Happy New Year!

A treat from back in the day:


HAXAN NEWS #19

January 23, 1999

Hey:

We're at SUNDANCE! Holy Scamoly!

We came in on Thursday in the middle of a blizzard that we thought we were going to die in. Our executive producer Kevin Foxe's windshield wipers were busted so he had to keep sticking his arm out his driver's window to manually move the suckers back and forth. We were behind him in a huge, 15 passenger van that we rented. We were warm and we were laughing at him. It was crazy, wacky stuff!!!!

The articles in the Post, FILMMAKER and RES came out. Pretty good stuff. We had a photo shoot yesterday morning for the LA TIMES. It was freezing! That comes out on Monday. We're in INDIEWIRE today. The printed version at least.

We met with a bunch of distributors yesterday and we have two more meetings today. Tonight is the big night. Midnight. We're hoping it's packed. I'm nervous as hell. A lot of years of hard work and sacrifice on all our parts has come down to this. It doesn't seem real sometimes.

We're holding up pretty well. We're all wearing our Blair hats and a lot of people stare at us like we're morons because, after all, we're all wearing the same damn hat! It's cool, though. A lot of people have asked us about what the symbol in the front means and then we start talking about the movie and stuff.

All right, I'll try to update you all as often as I can. Hope things are going well for all of you and take care.


-Ed

- For more BLAIR WITCH nostalgia, I'll be on tonight at 8 PM EST on FEAR THE DEAD.

Hanging in Sitges, Spain, on the Mediterranean sea. Ain't life rough?


Got into Barcelona at around 11 am local time after a couple of grueling flights. Rob and I were done. After a few calls when no one was there to pick us up, we hooked up with David, our driver back to the hotel. Cool guy. I talked to him in half-Spanish, half-English, a bit unsteady talking to these Spaniards in my half-assed, out-of-practice Spanish. They talk so fast that I don't understand half the words they're saying.

To the hotel room, pretty nice place with a balcony and a view of the sea. Kind of small for two dudes, though. Rob's going to move into his own room tomorrow.

Met Mike, the co-head of the festival, Alicia and Salvador, our contacts while we're here. All great people with cool energy. You can tell it's going to be a fun festival.

Slept for a few hours, took showers (separately, couldn't talk Rob into it) and we felt a hell of a lot better. Went out exploring, ate some sushi next to the sea, saw a great HUNTER S. THOMPSON doc in a cool theater, then walked around some more, stopped and ate some dessert, then walked back to the hotel. A good distance but it didn't hurt to work off the dessert with a long walk through this beautiful town at night.

Weather has been great, too. Got lucky because the forecast called for rain all week long. David said that it always seems to rain here during this fest. It's supposed to be sunny tomorrow.

Dan comes in tomorrow so we'll hook up with him later in the day. He's going to be so tired after his trip. Rob and I are going to see a few more films including the Swedish film LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, which is being called the best horror film of the year (other than SEVENTH MOON, of course). And we're going to be doing some shopping for the family. Found some great toy stores in the downtown area.

1:40 am local time, 7:40 pm EST, heading off to bed soon. It's been fun sharing a room with Rob but having my the room to myself will be nice. Sharing a wired internet connection has been a pain in the ass.

Anyway, enjoying myself a lot more than I thought I was. Miss the family (Stef would love this place) but the place is cool and hanging with just Rob has been great. I know we'll be cursing each other after two more days but for now, it's good connecting like this. Talking a lot about the future of HAXAN and our plans for next year. I also pitched him my latest horror film idea and he dug it pretty good. His head's already spinning on how the hell to get it made.

Peace from Sitges.

-ed

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That's right, suckers! Spain!

On the plane headed for Frankfort, then off to Barcelona I go. Man, coach sucks, especially for me. The seat next to me is empty so that's all that's saving my tall ass right now. Eight hours of not much fun.

