Last night we went to a local screening for The Lucky Ones. We liked the movie. It’s a story about 3 soldiers (Rachel McAdams, Tim Robbins and Michael Pena) who come home on leave and end up sharing a rental vehicle to drive to their various destinations across the country. It’s a lighter look at the ramifications of war – the effects on our soldiers who come home and try to assimilate back into society. After the movie there was a discussion about the challenges of marketing a “war” film. Our moderator, Chris, an ASU Film professor, mentioned that another war film, Stop Loss, was recently made for $100 million and only made about $32 million. He thinks there’s no market for “war” movies right now, per se. He’s right, this is a tough topic generally speaking, but this particular film is an enjoyable character piece with some great dialogue. I would market it first to military groups and their families to get some grassroots support and have those folks tell their friends to see it.

We had a very successful visit in Minnesota this past weekend. We had a retreat with four generations of a family of the author whose book we are interested in optioning, including his vivacious granddaughter, our dear friend, C.  Then, Monday, I visited with the publishers of the book while my awesome entourage happily passed the time at a nearby pub, The Ugly Mug. To top things off, C showed us a whole new world in the Northwest Airlines World Club while we waited for our respective flights.

Thanks for your interest in launch flix!  As some of you might know, when I returned from my sailing sabbatical, I decided to take a somewhat radical career turn as a writer and producer.   We have decided to keep the popular LAUNCH brand alive in its new incarnation as launch flix.

Yesterday I attended the Jewish National Fund National Convention in Phoenix, AZ.   Originally I was planning to do research and maybe add a paragraph or two to a story about Jewish philanthropies in general.   Now, I’m planning on doing something on the “new” JNF including the fascinating group of young leaders who are heading up JNF Future, and innovative JNF projects in Israel including the one of the world’s largest underground playground for kids, a river walk similar to the Tempe Town Lake and San Antonio projects, and innovative environmental programs including blue agave, of all things.