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June 28 2008
Hello, I'm Back... Martin Lawrence?
OK, let's face it, I'm not a natural blogger. Or maybe it's the fact that I've been busy writing a screenplay for HBO Films. But yesterday I checked the number of hits for this site and was stunned by how many people had come to the blog so guess what - I will try to do better.
Two bits of Special Thanks news: We had a really nice review and they were kind to print an interview with me in. RealTalkLA Check it out. Also at Bruce Gilbert's wedding (a beautiful beautiful day in La Jolla) we bumped into Michael Baser who had not heard of the film, but had known Roy. His first question was 'Did you interview Martin Lawrence -- Roy worked with him a lot.' The answer, No we didn't because we didn't even know that Roy had coached Martin Lawrence. Still after all this time we are still discovering people that Roy worked with. It's astonishing.
Another 'documentary' that Karen and I made is starting to make the rounds of the festival circuit. It's an adaptation of a one-woman-play by and starring Kaiulani Lee about Rachel Carson the 'mother' of the environmental movement. It's called A SENSE OF WONDER and rather than just film the stage play we opened it out to make it like a documentary about Rachel Carson, shot in 1962, shortly before her death. Look out for it. It looks beautiful because our dear friend Haskell Wexler shot it.
Anyhow, I better get back to the screenplay. It's about the amazing Dr. Temple Grandin and will be directed by Mick Jackson I'll let you know more as I get more info.
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October 19 2007
Available For Talks? Yep.
We've been getting a lot of sales to colleges and schools and one of the most common requests is whether I'm available to talk, or whether Karen or Julie or Tim, the producers, are available. The answer is Yes - for a fee - but it obviously it depends on when and where. We're all working on other projects but if time permits nothing gives us more pleasure than to attend screenings and take part in Q & A's.
Obviously it's not cheap to bring someone across country, so sometimes we find that a few institutions in an area will band together to organise two or three screenings over a weekend and split the cost of travel.
Hope this answers your questions.
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September 21 2007
HERE'S A LINK TO THE TREATMENT
Several people have emailed asking for a direct link to the interview Garry Shandling and I did with Elvis Mitchell - so here it is. Enjoy. Just click here and then scroll down to the show and you can either listen directly or dowload as a podcast. PERMANENT LINK / COMMENTS (0)
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September 6 2007
LISTEN TO NPR'S THE TREATMENT
Next week, Wednesday 12th September, 2007, at 2:30pm, you can listen to the NPR show, hosted by Elvis Mitchell, THE TREATMENT and hear Elvis interviewing me and Garry Shandling about Special Thanks To Roy London. It's a national show, so I don't know times and stations in other cities but there is a full list on their site here. Enjoy. And for those listeners outside the US, you can listen online or download after the show airs.
Hope I don't sound like a complete wally.
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August 23 2007
A FULL HOUSE AND A GREAT Q & A
August 22nd, Fine Arts, Wilshire Boulevard, L.A. People are lining up at 6:30 for a 7:30 screening so I already have a hunch this might be good. By 8:00 when we start there hardly an empty seat in the house. I introduced the film and then stayed long enough to check the projection. No worries, it looked great. Since I've seen the film several hundred times, I go for a stroll with Tim Healey and when Garry Shandling shows up we hang outside, them chatting happily while I seethe with nerves. But I needn't have worried, the screening went great and almost all the capacity crowd stayed for the Q & A which was wonderful. The only bad news was that Karen Montgomery couldn't attend, having recently snapped her knee-cap in two. She was missed. Onstage for the Q&A were myself, Garry Shandling, Dean Devlin, Tim Healey, Arye Gross, Elizabeth Berkley, Rhonda Aldrich and Julie Warner. You can see photos here and click the 'ROY LONDON' link, and read the Backstage review here. A couple of people who had known or studied with Roy emerged from the crowd, wiping away tears. A moving night.
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August 1 2007
SPECIAL SCREENING
'Special Thanks To Roy London' has been shown all over the US and Europe - but there has never ever been a screening in L.A. - we thought this was bizarre since Roy taught here, most of his students still live here and this is after all Hollywood. SO FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY 'Special Thanks...' will be screened at:
THE FINE ARTS THEATRE IN BEVERLY HILLS,
8556 Wilshire Boulevard, CA 90211
on WEDNESDAY AUGUST 22nd
at 7:30pm.
Attendance is free and on a first come basis so please RSVP to: RSVP@studioscreenings.com
I will be there along with Karen Montgomery, Julie Warner and Tim Healey - and we are hoping that several actors from the film will be attending too. It should be a great night, so please come along!
We will be selling DVDs after the screening and 20% of the sales income will be donated to amfAR for Aids Research.
