Vol. 4, No. 16

Greetings, fellow travelers, and welcome to another posting of the Blog.  Well, it certainly has been a busy in terms of the amount of news flowing in.  Last week, we talked about the number of marriage equality reaching double digits for the first time.  Now, the momentum has really continued with votes in two more states.  It's hard to believe that this kind of momentum didn't exist a decade ago.  What a sign of the times.

 

Last week, I mentioned the fact that Delaware was on track to pass marriage equality.  On Tuesday, it did so, becoming state no. 11.  The governor didn't even wait an hour to sign it into law, doing so 30 minutes after the final vote.  Now, the action shifted to Minnesota, where its House took up a law to remove the current ban on same sex marriage and change it to create marriage equality.  The law passed, with the Senate to take it up on Monday, with its signing soon to follow if it does pass.

 

Now, to the business of Golden Shawn Productions, my film company.  It would seem that there is a slate of productions being arranged in my mind, projects coming along side the previously announced project "The Melting of the Iceberg".  The big question here is which one will go before the camera first.  To be exact, I have coming up with two additional projects for Golden Shawn.  I will give you a run down of those projects so I can get your feedback on them.

 

The first one is a nice comedy crime film titled "Christmas Crime".  It's a project I wish to star in.  It's the story of Arnold Reno, a store detective working at Wal-Mart at Christmastime.  In the film, Arnold comes across a body inside the store and all fingers point to the store Santa as the murderer.  However, Arnold is approached by the daughter of the suspect and she asks him to find the real murderer.  Arnold soon sees that there may be a killer running free and it's up to him to solve the case before it's too late.

 

The second one is something I've just come up with.  It's a old idea of mine but one I feel needs to be done.  We're all familiar with the old story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as told to us by Robert Louis Stevenson.  It's been told to us a hundred different ways but almost always with a male protagonist.  I've been wanting to do a female version.  In my latest thoughts on the idea, the story takes place in the mid-1960s.  It would nice to do it in the style of the romps of the era, with lots of music, jokes, and hip fashions.  I would also take time to look at the feminist movement of the era with the story.

 

These two ideas are nice and would make good movies.  "The Melting of the Iceberg" would also make a good movie.  Three potential projects and each other a nice thing to be filmed.  Hopefully, I can get the company off the ground first and see which one is the cheapest to be filmed as the economic resources of G.S.P. are a bit low, as in non-existent.   I hope to remedy that situation in the future.  I also hope to start collecting actors for these projects.  Who I hire will have an effect on which project will be filmed first.  Stay tuned to the Blog for further announcements.

 

Let's talk a little more on that female Jekyll-Hyde idea.  In my mind, the 1960s was a great time for music, fashion, and film.  The three managed to come together and give us films like "Beach Blanket Bingo" and "Catalina Caper".  This female Jekyll-Hyde story would be my contribution to that genre of film.  The feminist angle would be handled with subtlety as to not ruin the comedy and music.  It's a approach I like to see, only if to see if it would work.  "The Life of Oddley" stories I've posted here are also in that vein, a look into a great decade of our country.

 

Of course, Oddley and his friends live in the later portion of the decade.  By 1968, much of what we think of the sixties was long gone.  In its place was thoughts of war, the draft, and a million other things.  If I had continued with any version of Oddley's story, I might have made wax nostalgic for a time that was only three years earlier to him.  That just shows you the difference between 1968 and 1965.  The workings of the current version of my female Jekyll-Hyde story are to be worked out.  With any movie idea I have, I have ten million things I wanna do with it and I must pick and choose carefully, lest I get it wrong.

 

Speaking of the world of film, that world lost one of its best.  To anyone who has watched fantasy stories put to 35mm, Ray Harryhousen was as much of a hero as the actual heroes of those films.  I'll admit I've watched the original "Jason and the Argonauts" and the effects in that film are better than the CGI of modern times.  Harryhousen took fantasy creatures from the farthest reaches of the human mind and gave them reality.  A computer, with few exceptions, can't do that.  Their movement was as if the creature itself was moving of its accord.  Mr. Harryhousen, may you make the movies of Heaven even better.

I'm beginning to see myself as a filmmaker more and more.  A year ago, just being a writer was my stock in trade.  Now, making movie magic is my goal.  I see myself as a visual thinker and for the longest time, I was trying to put those images in words.  Now, I can just make the images in my head come to reality.  That amount of thinking lately has caused me to be lax in my Blog writing.  So, I will switch to posting every other week, so I can make the most of my new mode of thinking.  I know that this way, I can keep you in the know of Golden Shawn Productions.  So, I'll see you in two weeks from now.  Until then, always keep your mind in your head, it's safe there.

Yours truly, John Maxwell.
Your Fellow Traveler.