Saturday, April 2, 2011

Dear Reader,


Another thing I've decided to do, after years of being asked to do so, is work out a speaking tour type thing.  I don't know what this will eventually amount to yet (possibly enormous embarrassment!) but I think it will probably start with be built around showing my film THE SANDLOT and talking for an hour or two after the screening.  I've heard of and seen countless numbers of "after game" screenings at little league fields, parks and community centers around the country.  And I've been asked a million times to come talk about the film.  And while I certainly have a whole helluva lot more to talk about than THE SANDLOT, I'm finally convinced it would be both a good thing to try and probably a ton of fun.  So I'll be adding a menu heading called something like "DME SPEAKING" -- or something like that -- at the top of the page with contact and booking info.  It might even evolve into something of a comparison type seminar between three of the baseball oriented movies I've made, THE SANDLOT, THE SANDLOT 2 and THE FINAL SEASON.  My personal goal here would be to "make it to the bigs," and get to do this at a MLB stadium after a game with the films showing on a mega screen in the outfield and everyone watching from the field itself in lawn chairs.  Now that would be freakin' great...

Oh, and in case your wondering what that photo I'm using as background for my main page is, I posted it above. It was taken by Stacey McGillis, my stills photographer girlfriend, on location on the last picture we did in Iowa, SMITTY.


Thanks for reading and check back soon.

DME

Friday, April 1, 2011

Dear reader...

I am in the middle of building out my site.  The learning curve on this is a bit steep, but I'm figuring it out pretty quick.  What you will eventually find here is a way to buy my books and screenplays, links to sites and places I like, admire or find interesting, important or hysterical.  I'll also have a small store contained here where you'll be able to get t-shirts and caps with snatches of dialogue from a movie I wrote/produced/directed/narrated: THE SANDLOT.  I can't tell you how many times I've been -- well, anywhere really -- walking along and heard someone quote Squints or Ham or Benny or Yeah-Yeah or Scotty Smalls.  So it seems like a cool idea -- the t-shirts I mean.  I've seen a few on the net and since they all suck, and since whoever-the-hell the people are that are making and selling them are walking all over my copyright, I have a mind to crush them.  Which is always great fun.

I'm getting the first book I intend to offer here ready for purchase/download in as many formats as I can (paperback, Kindle, Nook, iPad etc...) much like a young writer who has a Blog site I admire, Amanda Hocking.  She's got the whole thing seriously dialed in.

The first book is something I've had for a long time and never published.  It's the book upon which I based the first (and record-breaking) script I ever sold, which became the movie RADIO FLYER.

The title of the book is "Robert Radio Flyer, the King of Pacoima."  It was never illustrated, but I'm working out an edition of it that will be -- with some original concept drawings from the film (well, the version of it that I was directing before I was unceremoniously canned as director -- ugh), paintings and what I believe will add the sort of authenticity to the story I think will allow it to live in your eyes as well as your mind, old kodachrome photos from my own childhood.  And since much of the book (and the movie for that matter) is autobiographical (aren't all first novels?) it's my chance to make it exactly the way I want it.

Thanks for reading and check back soon.

DME