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March 3 2007
LUNCH AT THE UNITED NATIONS
Flew to NYC to spend a day celebrating Wales: A Welsh breakfast at Ernst & Young; a Welsh lunch at the United Nations; and a Welsh dinner at the Yale Club. I got in the night before prepared for frigid East Coast weather, but curiously it was 43F when I left L.A. in the pre-dawn hours, and 43F when I arrived in the New York evening. There was still slush and old snow on the streets, but it was a pleasant temperature. Once again Ron & Kyle Bozman were kind enough to house gypsy Monger. However, next morning I awoke to a cloudburst and just getting downtown turned into a journey worthy of Noah. Breakfast at Ernst & Young was a discussion on corporate global challenges in community responsibility and sustainability in the Twenty First Century. The speakers -- all originally from Wales -- were Martin Coles, International CEO of Starbucks; Hannah Jones, VP for Corporate Responsibility at Nike; and Sylvie Ann Hewlett, President for the Center for Worklife Policy and Director of the Gender and Policy Program at the School of International Affairs at Columbia University. It was all introduced by the first Minister of Wales, Rhodri Morgan. Before it all started I got to chat with Rhodri and learned that he's a fan of The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill, since he knows my village well, having attended Welsh-speaking chapel across the river from me, in Gwaelod y Garth, at the foot of the actual hill that became a mountain. Then I had time for a quick race around MOMA - it seems a sin to visit NYC without dropping in - and then on to the United Nations for lunch with a whole Welsh contingent that included my old friend, the photographer / sculptor Mac Adams. Mac is a ray of light. He's always moving forward, he's always got a great new passion project. Today he presents me with a book MENS REA, a cult hit in Paris he tells me, in which several writers, incuding Richard Price, have each written a piece about an enigmatic Mac Adams photo. Wonderful. It's odd to be seeing Mac when I'm still involved with the Roy London documentary: The last documentary I really wanted to make was about Mac Adams' work some many years ago. I even shot some, ostensibly for the BBC, and when we recently wanted to see it we found that the BBC have 'lost' the footage. A great shame. I vividly remember filming Mac in the streets of New York and it was so cold that when I took off my gloves and touched the camera lens to change focus, my fingers froze to the metal. We had to take the camera off the tripod and go into a building and let the warmth gradually release me. At my table I find myself next to Huw Penallt Jones, a producer I met recently, early one morning at a bar in Santa Monica where the L.A. Welsh contingent had gathered to watch a rugby match. He was in good form, in spite of the fact that he was getting regular messages on his Blackberry telling him that some of his films were collapsing due to U.K. government tax changes. I don't think there's a country in the world that is more film unfriendly. Also at the lunch was Howard Stringer, a Welshman, and the first non-Japanese CEO of Sony. It seems the Welsh are quietly talking over the world. I'd never been to the U.N. before - and certainly not for a private lunch. The building is due for much-needed renovation. Right now it has the feel of a school, teetering towards the summer vacation when the painters can get in and give it the once over. What was nice was that it was Welsh Week and the place was festooned with the Welsh Dragon (the flag of Wales) and daffodils - on of our emblems. It was almost surreal. After lunch I took myself back to Ron & Kyle's apartment and relaxed before the New York St. David's Day Society dinner at the Yale Club. I completely misjudged the affair, and showing up in my suit, found I was the only guy not wearing a tux. Nobody seemed to care, and I found myself at a table with my first minister again, Rhodri Morgan, who pitched me a story of his ancestors' part in the Rebecca Riots. Good stuff. At midnight I was back at Ron & Kyle's and then snuck out at 4a.m. to get the plane back to L.A.
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February 1 2007
SHARON'S 'ROY LONDON AWARD'
Last night in New York at the amfAR fund-raiser, Sharon Stone was given the inaugural Roy London Award for all her work raising money for Aids research. To coincide with the award Sharon has been doing a lot of press, all of which has mentioned Roy, and the documentary. An interview with Ian Blair has hit the news, big time. It's a great feeling.
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January 23 2007
THANKS BRAD PITT
Brad Pitt was kind enough to mention Roy London today in a piece that appeared all over the Web. Many thanks to all the people who sent it to me. In a very funny piece about how the young Brad drove strippers to bachelor parties, Brad credits Roy for getting him on the right track. You can read it all here. Thank you Brad Pitt.
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January 15 2007
GOLDEN GLOBES
In the day went over to Paramount to visit Ian Hart (a friend from 'The Englishman...') on the set of my new favoirite show 'Dirt'. Ian is one of the wittiest, quickest verbal guys around. Hilarious.
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“A useful teaching
tool for any new actor or director, Special Thanks to Roy London also
serves as an entertaining behind the scenes look into the world of an
extraordinary man who deeply touched the lives of an enormous amount
of people.”
NEW YORK COOL
/ REVIEWS __________
USEFUL LINKS FOR ACTORS, WRITERS, ARTISTS, EVERYONE ...
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