Our reasoning at BlueRun Productions ( www.BlueRunProductions.com ) for the focus shift of late has been the need to get RIDING HOME, or perhaps RUSSIAN WARMBLOOD, into production first.  Both are significantly less expensive films than OF KINGS & COWBOYS.   But the nature of the film biz is a bit counterintuitive.  Smaller doesn't mean they are easier, necessarily.  Now, mind you, we are moving rapidly toward production on RIDING HOME.  But it is time to re-energize OF KINGS & COWBOYS for a late 2010 start date.

A lot has happened over the last few months, and I will share that with our investors and friends.  It is mostly all good.... two steps forward for each one back.... and that is significant considering the economic situation.

WE NEED YOU.  As we move forward with this great polo film, we need YOU to get involved.  Yes, that means financially.  We are a professional production company with significant ties throughout the industry, and growing.  I welcome you to join the many other shareholders from around the world, and participate in ALL of BlueRun's many films and TV programs, not just OF KINGS & COWBOYS.

Also available is an opportunity to join the Executive Producer ranks of OF KINGS & COWBOYS itself, for larger financial committments.  For example a major Argentinean group has pledged $5,000,000 of the $20,000,000 budget already.

For more information, just drop me a note at dmbluerun@gmail.com  I'll get you all the info you want.

Also, if you haven't already, watch our four minute promo for OF KINGS & COWBOYS at www.BlueRunProductions.com/OKC_Promo.htm

Let's go!  Ride on.

The average movie takes 4.5 years from 'script to screen'.  Four and a half years!  That's average.  So when you consider that studio flicks get on a faster track than most (usually), the average independent film is pushed out into the 5 to 6 year range.  We've been working hard on OF KINGS & COWBOYS for a little over a year now.  And started in the worst economic crisis in a generation.  So, all in all, we're doing pretty damn good!  In fact, if we don't shoot the movie for another two years, we will be performing at an average rate for an indie film.  But I think we'll get it underway much sooner than that.

So don't even think of  betting against us in this race.  This film will get made.  Sooner or later.  If it needs to be later, then so be it.   I will go make one or two much less expensive films like RIDING HOME or RUSSIAN WARMBLOOD.  Then capitalize on them to come back to my baby: OF KINGS & COWBOYS.

That said, we may....and I mean MAY....have made a huge step forward in the financing of the film this week.  A group is looking to facilitate the financing, and we've been talking a bunch.  Who knows.  Maybe.  Just maybe.

In prep for these 'possibles', I got our budget reworked/edited.  The one we had was done a year ago, by someone from the TV side of things (mainly).  It wasn't right for our purposes.  So,  many hours later, I have a new one in hand.  The  first one called for a budget of $35M.  This one has it down to right around $24M.  Primary changes?  Greatly reduced my salary, streamlined shooting weeks, went digital (not film), and cut  elsewhere where possible.  This will be an enormous film for such a small budget, but I am extremely confident we will have the best people on board, while keeping our spending at bare rates....without sacrificing the film or the story at all.  Ride on.

Please use this URL to send it around: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBGaPv1gnpk

To see it in a larger format, go to: www.BlueRunProductions.com/OKC_Promo.htm

By the way, one of our locations (Pat Nesbit's polo estate in Santa Barbara) was also recently used in the Britney Spears music video for her song Radar.  Click here to see it on YouTube.

Ride on!

When I was young, my wonderful grandfather (Chester Kennady) in Kentucky used to love to take his grandkids for a drive in his old beat-up red farm truck, driving quickly over those rolling Kentucky hills.  We would laugh at the sudden tickle in our stomach as we crested the top and started down the other side. 

My love of horse country and roller coasters was born.  Thank goodness, as film finance (even for horse themed films) is veritably the most extreme roller-coaster I've ever ridden.  Fun at times, terrifying at others, and in the end you are quite happy for the flat ride into the station.

