TWT Friars Club Comedy Film Festival schedule

L-R: Kristina Lilley, Pisay Pao, Sean Patrick Flanery, Elisabeth Röhm.

We just received notice that THE WHOLE TRUTH will play Saturday, September 26, 3 p.m. at the Paley Center for Media (25 W 52nd St.) for the Friars Club Comedy Film Festival.
It's a short festival, only four days (Thursday, Sept. 24-Sunday Sept. 27), with films playing in just three venues, so we appear to be in carefully selected company.

The full schedule of films playing have not yet been posted, but the opening night film is the premiere of A SERIOUS MAN, the Coen Brothers' new comedy.

I'll be there all four days, attending as many screenings as possible, networking and hanging out with John Fugelsang ("Prosecutor Jordan Smith" in TWT; he's also a TV and radio personality, actor, stand up comic and writer), other filmmakers, actors, performers, distributors, celebrities who show up and comedy writers. The Friars Club Comedy Film Festival advisory board is a who's who of comedy and TV personalities - they should be dropping by!

This is a photo of John and one of his New York City fans.

The Friars Club has been America's comedy central for more than 100 years - most people know it from their famous "roast" dinners of celebrities.

They are establishing this film festival because they believe too many great comedies are overlooked when it comes to major awards selection. Very kewl for us.

Most importantly, the Friars prevent mirth control, protecting our right of laughter.

The freedom to laugh at ourselves, the privileged and those in power is the canary in the coal mine of democracy - a freedom Friars Club members take very seriously.

They want us to feel free to sing those canary songs and create works that make us fall over giggling, guffawing, howling, roaring, chuckling, cracking up, chortling, rolling in the aisles, snickering and snorting liquid through our nose!

The Key Trailer for THE WHOLE TRUTH!

The screwball story of a gifted acting coach who pays dearly for using her skills to help criminals become so symptathetic to juries they're aquitted!

Starring Elisabeth Röhm, Sean Patrick Flanery, Rick Overton, John Fugelsang, Kristina Lilley, Pisay Pao and Eric Roberts.

It's on its way to a screening for distributors soon - so far everyone invited is coming!

To be perfectly honest - distributorship representatives almost always attend screenings of a new film so they won't miss out or have a competitor pick up a film that might do well.

The TWT World Premiere is tonight!

After many months of pre-production, the shoot itself, and the laborious details of post production and marketing, the premiere of THE WHOLE TRUTH takes place at the Seattle International Film Festival tonight.

Tickets to the event are completely sold out.

I'll be on hand with my business partner Gary Allen Tucci, accompanied by stars Elisabeth Röhm, Sean Patrick Flanery, Jim Holmes, Rick Overton and Pisay Pao. Eric Roberts is shooting a film with Sly Stallone ("The Expendibles") in New Orleans, John Fugelsang is performing his one-man show in London, England, and Kristina Lilley is working in Colombia.

Producers Larry Estes and Jennifer Roth, editor Stephen Myers and composer Ragnar Rosinkranz will also be there to answer any questions from audience members after the screening.

The day goes like this: Birthday brunch for a very dear longtime friend, joined by her partner and my brother, who flew in from the Midwest to see the world premiere. Back to work with Aaron making last minute arrangements for the night and the rest of the week.

Late this afternoon I get dressed (up, for me), then my make-up will be done by the wonderful Danyale Cook (hair and make up artist - she did a phenomenal job on our actors' hair styles in THE WHOLE TRUTH).

Gary and I are having a private reception for friends, family, cast and crew before the screening, then watching the movie with nearly 300 other folks, after which we're joining the usual suspects as we respond to the audience in a q&a session.

It will be a memorable evening; I'll tell you about it tomorrow - reporting some of the pithy comments from those who were there. I'll also post photos I'm taking.

Meanwhile, there are still a few tickets available for the 4:30 screening tomorrow (Wednesday) at Pacific Place. Again, tickets for tonight's show are completely sold out.

Wish us luck!

THE WHOLE TRUTH World Premiere.... SOLD OUT!

The Tuesday, June 2, 9:30 pm screening of THE WHOLE TRUTH is completely sold out.

Every seat taken. Every ticket available - purchased.

If you hold one of these tickets?

I'm thrilled you'll be joining me, Elisabeth Röhm, Sean Patrick Flanery, Rick Overton, Jim Holmes and Pisay Pao to welcome the film into the world - along with my business partner Gary Allen Tucci, producers Larry Estes and Jennifer Roth, editor Stephen Myers, composer Ragnar Rosinkranz and some of the cast and crew who made it happen.

We're checking on Wednesday's seating (4:30 pm, screen #11 at Pacific Place in downtown Seattle), which is also expected to sell out.

I'll post those numbers here as soon as I .. um, OK, my assistant Aaron Heinzen .. can get them!

