relapse and enthusiastic embracing of that wonderful beverage: coffee.
1 girlfriend entering into an alcohol rehab center for 28 days.
A revolving door of interns. To date, we’ve had 17.
1 superstitious week of wearing no underwear, all in the hopes that this would subconsciously – not to mention miraculously – sway potential financiers to invest in the movie. All it achieved, in truth, was the aforementioned case of pneumonia.
6 weddings (this is only a rough estimate; there may be others)
4 deaths in four separate families.
The turning down a one million dollar deal (because these guys were greedy and smarmy and were about nothing more than making money rather than making movies).
1 purchase of a Brooklyn house.
1 ridiculous beard, the visage of which projected the image that the owner of said beard either, one, just invented baseball or, two, was about to go out and sell root beer.
3 diagnoses of cancer
2 pregnancies
The firing of five people.
The re-hiring of two.
The quitting of one.
Someone defecating on the carpet in the Acme foyer and then stuffing their underwear down the toilet.
The realization that I, Michael Nigro, was in the best shape of my life and that I should begin training for another marathon… Then I woke up to discover that I’ve never been in worse shape and was craving pizza and gravy and lard.
3 straight days of being stalked by a woman's black thong (long, boring story)
3 fried computers.
3 new computers.
The meeting of Kevin Blatt, promoter of the Paris Hilton Sex Tape
1 morning with Olympic Gold Medal winner, Bruce Jenner.
1 late morning with Frank Stallone, Sly’s Brother
1 afternoon with Don Most.
1 cell phone dropped down a public toilet (me).
The death of two other cell phones.
3 flat tires (one in LA).
2 car accidents (both in NY)
7 parking tickets (all perry).
The demise of the band, Guided by Voices.
13 trips to LA (only one for pleasure).
11 short-term freelance jobs to supplement a brutal lack of income, one being a reality show called, America’s Most Extraordinary Dancer.
397 packages of succulent Ramen Noodles.
Real tears, five times.

My postings are over

2005-11-29T12:10:00.000-05:00

I will post again, but only with news of our premiere (or when we have distribution, or when something extraordinary happens). We're still editing and will be for quite sometime. Doug Gillard, former (and best!) guitarist for Guided by Voices will be coming to New York to score the film later this year. Hell, it might be early next year. I don't know. Quite frankly, I am tired. This film has killed me, taken a toll on my health, my family, my friendships, my lame bank account. The same goes for Perry. I looked at him today and my initial instinct was to hand him all the change in my pocket. And I would have, really, except all I had in pocket was lint and a coughdrop. To be blunt: I do not have anything else to say, anything I can think of now, that the film itself will not make evident. It is my hope that we'll have a polished enough cut of the film to submit to South by Southwest, Tribecca. and perhaps Florida. That would be nice...

Rough cut... very rough cut

2005-10-13T23:00:00.000-04:00

I have an animated tennis match being played in my head. Both players are beyond good. They are Wimbledon status. Can you hear the hollow pop of the fuzzy rubber ball? On the near court is, uh... oh, let’s call him Ron… Ron tells us with his furious backhand that Acme can pull this whole movie thing off; On the far court is Jackass-the-naysayer with a serve as fast as a thrown fist. He’s saying that Acme is insane to think such a large volume of work can be pulled off in such a short amount of time. The volleying has been quite constant for quite sometime and, crap, if these games aren’t evenly matched. With each game’s victory going to the server, so goes my frame of mind. How ridiculous to think that we could have gottenthe film ready for Sundance. Oh well, it will have to be another time, another movie. Anyway... Since we have a first rough-cut, game and set goes to Ron tonight. Way to go Ron! Hit the showers, buddy. Refrain, please, from snapping your towel at everyone’s ass this time around, would you? Thanks, Ron.

2005-09-27T15:36:00.000-04:00

Sundance has granted us a 2 week extension (thanks to Gill Holland) for us to submit the rough cut of the our film.
Not that this allows me to breathe easy, as they say, it simply allows me to breathe.
Quite simply, we need another 3 months (5 months!) -- so the chances of us even sending a cut to Sundance is quite slim...
Let me just say it'll be a minor miracle if that happens.
I'd rather save the submission fee and buy lunch for our interns (and me).
Plus, what use is it to bludgeon the footage?
So Sundance, even with the extra 2 weeks is out.
Sorry Bob... er, Rob, crap, I mean, Mr. Redford.
We also just hired another editor, Doug Abel, the very same person who edited The Fog of War, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster.
I believe that he first thought this whole project was insane, he's right, too.
But after we showed him the footage he heaved himself into the quagmire full force.

