Originally printed 11.30.06 in the Eureka, California newspaper The Times-Standard.
Durant: OK, I'm pretty much flying solo this week. The movie James and I are making, "Illegal Smile," is premiering Friday Dec. 15 and still needs a lot of postproduction work. So James has been down at Skywalker Ranch for the last week, working on some killer CG alien fighting scenes we dreamt up at the last minute.
But really, he has been plugging away on music and sound postproduction so long that paramedics had to come in with blow torches and cut his butt skin off his computer chair so he could go to the rest room.
The sales of Nodoz have gone through the roof in the Myrtle Avenue area and the children of coffee shop owners all over the city are going to have a really nice Christmas.
Man, after pre-production began in May '05 and shooting started in August of the same year, I thought this thing would never be done.
We've had about five different premieres set (12/05; 3/06; 6/06; 8/06; 9/06) but waiting is well worth it.
I've seen a few of the completed scenes and after watching countless rough cuts, I can't believe we made this.
If you plan on coming (Friday, Dec. 15, Eureka Theater, $5, tickets at The Works) let me warn you about a few things.
1) Language -- A sailor may be embarrassed watching our movie, just a heads up.
2) It's OK to laugh. There are scenes that in real life would not be funny, but this is the movies so go ahead and laugh.
3) Our budget was less than that of a wedding these days, and we kicked much butt with the resources we had.
Please come on out, we need to get James' youngest son out of the pawn shop with whatever money we raise at the premiere.
I did watch a butt-load of TV though:
Trailer Park Boys: Two petty felons have a documentary made about their life in a trailer park
Durant: First, I apologize to Mike. He sent us an e-mail months ago offering to let us borrow the first three seasons and I never got back and never took him up on his offer. But his son Dale was up from Oakland over the holiday and brought them over to me. I watched the first three seasons in a day and a half.
Say what you will about Canadians, this is a funny, funny, funny TV show. It's hard to find here. Soon it will be at our DVD sponsor, Figueiredo's in McKinleyville, they said they would put it on their order list and there's only one other store where you can "experience" renting it.
This show is set in a Nova Scotia trailer park, but it's very familiar to people I know and have come across here in Humboldt.
Each season begins with Ricky and Julian getting out of jail and ends with at least one of them going back in. At least that's the first three seasons.
You're not going to be hooked after one episode, but by the third or fourth you're a fan.
It's shot in the mockumentary format, with the characters speaking directly to the camera.
And the characters are priceless: Bubbles, the coke-bottle glass wearing level headed kitty lover who lives in a shed and steals and repairs shopping carts from one mall to sell them to another; Randy, the shirtless weekend trailer park supervisor; Cory and Trevor, the two numbnuts who get blamed for everything; and J-Roc, the white rapper/adult film producer who gets his productions shut down when his mother comes home.
If you come across it, watch it.
Rating: XXL