And thus I have felt obliged to not carry you dear readers along for the ride.  In short, we are working on financing BlueRun Productions, and of course it's a difficult 'season' for doing so.  A good bit of effort is now being expended toward the publicly trading markets for capital -- a 'brier patch' I am comfortable navigating.

So, we press on.  We could sure use your help (direct financial involvement, or via introductions to financial involvement), but you already know that if you've been reading this for long.  We have several exciting equine-themed films in the line-up, with our flagship being Of Kings & Cowboys.  Keep checking back, and if you are curious about how you can participate financially, just send me an email to dmbluerun@gmail.com

Meanwhile, ride on...up and down and up....

Paige Beard TJ Barrack

Here's his website: www.cinematic-soundscapes.com/ (turn your speakers up!)

Ride on!

OKC CASTING   

FINANCING  What can I say?  It continues.  Focused currently on the casting angle, and on bringing down the Of Kings & Cowboys production budget.  Of course we're simultaneously seeking financing for the prod co, BlueRun....see other entries below.

OTHER PROJECTS  A lot happening.  We're certainly not letting the grass grow under our feet while we're in this "time of long patience" with Of Kings & Cowboys. 

• I'm busy writing Russian Warmblood and pushing for budget breaks in the Baltic countries.
• We're putting together a team to lead the Camp Lexington project...a huge endeavor for TV/Web....great potential;
• I'm also writing a extremely low-cost film, Riding Home, that I'd like to shoot in the fall;
• We're in conversations with some Stanford alums regarding our ensemble film in development, Fast Women Beautiful Horses (story of first motion picture, takes place in Palo Alto, 1876);
• We're talking to several equine-related 501(c)3 organizations to partner with, to pledge a percentage of our project's earnings; and
• We're moving forward on a patent application for the HD SteadiMount, a new gimbal/gyro mount system for the next generation of cinema-quality digital cameras coming out later this year.  Whew!

BACK IN LA  I'll be back there again on the 31st for a week or so. Tons of meetings.  But if you're in the area, drop me a note, buy me a drink and say hi.

Ride on.

This reflects the power and grace and beauty of our film Russian Warmblood, which is also set near the first World War.  Click here to read the Russian Warmblood treatment.

On a peculiar and oddly related side note, I forgot to ever mention the over-sized animatronic horse carrying the headless horseman (left) that I built a few years ago for Halloween.   (This picture is from the local news coverage.)

He is complete with red glowing eyes and nostrils that spewed steam and a head that pivoted toward the little kids...inducing them to pee their princess and batman costume.  I built the horse all from wood, so it was very heavy... and covered in wire mesh, burlap and felt.  The horseman is PVC, dressed, on a motorized pivot in the horse's belly.  And he was wielding one of my authentic antique swords...I didn't leave it in his hand much!  It was quite the project.  Not nearly as cool as the puppets for War Horse above, but...thought I'd share.

At Christmas he was still in the front yard, so I made him some 'nice' eyes, and then I built a full sleigh for him to 'pull'....thank goodness the song has the line, 'in a one horse open sleigh'...I  sure didn't want to build another one.

After a couple of years, I donated him, and the horseman and the sleigh to a private housing development for their Halloween and Christmas events.  I hope he's doing well.  Ride on!

In the coming weeks I expect us to begin attaching some major talent, and secure the next $8M pledge toward production financing (negotiations underway).  At that time I'm thinking we'll go pretty much 'radio silent', as we move into many months of pre-production.   (Meanwhile, I'll also be gearing up Russian Warmblood, which has its own twists and turns...but not right to blog about here.)

Another reason for the change is that there is less to discuss during this period, and no one wants to hear me go on about financing.  No doubt you've noticed that for the most part (the below entry being the last exception), our financing, etc. has moved to the BlueRun Productions site: www.BlueRunProductions.com  And open discussions of casting are, well, not going to happen...a lot of casting work is currently underway, but it is not done in public.

And meanwhile my blogging of the process of putting a big film on its feet has moved to my column/blog for MovieMaker Magazine: www.moviemaker.com/blog/category/marlett_me

Starting to see my point?