2005-09-17T23:36:00.000-04:00

Just walked out of Gil and Dave’s office on 53rd st. and right outside, next door at the fashion school all the chaos of a reality show production.
Can’t look at one of these cube trucks and not think of the Island shoot; how under equipped it was.
Then;
Learan Kahanov is standing there.
One of the camera ops from Boiling Points.
Great, great guy.
Still doing Reality – for the money – but really trying to do as little as possible.
He, like all D.P.’s, wants a feature to shoot.
So he asks me about this project and, well…
It’s rather difficult for me to discuss how this project is going, when someone asks.
Frankly, I really don’t know what to say?
The island was brutal.
In content.
In the hours put in.
And I don’t know if I should even talk about it, until we find out what’s actually happened.

2005-09-09T23:07:00.000-04:00

See this link.
http://www.elitestv.com/pub/2005/Sep/EEN4321bdc9bd345.html

2005-09-09T13:59:00.000-04:00

Exhausted.
Suki Hawley, our editor, gets the news about what happened on the island.
We don’t even have to tell her.
She knows.
And she begins to laugh at the preposterousness of it all.
Sundance? Ha!
Just a rough cut.... (which is still a tall order...
We have 200 hours of footage.
And we're short on resources --
short on man power --
women power --
power in general.
The story is heartbreakingly great, though...
Is it possible to get in to Sundancce on strength of the rough cut?
Like Murderball did?
Gil Holland says he will see if an extension is possible, given our circumstances -- sure, maybe...
But even a watchable rough-cut will be a tall order, at this point.
Ya know, why should the edit of this film be any different from the rest of this project;
all of it has been impossible.
My brother, Jon, is working around the clock duping and loaded the tapes.
The day of the incident is already delivered to Suki...
She is shocked.
Speachless
Nothing is easy.

2005-09-07T22:09:00.000-04:00

Interviews with as many cast and crew that we can find.
Neil, too.
He ends his interview by saying, “I’ll be glad to get you fuckers off my back.”
Airport.
Checking our bags.
The head of the Puerto Rican Production Company, Chuckie (or is it Jamie) is outside talking effusively with a cop.
For some reason this shoots darts of hot panic into me.
What the hell is Chuckie doing here?
All I could think of was that he wanted to confiscate our tapes.
I asked Perry and he's completely thinking the same.
And ya know, I say, this place is so screwy; he’s probably bringing the cop here to arrest us.
I send Ari through the security check with all the tapes.
I don’t know if he was coming for our tapes, but he was, oddly, there "to see us off."
Weird.
We later find out later that the reason he was talking to the cop is because the cop towed his car.
This is completely satisfying to me.
Finally something that seem appropriate.
And it gave us enough time to get the tapes safe beyond security.
How do I explain this Puerto Rican producer::::
To watch his brutal attempt at trying to be an American Hip-hopper is pure hilarity --
Baseball hat with a ridiculously flat bill, perched atop his bulby head, sitting somewhat askew.
So hard to take him serious.
Confrontational, to a degree.
But mostly sketchy, smarmy...
Yes, a great deal of smarm.
He asked if all of us were leaving.
And said Myles wanted to make sure we were all on the plane.
Myles?
I had no mercy.
We had to tell him that Myles was fired about two months ago (which only proves the point that he had no earthly idea what was going on with the show, his show.
He tried to save himself from that faux pax;
Oh, to watch a liar cover his track -- with cellophane.
Too, too surreal.
And we were giving him no slack.
Was too tired to even be cordial.
Or to even be a smart-ass to him as he walked us to the security scanners, standing by us the whole time like an unwanted bodyguard.
I asked if there was any word on Kristin.
Who? He said.
The contestant who was hurt. Jesus Christ.
Don't know, he said.
I looked beyond the scanning machines and, thank god, there’s Ari.
He holds up the pelican case filled with our 90-some hours of footage, smiling.
Chuckie sees him and his face pinches ever so slightly into anger,or perhaps it's just concern.
But why?
I don't get it.
I cannot shake the image of that girl's face on the beach, slowly bleaching whiter than the sand.
Later.
I’m sitting next to Perry on the plane.
We don’t talk for the first hour of our flight.
Finally, he says, “We have to re-edit the entire movie.”
I say, “For Sundance. I know.”
We don’t talk until we land.
Sundance deadline is in 23 days.
This will never happen.

