Burn Hollywood Burn

Since there's Hollywood scum in the news this week I thought I would write this-

In 2007/08 I had a few experiences from inside of the film industry-

In this short time I met the fakest, most incompetent, and douchiest people I have ever encountered as a group-

I had a meeting with a guy from The Weinstein company in New York in 2007- they were interested in having me direct a movie or something like that-

At the time I attended a lot of events as this "Youtube" filmmaker guy and so I  knew the people who worked at youtube "film"

The woman in charge of Youtube film used to work at The Weinstein Company and left it to work at Youtube film- her assistant at Youtube film had the last name "Weinstein" but I'm sure it was a coincidence and not nepotism ^_^

Anyway- this dude I was meeting from The Weinstein Company knew that I knew this woman- so in the meeting the first thing he says to me is-

"Is (the woman's name) still hot?"

He says this with this goofy ass smile on his face- he's this chubby manchild in a suit-

I just said "What?" and looked at him with a "What the fuck are you talking about?" look on my face-

I thought we were there to talk about films and this dude is just some horny bro dweeb that's acting like he's never touched a boob-

I wasn't really interested in what he had to offer as the movies he was talking about me directing was the normal Hollywood trash- He said it had to be a live action project-

I told him if he could get the rights to Ninja Scroll that I would like to do that in live action- he said he would look into it and get back to me-

Later that night he called me and told me that someone else had the rights to "Shinobi"-

I was like- this motherfucker doesn't even know the difference between Ninja Scroll and Shinobi?! Wtf?!

After that I wrote him off as just another incompetent douche and stopped returning his calls as I had a movie to make (Heart String Marionette)

This next little story is not about Hollywood but Canal+

I was in Rome for some film thing and some big shot Canal+ guy was there- at dinner I was sitting next to the guy- throughout the dinner he praised me as a "genius" - he kept touching my leg a lot too- he talked about how he wanted to produce my films through Canal+

My girlfriend at the time who I'm now married too was sitting on the other side of me- he clearly did not like her-

So he went on and on praising me and talking about producing my films- then when dinner was over he invited me- and just me, not my girlfriend to go to a BATHHOUSE with HIM-

I didn't go with him and strangely enough he never produced anything of mine or helped me with anything relating to my films... He really made it seem like his help relied on this trip to the bathhouse...

In the rest of my film industry adventures I was invited to another big shot guy's house in London who said he wanted to "help" me as well- I never went- he never "helped"

Also-

A Hollywood person wanted me to lie/cheat/fake the Sundance premiere of We Are The Strange by buying out the theater and filling it with "our people" as he told me that what "they all do"

Also the Hollywood people try to cloud your mind by whispering "You're going to be so famous" to you and your crew hoping then you'll sign shitty deals with them and get ripped off-

I also went to a few events in New York and in Austin wherein big shot producers like Michael Eisner were there sitting at tables as filmmakers/actors etc took turns "pitching" to them- it was more like grovelling for the men and selling yourself for the women-

I didn't grovel or try and sell myself to anyone- so today I'm not famous but I have my dignity- which is a million times more valuable- you can always make more money BUT no matter how much you have you can NEVER buy your soul back- so never sell it in the first place-

I was always suspicious of Hollywood- I was a huge Public Enemy fan when I was a kid and I'm sure this song influenced me a little ^_^ Thanks Chuck!

In the years leading up to me making We Are The Strange I was living in Santa Monica and I really liked this System of a Down song about Hollywood- I would walk down Santa Monica blvd which the song talks about and it made the song more powerful seeing what I saw-

Brought to you by professional weirdo M dot Strange.