Tuesday, November 25, 2008

 

Well, a month after redesigning the website, I'm getting lots of positive responses about the project.  Most of them have questions about what this means for FOUR DAYS IN LA.

 

I have to give them a little history.  Long before there was a LOGO or HERE, I wrote a pilot for a TV show called UNREQUITED.  I had envisioned the show as an anthology, like TWILIGHT ZONE or RED SHOE DIARIES.  Each week, we'd have a different cast, different set, different story, different location and different tone.  UNREQUITED was initially made up of three episodes - SWEPT AWAY, RUN AWAY and STRAIGHT AWAY.  When it became clear to me that no start up cable company would have the type of budget for an anthology series (did I mention different sets every week?), I was advised to turn UNREQUITED into a feature film script.  Since I was also advised that UNREQUITED as a title would be a bit unwieldy, I changed it to FOUR DAYS IN LA, THREE STORIES OF LOVE, LUST and LONGING.

 

Instead of SWEPT AWAY, RUN AWAY and STRAIGHT AWAY, the themes would be LOVE, LUST and LONGING with each story featuring one of those themes.

 

Now, I have a 100 page journal of my efforts to get FOUR DAYS IN LA made that I won't bore you with.  And lots of people gave it a good try.  Some people weren't so honorable, but that's water under the bridge.  But I also started writing quite a bit more.  AS FAR AWAY (gay road trip movie), LONELY IN LAS VEGAS (gay melodrama), NOW AND THEN (ensemble miniseries featuring mature characters in their 50s and 60s as well as guys in their 20s, sort of done JOY LUCK CLUB-style).  And with more and more great ideas coming to me (and not all of which would sustain a feature length film), I decided to go full circle right back to how I started this whole endeavor.  Create an anthology series.  But instead of going to LOGO or HERE (which are both inundated with guys like me thinking their great gay idea would be PERFECT for their network), I decided to think outside the box and make it straight for DVD/home entertainment.

 

When I was coming up with episodes for M4M: LOVE STORIES FOR MEN, I knew that I had to pluck one particular storyline from FOUR DAYS IN LA.  Whenever that script was read, the storyline that featured the character of Rick (in previous incarnations, that story had been called RUN AWAY and LONGING) always got the best response.  So, I took the Rick storyline out of FOUR DAYS, opened it up a bit and called the resulting episode simply, RICK.  It became the cornerstone and beginning of M4M.  RICK was going to be the erotic entry of M4M.  Now inspired by RICK, I got busy writing.  I wrote WRITERS BLOCK next (horror entry), followed by LISTEN TO YOUR HEART (melodrama entry), STRAIGHT MEN's CLUB (comedy/drama entry) and #1 FAN (social commentary entry).

 

With 6 episodes written, I was ready to go!  I felt I had 6 different stories and would fill them up with cast members from previous gay-themed movies.  The rest of that is noted below.

 

The energy, excitement and viability of M4M: LOVE STORIES FOR MEN has been amazing.  It breathed new life into my work.  Yes, it did spell the end of FOUR DAYS IN LA.  But who knows?  I may use the other two storylines in future episodes of M4M down the line...!

 

When I started coming up with more stories that wouldn't fulfill

 

FLY AWAY, RIGHT AWAYI wrote FOUR DAYS IN LA as a 90 minute episode - made up of three different but intertwining stories - as the pilot episode for the anthology.  Originally the anthology was to be called UNREQUITED.