2005-09-06T18:23:00.000-04:00

I am not sure what happened.
The contestant Kristin was injured on the beach.
Neil De Groot turned into a rather large asshole...
Not that he was freaking out druing the mishap;
He managed the situation -- Like Captain Kurtz.
Barking orders, pissed-off etc…
At one point, though, I saw him laughing with Ryan just beyond where Kristin was flattened out and being attended to by the medic.
This made me feel a bit better until, moments later I saw how much blood she had lost.
During the incident everyone remained calm -- except the Casting Wrangler who, I believe was blaming herself.
But it kind of played out like a strange bit of theatre, as if it wasn't really real and I was just a spectator.
Not that I just stood there; I tried to help, getting water, towels, seaching for the stretcher.
Once the bleeding was stopped and I walked back to base camp, and I met up with Perry, I noticed that he visably shaking.
He was in the control room when it happened and said he saw her fall but that was about it.
I may be too tired to explain this…
The production of the show was shut down.
Completely.
Gil was silent.
And though I didn't see it, I was told that Dave was pretty upset, crying.
Perry and I were escorted back to our hotel by this Puerto Rican Jack Lalaine, the security guard with leathery skin and a fucking gun.
Not that he threatened us in any way: he was actually a real nice man;
It’s just the fact that he had a gun and we’re being driven off the beach, through the thicket and back to the hotel.
However, since Neil never noticed (realized, remembered, I don't know) that Ari was part of the Doc crew, he was able to stay back and shoot the helicopter arrive and life-flight Kristin to Puerto Rico.
The hospital is a different story altogether.
WE ARE DENIED ANY AND ALL ACCESS TO THE HOSPITAL, THE STAFF AND KRISTIN.
It becomes very tense once the Puerto Rican producers arrive.
Perry's Spanish is a little better than piss poor but we both have the same feeling: they're wanting to confiscate the camera.

On The Island

2005-08-29T13:15:00.000-04:00

This dispatch was written by our cameraman Ari Haberberg

Sunrise at JFK. I met much of the rest of the crew at the Delta curbside hoping to help with the gear. Knowing none of the show crew as of this morning and reality being notoriously tough work, I figured to make friends early or at least attmept to. The general attitude was subdued, either due to the hour or some predated logistical trouble that I knew no part of but was so common in this sort of work. It occurred to me well after taking the job that going to Puerto Rico in September could delay that inevitable end of summer depression, I hoped. I watched the show crew label their gear (THIRTY THREE CASES!) numbering each with violently green tape and then, lightened, we all got our coffee and airport eggs and started the conversations that would develop into quick banter as the job wore on.

The flight was short and all the gear (both Doc and Show) made it to San Juan in a curbside pile. The climate was like the inside of a dogs mouth and we were drenched before the bus left to take us to the ferry which would then take us to ***** Island off the South of PR.

We rode the bus for an hour or two and chattered more about our lives and who we were. There were Chris and Lane, video engineers and cameramen. The exec producer was in the car as well, though I didn’t figure it out till late in the game. He sat in the back smoking a joint for the first bit of the trip and I figured him for an agency type except for the joint which really threw me at first but after a bit just seemed to figure in the Puerto Rico rhythm. He was very friendly and introduced himself as KB. There we the two creators of the show which kept to themselves for most of the ride, as well as Michael, the producer who hired me for this documentary and Ryan, the supervising producer of the reality show, the name of which was still a mystery at this point.

You can usually tell how organized a production is in the first fifteen minutes of the job and barring a major sea change, that level will stay consistent throughout the job. When we arrived at the ferry we were told that we could not drive our vehicle on board as originally led to believe but would have to carry all these cases on board ourselves.

The boat was leaving in ten minutes and had to act fast so there were the crew, exec producer, doc crew, bus driver, and one stranger who seemed to have show up for the gear hump only, as well as the writers and myself puffing and shoving our luggage and thirty three cases out of the bus and up the gangplank. Did I mention the heat? I think the ferry people charged some usurious per bag fee as well because there was some lighthearted swearing but we ended up on a sizable ferry, sitting on a mountain of gear and changing into shorts and t-shirts.

An hour later we end up doing a less hurried version of the same on ***** Island. We sat dockside for about a half an hour waiting for the vans to come. The production manager and a couple of PA's arrive in the one rusty van and we managed to Tetris the cases and luggage into the back and pile us into the front and head off to our home base.
Home base, fifteen minutes later, turned out to be ***** Which was, in fact, a sort of oversized tree house with a huge wrap around porch lined with production supplies, tents, cases of water, protein bars, c-stands, shovels, and like 30 cases of Red Bull which I assumed was a sponser.

There was some talk of shooting this or that meeting but most of the rest of the day was spent metting and catching up with the show crew that had already arrived and swimming. I found the writers/creaters of the reality show playing Marco Polo in the pool with the engineers and one drunk redneckie type from Florida who’s wife sat poolside smoking thin cigarettes and drinking Budweiser from a sixpack they brought. They (the writers) seemed fun and clever so I hung around for a while and then starting to feel like I was in the wrong place I went back to the house.