And there are more reasons.  A big purpose of this site was to bring awareness of the film to the polo community.  Trust me, the polo community is now well aware, and is supportive.  In addition, this site was to provide 'behind the scenes' info as we prepared for and filmed the promo/pre-trailer, and the editing and presentation of it.  Well, that has been done now, and once the leading actors are attached, the promo will be pulled from viewing.

So, where does that leave us?  Most likely we'll build a new website for www.OfKingsandCowboys.com, with general info, including who's involved, press, etc. and that's about it.  But honestly, I'm not sure.  I do know the times are a-changin', which is a good thing!  For now, keep checking in here, and we'll all see what's ahead down the road.

Ride on.

In any industry, any investment, the ultimate prize is the 'sure deal'.  In a twist of irony, we all know the 'sure deal' is an illusion, and indeed the more something is touted as a 'sure deal' the more we avoid it (or should).  Well, I guess there are the Madoff victims who just choose to look the other way when presented with a sure deal...but... you get my point.  Nevertheless, we want to find those deals which are nearly 'certain', nearly 'sure'.  As close as possible.

We at BlueRun are working in about as sure of a deal as possible (though not perfect of course).  As everyone knows, the film business is inherently risky.  Or at least that is what we are told to believe, since time eternal.  But one need only take a cursory look at the past twelve month performances of the once-stalwart industries (like banking, manufacturing, etc.) and all the old 'truths' go on their head.  The truth is that when approached professionally, calmly, and without an ounce of wanderlust, the film business (actually the entertainment business which is really the media business), is actually a great performer for investors.

And yet drilling deeper, we can even do better.  Within this well-performing media biz, the odds can be greatly improved by looking for historical performance anomalies.  And one genre, perhaps the only genre, that has consistently performed very well is big horse-themed films.  Take a look at this chart.

Here we have the major horse films of the past thirty years.  As you can see, every single one of them made a gain over their production budget, and all but Hidalgo made gains over their P&A (prints and advertising) too.  That is huge.  To my knowledge, that is unmatched in any other genre of the media business, including films, TV and other sources.

So, simple question:  As our first three films are all horse themed with great production values, what do you think the odds are of us making a great return for our investors?

We start with Of Kings & Cowboys (the subject of this blog), and Russian Warmblood (see link in upper right column), and will then follow up with Fast Women Beautiful Horses (also see link in right column.)  And we have ideas for other horse-themed films past these three.  Of note:  it is now looking like we will be shooting Russian Warmblood before Of Kings & Cowboys.

But in any case, they are all three strong horse-themed films.  And in addition, we are developing a young adult horse drama series for Animal Planet and possibly HorseTV. (More info later.)  All well within this evergreen horse-theme zone.

As someone else put it, it's as if every restaurant we open goes to five stars, or our team batting average is 900.  There is something really special going on here, and I hope you'll consider joining in.  Especially if you love horses, and want to work around/near them.  Just contact me.  I'll get you the investment docs and we'll talk.  Really a cool opportunity that I am thrilled to be part of.

Ride on!

My son, Jack, soon to turn five, is a walking vacuum of all bits of interesting paper, pieces of bark, rocks, acorns, marbles, shards of metal and of course wickedly sharp glass.  (Aren't we all in some metaphorical way?)  And as you can see from this picture, I do my part to pay for Lucas's Skywalker Ranch.

Anyway,  this past Wednesday, I picked Jack up from his preschool, and as we walked down the hall toward the front door, I saw he was in his own thoughts, neatly folding and unfolding a worn piece of paper.  "What ya got there?" I asked.  "Money!" he replied happily.  "I found it on the playground!"  I stopped. "Really?"