Can't complain much, though I do, Headed to SITGES for the European premiere of SEVENTH MOON. Rob was the only one of the guys that decided to join me. We're sharing a room so it's going to be a trip for sure. We'll see what keeps us up more, his snoring or my farts!

SITGES is a pretty big deal horror fest here in Europe, so we're in good hands. Happens that Dan Myrick's THE OBJECTIVE is playing, too, so it's going to be a good, old-fashioned reunion of sorts. We're supposed to do a BLAIR WITCH panel, too, AKA "what the hell has happened to you guys in ten years?" panel. Should be fun.

The film shows on Saturday afternoon and night and then we're done, heading back early on Sunday morning. I haven't been to Spain since I was ten years old and I lived there with my family for three years when I was very young, so it's a sort of homecoming for me, even though I don't remember much. Rob and I were talking about exploring a bit with our time off. The forecast is rain for the entire time we're there, so it'll be some wet sightseeing, but it'll be fun.

FANTASTIC FEST

Austin was damn good to us. Besides being a great town and meeting up with a whole bunch of friends from all over, the screening went well. Packed house, a lot of enthusiasm, Amy Smart, Tim Chiou and a roasted pig similar to our ceremonial pig from day one of the shoot in Hong Kong.

I saw Harry Knowles in the theater and went over to talk to him, thanking him for all the support he gave us on BLAIR WITCH. We talked some old BW stories and then I left him alone.

Then we had a bit of a Buddhist thing going on when Tim League, head of the festival, came out and blessed the pig in his own unique way, complete with a robe, some incense and a big can of LONE STAR beer, I believe. He chanted some stuff, waved the incense around, drank some beer and blessed our film. It was mighty nice of him.

Amy, Tim and introduced the film and then let it run. I got the hell out of there. I needed a beer or two of my own by that time.

Came back after the film was over and did a nice Q and A with Amy and Tim. We did some press earlier and got some good coverage, like this cool IFC piece. Had a cool get-together outside for people. I was nervous but happy the damn screening was over.

Next morning, Gregg Hale calls me for the first time since his new baby boy Deckard was born a week or so earlier. He had been in newborn seclusion up until then so I knew it had to be important. He reads me some lines from the Harry Knowles review from AINT-IT-COOL-NEWS. Seems Harry liked the film. Really liked it. Three or four great movie poster and DVD cover qoutes in there. Golden. The greatest gift Fantastic Fest could've given us.

So we left there with good momentum and we've been working it ever since. Just signed a foreign sales agent last week and getting closer and closer to a domestic distribution deal. Things are looking good, especially for the foreign side of things. A lot of enthusiasm from multiple sales people toward the film. We're hoping for big things.

That road begins this Saturday with our screening at SITGES. Wish us luck!

Over and out from over the Atlantic Ocean. Touch down in an hour and a half, then a two hour flight to Barcelona, then sleep, I guess? Don't know. Hopefully someone picks us up from the airport.

Word out from Europe.

-ed

YOUTUBE FLICKR

Got into Austin on Thursday afternoon and after checking into our rooms we headed out to the ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE CINEMA, the home of FANTASTIC FEST!

We hooked up with Rob's friend Chris and his friend David, who had graciously donated the sacrificial Volvo that we were about to smash. Also in attendance was Compton, BLAIR WITCH and ALTERED publicist Jeremy Walker, and Nick Pugliese, a friend of mine from Maryland that had luckily just moved out to Austin a month and a half ago and had been helping us putting up posters and stuff for a few weeks now.

So a bit of a crowd gathered in anticipation as the URL was painted to the sides of the car by a local production designer. Now the smashing could officially commence!

David took the first hits since it was his car, but soon, everyone was getting his or her licks on the poor Volvo. It was a nice stress release, let me tell you.

Once that was done and we had a few complaints from the neighbors for the noise, it was time to apply the blood. And apply more blood. Then it was done, a great re-creation of the car from the film.

David wrapped himself in a tarp to avoid the glass inside the car and carefully moved the car to the front of the ALAMO CINEMA, to the car's resting place for the weekend. A pretty damn good job and impressive bit of marketing for us.