I bumped into a PA named Paco, he told me that Michael and Perry (my bosses) were tailing the production on a search for locations/permits/something, so I stowed my gear and built my camera for shooting. I met another shooter for the documentary named Erica who also knew nothing and decided to match our cameras to while the time but also to prepare for some inevitable moment of panic shooting. So we hung around the “Porch/Deck” feeling lost. shooting some establishing shots and cutaways and discussing the finer points. I was happy to do nothing at this point. The heat was debilitating and the universal feeling was a sort of apathetic disconcern. I got siesta culture right away.

2005-08-26T17:57:00.000-04:00

Purchased the tickets to... (legally I am unable to say anything more than) the Caribbean.
Sadly, after the the bill from our lawyer (all an enourmous sum resultant from those greedy Wall Street-Hollywood wannabe's who passed that ridiculous addendum to us, offering us a STUDIO DEAL, wanting all the rights, that we said fuck off to) we have no more money left in the Acme Account.
So...
Perry borrows 10k from family members.
My Dad becomes the second investor in the film.
Best not to think about it.

Gil Ripley called

2005-08-15T19:57:00.000-04:00

Call from Ripley...
Myles has been fired.
When asked why, he said "good question. I have no idea."
Said that he was fired a few days back but that is all the details that he has.
WIll put a call in to him, but I might as well put a call into President Bush as I'd wind up with the same result of it not being returned.

2005-08-10T23:32:00.000-04:00

From left to right.
Perry Grebin.
Gil Ripley.
Brad Pitt.

Photo by Dave Roberts

Not sure where we're off to, perhaps to the prod. co.
But more than likely to see their agent.
Asked Perry, he said to dinner.
Since when do we eat?
Right, he says.
I just kind of wanted to put this in because there was a collective sense of relief (for Acme, perhaps for Gil and Dave, too) that we're able to come and shoot the island.

We're off to the island

2005-08-09T17:56:00.000-04:00

A confidentiality form has been bouncing back and forth between Myles and Bianca for the past few days.
Also, a deal memo from William Morris arrived with a $1000.00 fee because George Gray “had to change his plans to work.”
How hilarious!
Change his plans to work?
What a joke?
But according to Bianca (and others), this is a standard, simple way of adding on the Agents fee without actually saying “this is the agents fee.”
Lame.

2005-08-02T20:03:00.000-04:00

Apparently, Neil De Groot, who was an adamant no at first has softened.
Perry even had a chat with Neil over the weekend.
The saving grace is this: since it’s a non-airing pilot and we’re unable to use the show’s actual footage there should not be a problem.
There are other stipulations, too, things like how close we can get to the contestants, who can and cannot be mic’d by us… all of which we capitulated to immediately.
Next was George Gray’s agent at William Morris who, and I have to be honest here, was genuinely looking out for his client.
In other words, he was really doing his job well.
Final words on the phone from him today: “We’re almost there. I think we’ll be able to work this out.”

2005-07-29T21:29:00.000-04:00

A call from Myles.
Says we have to pitch the director, Neil DeGroot, in the form of a letter, tell him exactly what we want to do, exactly how many people, exactly when we want our cameras rolling, etc…
Apparently Neil is on the set, simultaneously directing The Biggest Loser II & IIIand is near impossible to be reached by phone.
From the email correspondence between Neil and Myles, I’m happy to report that Myles has been pushing for us to have access.
Perry will craft the letter; he’s far better at structuring things like that.
I’m a fiction writer, with the ear for dialogue.
All I've been writing are these ridiculous entries in this stupid blog...
Thing is, I've been feeling so helpless with Myles and Kevin Blatt.
But an actual call, certainly, is a nice boost that we may get an opportunity.

The Acme Blog!

2005-07-27T17:03:00.000-04:00

I’m shocked, stultified.
And not because Myles called today (which he did) but that someone has actually been reading this blog!
Unfortunately, that someone was Myles’ girlfriend.
Myles wasn’t too happy (although not too mad either) about my previous day's Doogie Houser entry.
He says that permission to go on the island is in motion.

2005-07-26T22:14:00.000-04:00

Hear that sound?
Exactly.
Nothing.
Which I guess is better than the guff of a Myles flushing away the documentary by not allowing us to come to the island.
Left another message.
Even had Sam (Gil and Dave's Manager) put in a call for us.

Answers...no...

2005-07-23T16:49:00.000-04:00

Production manager Myles Yattesse will no give us an answer if we're allowed to come to the iosland to shoot.
This is depressing...