Ramiro & Nancy - Welcome to Team OKC

We are in a moment of lull now, not good, not bad I guess....but it does get me very restless. (Everyone working with me can now say, 'amen to that'...yeah, I know.) We need to get more BlueRun small investments in, to keep fueling the engine...so that has me a bit pre-occupied. (Email me.) The irony is that we are simultaneously making some big steps forward on the film and BlueRun: major funding announced (see below), offers out to leading talent, deal with HorseTV that will be very useful in distribution, advanced discussions with some major producers who may come on board, soon to return in the press on a couple of things, and the MovieMaker column/blog is up and running (click here or on banner above-right.) Oh, and some exciting new activity on Russian Warmblood, our next film in the line-up. All good.

But with the Sundance Film Festival and the Inauguration (wow), LA has been very quiet lately, and that has me jumpy. We have to keep moving at all times....like a shark must keep swimming or it will drown (odd but true little fact).

Shifting gears: let me introduce you to two new teammates of ours...each very important to us in their own way: Ramiro Marini and Nancy Kotting.

Ramiro Marini (left and above), as you may recall from blogs below, was introduced to me in Argentina by one of our Co-Exec. Producers, Christina de Limur. Ramiro took me out to see some mid-goal polo at an estancia outside BA, and later to a semi-final of the Argentine Open (great seats), and in that time he got to know about Of Kings & Cowboys, and where we were in the process. He is an attorney/deal-maker who lives in San Francisco and Buenos Aires, and quickly saw that he and his firm could help. Since our return to the US, our conversations have continued, up to the announcement of his firm, Mandela Prod., committing to fund $5M of the production budget (see press release in blog entry below). With that Ramiro becomes our first full Executive Producer (see Who's Involved). He is a great guy, a bright and visionary attorney and businessman, and a hell of a good polo player. I am extremely grateful for his dedication to our film.

Nancy Kotting (right) has joined us in a role yet to be defined. As so many have, Nancy reached out to me through....hmmm....I don't remember....Nancy?.... somehow, and expressed an interest in OKC. We started talking, and frankly I put her on the ever-growing list of 'horse people' who have wonderfully offered to help in the film, but alas we can't accommodate, at least not now. But Nancy has risen above the rest with a dedication unlike any other toward the film, and a keen intelligence and vision for story, mixed with a soulfully-deep understanding of the characters and their relationships with horses. I hope she will not only continue to advise me, but also to work with our non-equestrian actors in getting to the core of the horse-person's persona. She has a horse farm in far northern Michigan. I look forward to meeting her as soon as convenient.  One more thing,  she once told me that her "goal as a woman was to always stay just beyond 'definition', in a Kate Hepburn kind of way."  Well, I get it.  Bravo.  And she does indeed.

So.... we press on. I hope you readers interested in filmmaking will take a look at the blog/column in MovieMaker (again, link icon is up to the right, or simply click here: http://www.moviemaker.com/blog/category/marlett_me And please post a comment there too.

Oh, finally, speaking of comments, we have over a thousand regular readers now,and yet very few have signed the guest book. Won't you please? (Click here).

AND while I'm shuttling you around, we have several new script reviews. (Click here)

This one I particularly liked:

At 3:30 this morning I sat bolt upright and read the OK&C script start to finish with a half-hour break in the middle to rest my eyes. Could not put it aside, coffee got cold…the swift current carried me happily all the way to the last page.  It was fast, exciting, elegant, complex….a stunning screenplay.  You and your cadre are apt to hit the jackpot, right on the button.  I’m not one to forge feigned flattery, so you know.  And, by the way...the sunrise caught me crying. -- LD (USA)

Ok, guess that's it! Ride on!