I could then see that it did appear to be the size of currency, and at first thought it was something foreign.  But the denomination was $25.  Then he flipped it over and I saw a sultry blonde with a come-hither look staring back at me.  "Hey, let me see that!"  After exacting a promise that I would indeed return it, he proudly handed me his prize.  What my son had found was a lap dance certificate for a strip club about twenty miles into the city.  (See pic of it below.)  Jack was beaming.  "It's pirate money and she's who Eli and I have to capture, and give that to her for rescuing her!"  At that a frown appeared on the poor boy's face, seeing his father laughing himself to tears.  "Yeah, that's about the way it goes, son!  Good luck!"

The woman who owns the preschool was near the door.  Thank God she's cool.  I proudly showed it to her, saying, "I sure wish my parents had taken me to a preschool like this!"

Yeah, I promised to return it to Jack.  And I will.  When he's twenty.  We'll laugh about it together then.

Ride on.

As I told Frank Cerabino, a reporter for the Palm Beach Post, today, the film deals with the dangers of the sport... dangers to players and horses...but certainly this unprecedented event is not of that sort.

You can see the Palm Beach Post article by clicking on Press Coverage in the upper left column, or click on the following link:

Filmmaker Plans Polo Drama, Sees One Unfold

I am a bit conflicted on how to keep up the drum beat for this film this week, while the polo world mourns these tragic losses.  But there is something to say about the fact that polo needs a good positive message, and the first polo film (whether Of Kings & Cowboys or some other) will go a long way for the sport.  If you feel similarly, and want to help, just email me (dmbluerun@gmail.com)

And so, as anxious as anyone else for the results of the investigation, we ride on.

At present the number of dead is at least 21, though a few in the polo community close to the event have told me the number may continue to climb.  Regardless...so tragic.

If you aren't familiar with what I am talking about, here is one of the latest CNN stories on it:

More than 20 polo horses dead as mystery deepens in Florida

Down horses shielded from view as vets and others scramble to save their lives.

And NO, for everyone still emailing me, this had nothing to do with our polo movie in early pre-production: Of Kings & Cowboys. We won't be filming till next Spring. This happened Sunday at a semi-final game of the US Open, in Wellington (Palm Beach), Florida, one of the most prestigious polo tournaments in the world....which, ok, yes, will be featured in the movie.  One note:  the film does address the tragic, albeit rare, death of men and horses in polo.

It is critical that the USPA and others get out ahead on this story, being sure it is clearly communicated that this tragedy is unprecedented, and should not reflect poorly on polo itself-- the oldest and most majestic of sports. It needs an aggressive, honest response.

I am told by an inside source that it was caused by the negligent handling of the B12 intravenous dosing of the ponies prior to the game. (Vitamin B12 increases red blood cell production, and is commonly and properly administered to athletic performance horses.) As to the negligence, etc., the anger is swirling around as swiftly as is the rumor mill...so...we'll see.  When I know more, I'll update this blog entry.

To the extent it was negligence (to my knowledge there is no evidence of maliciousness or intent), the USPA, HPA, and FIP should establish rules for consistent veterinary handling of horses at all sanctioned polo matches. Perhaps this also emphasises the need for a stronger 'league' body to control what is currently allowed to be managed on an owner-by-owner basis. I don't want to get into any debates with people on this. I am just thinking aloud.  And there are innumerable people out there who know the fine points and details of all this much better than I do.  But the point still stands: no matter how exceptionally rare such a thing is, we owe it to the game, and most importantly to all the horses, to not let such a thing ever happen again.

I only wish Of Kings & Cowboys was coming out soon, for when it does, it will tell the world how the international polo community reveres, honors and loves its horses.... in fact, as reflected in the title of the movie itself:

In the 'Sport of Kings'... it is the horse that is the king.

Run on sweet venerable princes, espiritus de los caballos rey... run on.

Here's my latest entry in a series I am doing on MovieMaker magazine, on film finance:

Marlett & Me: Film Finance III—Offering a Good ROI with a J-Lo | MovieMaker Magazine Source: www.moviemaker.com 2009/04/16 - Over the past several weeks, we’ve been doing a walk-through of film finance strategies, sorely wearing out the fishing analogy I introduced here and continued here. But, ah well… we press on. -

Click here to read more.

Ride on.