The next day was pretty much a day off for us. Saw Tim at the hotel, who thrilled us with another story about an altercation he had gotten into the night before. Reminded us of his adventures in Hong Kong. The boy has a way of getting into trouble.

We went by the theater (car looked even better in the daytime) and met with our sales rep Matt Dentler. We talked strategy for a while but other than that, Matt, Nick and I just drove around town and visited a few strange places, saw some cool things. Then we saw the bats come out from under the Congress Avenue bridge at dusk, which was really cool, then went and ate at FREDDIE'S, which I highly recommend. This town is so cool.

But today is the DAY! The WORLD PREMIERE of SEVENTH MOON! We're having a pig roast ceremony like we did in China and then the screening is at 10 pm. Then a party afterwards. Should be fun.

I'm nervous as hell but trying to keep the good feelings flowing. We're all hoping for good things so keep your fingers crossed for us! Couldn't have done it without tons of support.

Check out all the FANTASTIC FEST pictures and I'll blog tomorrow morning if I'm not too hammered!

Peace out and much love to all!

-ed

The time has come to unleash this bad-boy on the world! No, not that bad-boy, silly! The new film!



SEVENTH MOON will be premiering at FANTASTIC FEST in Austin, Texas, on Saturday night, September 20, at 10 pm. Be there or be square. Here's the write-up.

We are pretty pumped to be a part of FANTASTIC FEST. Gregg and I met one of the guy who runs it, Tim League, a few years back when we were in Austin visiting with John Pierson. Tim is a cool guy, about the same age as us, so we ended up talking a lot about STAR WARS and geek stuff like that over dinner.

So we sent the film to Tim, he dug it, invited us and we thought FF was the perfect fit for us and the film. And there you have it.

Planning some events around the film and a party for sure. It's going to be a real hoot.

Karcher is working on a new website with a higher-res version of the trailer and lots of other goodies. That should be up in a few weeks.

Exciting stuff, my friends!

Peace from Urbana.

-ed

YOUTUBE FLICKR

From Matt Compton, one of the producers of SEVENTH MOON:

Gentlemen,

It is official. Seventh Moon is finished!!

The screening went very well. I did not notice any technical problems, except for the possibility of one or two more "hits" caused by the stabilization software. I will contact John and have him investigate.

Mike Elizadle, his wife, Brian Walsh, and one of the other Spectral guys came to see it. Mike couldn't say enough nice things about the film, and everyone else said they liked it, too.

Ann Lu and her husband Robert were also there, and they were very impressed. They thought all the changes we made since the version they saw made the film that much better.

Several people commented on how good it sounded, one guy specifically said how much he liked the music.

It actually didn't sound nearly as good as it did at Skywalker, so for them to say that with just a stereo mix, without any of the deep base (no subwolfer in this room -- we were in a DI suite), that's good news.

Christopher Pratt, a friend of mine and Ed, also came, and he texted me afterwards to say how impressed he was.

Congrats, boys!!

--Matt


Yep, we're done! At least with the actual film itself. Now to sell the sucker...

I had to go up to LA last week for some final color correction, which was a major pain in the ass, since I'd been away from home so much this month. But it was well worth the trouble. We fixed some stuff and made the film look even better and it was good seeing the colorist George again. He calls SEVENTH MOON the movie that doesn't end! This was the third or fourth round of correcting we've done with him.

And yes, it was good seeing Compton, too.

Working on some cool trailers and Karcher is hitting the website side of things pretty hard. We should have something new up by the end of August. Printing up some posters, too.

The trailer, poster and site are kicking it hard! John Rice is building us some nice content for the site, too, a little BTS and something else that he's found in all his research. Should be very interesting.

Reaction to this screening was tremendous. We really think we have something special here.

Now trying to figure out where we're going to premiere it. Going the festival route for now. Have some great possibilities.

So that's that, another film in the can. Let's see what develops with this one...


-ed

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