Middle Men has started filming in Phoenix, and the production company is looking for extras. My friend R. works next door and says that he’s going to be eating with the crew since his car is blocked in. Hey R., they should hire you as an extra!

The film’s cast includes Gabriel Macht, Luke Wilson, James Caan, Giovanni Ribisi, Rachael Taylor and Peter Stormare, according to Variety. George Gallo is the director.

Middle Men is about the start of the Internet porn industry. It chronicles the birth and early days of the online adult entertainment industry. Jack Harris was a legitimate businessman who saw the future of “sex on the net” and hoped to score. He partners with two friends and their simple business model becomes the beginning of an empire. Jack finds himself dealing with mobsters, feds and terrorists while trying to hold on to his family life.

Extras are asked to bring a headshot to Good Faith Casting’s offices at 2617 S. 46th St. this Saturday, October 25, 2008.

Last night we went to the Arizona State Fair and caught the Weezer show. It was awesome. The Tokyo Police Club was playing when we sat down. They sounded pretty good to me. Then, I thought I heard an announcement that Angels and Airwaves were up – and sure enough, they performed next. I love Blink 182, whose Tom DeLonge is now Angel’s lead singer. I was psyched to get a chance to see them in person. I was the only one in our lame section dancing and realized we would have to move our seats when Weezer played. Finally Weezer came on, and when they did, H and I rushed the floor and ended up dancing there for the rest of the show. Weezer was phenomenal. Their lead singer is a super freak who still has the creepy 70s moustache from their new Red album cover. The entire band wore red track suits with Weezer emblazoned on the back. To H’s delight, they threw a Pink Floyd song into their typical mix of hits as well as songs from Red. In their second encore, they brought 35 fans with individual instruments up to jam with them and played two of my favorites, “Island in the Sun” and “Beverly Hills” together. We were blown away by the show and highly recommend catching Weezer if you get the opportunity.

Well after seeing all the marketing for W. (magazine covers, reviews, and the satellite media tour on every station this a.m. at the gym) I couldn’t resist seeing the film on opening day today. Who gave the writer all of that access? And, how is it possible that W. didn’t try to stop this movie or sue Oliver Stone? When I was looking for the web site, I found a satire called W.The Movie which is pretty amusing.

As far as Burn After Reading although I always love anything with Brad Pitt, George Clooney or Francis McDormand, my immediate gut reaction was, I can do better. The ending was a bit of a let down. Since we were the only two people in the theater I think its run is about up.

We were thrilled to find a recycling container outside our door this morning. As I mentioned earlier, I met Mayor Phil Gordon a few weeks ago and mentioned that I wasn’t able to get the city to bring us a recycling container. Sure enough, his amazing assistant Kevin Wunder made it happen. Thank you! Now, we just need to figure out when to put the container out and how to keep people from stealing it since we are the first eco friendly neighbors on our street..

I’ve always admired the marketing genius of Kevin Smith (writer & director of Clerks, Dogma, and Chasing Amy films). He is a gifted filmmaker who also knows how to utilize grassroots marketing. In addition to the usual tactics:
Kevin’s MySpace page
Kevin’s Facebook page
Kevin’s Twitter,
he has been doing weekly podcasts for almost two years now in addition to overseeing a chat room on his own website, View Askew. He also owns a couple of DVD stores, Lazer Blazer in LA and one in Jersey where he’s originally from. He recently published a book: My Boring Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith, that was essentially his online blog. His latest gimic is to provide fans with a “widget” which can be easily added to their web sites or blogs, increasing the visibility for his next upcoming film: Zack and Miri make a Porno, slated for Oct. 31. The movie stars Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks. The plot is that basically two roommates are reduced to making porn to make the rent. Sounds like a timely comedy, huh?

This morning I attended a cool event in Ahwatukee where you could meet Phil Gordon, the Mayor of Phoenix, and get a general update on the city, and have an opportunity to ask questions. I had been wanting to meet Phil ever since he attended a fundraiser at my parents’ home this year for Congregation Eitz Chaim. It was an interesting discussion. I informed the mayor that I had recently called the city to request a recycling container in our neighborhood in the Garfield district. I was told that they weren’t conducting a recycling program in our area which I thought was odd. The mayor and his staff were baffled and promised to rectify the situation. I’m really curious to see if anything will happen without my follow up. We have been trying to take our recycling to my parents’ home, but our system breaks down often. We’ll see what develops! The Mayor is hosting a “state of downtown” event on October 16 at the new Sheraton Downtown Phoenix, which is opening any day now. Rumor has it that there might be an opportunity to ride on the new rail system which is due to officially start running at the end of December, 2008.

Pictured is my dad Neil with the mayor.

Sometimes I really don’t understand what all the drama is about when it comes to Michael Moore. Moore just released the full version of his new film, Slacker Uprising, online this week. It’s another excellent Moore documentary with a focus on Democrats – it covers the 60 days before the last election. The scary thing is that a lot of it is still relevant four years later.

He had some great guests – Michael Stipe and the rest of REM, Eddie Vector from Pearl Jam, Rosanne Barr, and even Joan Baez. Mike toured something like 62 cities in 60 days trying to get young voters to register to vote. He was successful, and gives some key stats on Kerry’s winning the younger generation’s votes, and says it was their parents who voted for Bush.

One reaction from Republicans in regards to Mike’s “Slacker Uprising” tour was that a San Diego businessman tried to bribe students $100,000.00 to cancel the speaking engagement at their school. They responded by changing the venue and about 8,000 more people attended the event.

I think it’s an interesting piece for any thoughtful discussion. Why anyone should hate someone for sharing their political views? I mean, really. As my wise friend Henry says, If you absolutely have to hate, hate HATE.

You can view this movie for free at Slacker Uprising. Michael Moore encourages everyone to view it, share it, discuss it, etc. Thanks, Mike, for taking a stand in what you believe in and sharing this piece with your fans and the rest of the world.

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.