Dubble Bubble

Nothing can burst our bubble today as we received two pieces of fantabulous news!!

Before my first sip o' coffee this a.m., we got an email with the subject line "Great News!". We learned that the actor we approached to play the role of Fin has agreed to sign on. YAY!! (He's the same one I mentioned a while ago, who loved the script, but wanted to negotiate for a little more since we're offering the bare minimum.)

Now to be honest, I was pretty out of the loop when he was first mentioned a few weeks ago. While his face was recognizable, his name didn't ring a bell. But what I lacked in knowledge, I quickly gained in second-hand enthusiasm as I listened to Jim n' our producers get all charged up about how fantastic he'd be. After a quick visit to IMDB, I saw for myself that he had a very long and impressive resume - including a supporting role in one of last year's biggest blockbusters. He was definitely the best of the bunch we were considering, and so he was obviously the first one we approached.

According to our producers, getting him attached is a real coup. Apparently they have been pitching his name to prospective sales agents and everyone was quite excited about the idea of him playing the role of Finnley. To quote TC, "He is a tremendous character actor with a name that says "quality" to everyone in the market."

Jeez Louise... like I was sayin', I'm so out of the loop with these things. This guy is apparently a big deal (certainly in Canada anyway...) and I had no idea. So that's why tonight I'm doing my homework. Jim rented two movies that he's in so we can check out our Fin-to-be in action. I'm pretty excited! I think it'll be cool to watch his performance and imagine how he'll act out our words and say our lines.... yeah, it's gonna be really cool! :)

Okay, and THEN, this afternoon we received a second email that said, "More Great News!"

More?! How can there be more? We haven't approached any other actors yet.

Well, I guess when Telefilm heard that we got this actor on board, they said that they wanted to give us more money! Really!

They acknowledged how hard it is to get this kind of cast (even though we've only cast two people so far), and so they wanted to do whatever they could to further support our movie. Even though we were already granted half of their remaining budget for this year, they're now pitching in a lil' extra.

How friggin' amazing is that? It's like CRAZY amazing, that's what it is!

BTW, I don't know if I ever shared this or not, but when we started heading down this road pre-producers (and pre-this blog) about a year n' a half ago, we were warned several times by various sources that given the current economy (and a few other factors), historically-speaking, there has never been a harder time to get an independent film made in Canada. Even experienced filmmakers aren't getting their movies made right now. The climate is that terrible! The odds have always been stacked incredibly high against us -- and yet just look at all the awesome things that are coming together! We're totally rockin' the odds!

So yeah, today was a very, very, very good day! :D