Every January 1st, I end up posting a sad little tweet, Facebook update or blog post on Joey Stefano's birthday claming, "hopefully this year will be the year we finally get your movie done."
This January 1st, a random stranger retweeted a link to my story I wrote two years ago. Then Willam Belli (the once and future "Karen Dior") retweeted and posted on his fan page the same link stating, "someone please do a Kickstarter for this or invest in this movie." There were hundreds of comments and retweets.
I spent last week in LA which led to a lot of great meetings and conversations. A possible new biopic, a possible new horror script, a possible old idea coming back into play, a possible casting gig, funding on anther script, movement on another script, a possible rewrite on another script, and then... lots of conversations about X-RATED.
I've always said I would never do another crowdsourcing project. I've been very blessed to have people fund many successful projects for me (and we're still trying to make INSTALLATION work this year as well), but now... maybe is the time. No, it IS the time.
The budget for X-RATED as of now is $625,000. It's a period film, so wardrobe and production values takes up a lot of money. It's a big cast. We want the right music and editing. We want good cameras and lighting. And time of course.
But our thinking is if we can raise $150,000 on Kickstarter, that will help draw eyes for other potential investors as well. And if worse comes worse, we'll shoot it for $150K. But with Kickstarter, unlike Indiegogo, if we don't get the money, we lose everything.
But I feel good about it.
Moreover, this really is the film that both the LGBT and addiction communities will rally behind. It will be A LOT of beg, borrow, steal. A lot of freebies. A lot of in-kind. But this is an "important" film. This has always been my baby. And the time has come.
(And if you know anyone with money... let me know!)
We're going to start plotting the campaign over the next month. We're going to be casting a few more roles and really setting good intentions. And obviously, looking for investors.
And with any luck, one year from today, we'll be at Sundance.
So send us happy thoughts. But I am stoked to finally say, 2015 is the year X-RATED will finally be made. Come hell. Come high water.