THE WHOLE TRUTH world premiere info!

Tickets go on sale Thursday morning, May 7 .... at the Seattle International Film Festival website.

I suggest you POUNCE on them.

Happily, folks are flying in from all over to see it, and there are lots of local crew members and artists who worked on the film whose friends and family are coming as well.. Some have told me they're buying tickets for June 2 *and* 3 to watch both screenings!

All the stars will be there at both screenings - Elisabeth Rohm, Eric Roberts, Sean Patrick Flanery, Jim Holmes, Rick Overton, John Fugelsang, Pisay Pao and more!

It stays light here until 10pm those days ... so premiere night won't feel late.

Details:

Tuesday, June 2, the world premiere of THE WHOLE TRUTH starts at 9:30 pm at Pacific Place Cinemas in Seattle -- specific location info is here. Arrive early to get a good seat; it's a great threater.

Pacific Place Cinema is located at 600 Pine St # 228, Seattle, WA 98101 (206) 405-2655 Get directions

It's in a several-tiered downtown mall featuring upscale stores like Barney's and fine restaurants.

If you can't make it June 2, it will be playing again the next day, Wednesday, June 3 at 4:30 pm, same theater.

Some of my blog readers have told me they're attending both screenings! I wasn't expecting that - it's pretty flattering! I do not believe anyone will leave disappointed, however.

If you're flying in, there are several hotels offering 10% discounts on rooms for guests attending SIFF. The list of participating hotels is located at the SIFF website - be sure to mention SIFF when you make your reservations, and they can also arrange for your SIFF tickets if you request.

If you are coming to the screening from out of town, please email me so we can get together!

Prepare to laugh yourself silly - I hope to see you there!

THE WHOLE TRUTH World Premier

Will take place at the Seattle International Film Festival.

We were *just* notified, so we'll know more later - date, time, etc.

Hopefully, our stars Elisabeth Röhm,
















Sean Patrick Flanery,

Eric Roberts,
Jim Holmes,










Kristina Lilley

John Fugelsang
Rick Overton and Pisay Pao will be on hand to see the movie for the first time themselves!

Here's the 4-1-1 on SIFF from its invitation to include THE WHOLE TRUTH:

"Now in its 35th year, the Seattle International Film Festival is the largest and most highly-attended film festival in the United States, showcasing more than 400 films from over 60 countries to an audience of 150,000 attendees annually.

"While new festivals have seemingly emerged in every small and large city worldwide, SIFF was listed by Variety as one of the world’s “50 unmissable film festivals,” and continues to be recognized as one of the top festivals in North America.

"In terms of Seattle, the profile we offer for film is recognized as extremely important in the US. The Festival combines the best aspects of a casual film marketplace with our well-established reputation as a great audience festival that filmmakers love to attend.

(Here's the best part)

"We would be honored to present this film to our audiences and we look forward to receiving your confirmation of its availability."

Kewl!

Sweet shoot on day #6

We went through scene after scene today, smooth as a cool glass of milk goes down with a homemade chocolate cookie right out of the oven.

Actress Pisay Pao will make quite a name for herself in this film - it's her first and she's kicking it out of the park.

The animal trainer relaxed more so the dog did, too; he had a fabulous day of performing.

Elisabeth had a day off today and dropped by the set just to say hello and bring a close friend and the friend's niece to check things out.

The very experienced crew and producers had never heard of a star doing this before - coming on the set when it's their day off just to visit. But Elisabeth had lunch with us, hung out a bit and left to enjoy the rest of her day.

Tomorrow will be the same - we're shooting a very funny longer scene, then the crew is packing up from our current location (in some very huge trucks) and moving to a new location where we'll be shooting a couple exterior scenes.

Both scenes involve walking, but I don't like characters to simply walk, I like them to have a little natural action along the way. Gives the story and the characters more "oomph!"

What delicious fun - loads of hard work with a group of massively talented and positive people making a film of which we're all proud.

Beginning of shoot day #5

Yesterday's shoot went *very* well. Elisabeth and Sean are at the top of their game, Kristina Lilley kicked butt and Pisay Pao came through like a champ. Little pup TinTin was FABulous.

The crew cannot be praised highly enough. Today Megan Griffiths gets a special shout-out. She's the 1st AD (Assistant Director), who keeps the whole team glued together. She's calm, cool, collected; extremely knowledgeable and professional.

We had a later call yesterday and a call today (start time) at noon, so I'm getting a couple things done today before going in and starting a long day that will go late into the night.

Stephen Myers, our editor in LA, started to receive our dailies (the film already shot and developed - we're shooting 35mm), and says they look fantastic! He should finish editing the first two days of shooting today, and we'll keep progressing daily for the editing from now on.

That means we'll have a rough cut of our film shortly after we finish shooting. I'm taking a week off after the shoot to put my brain back together, then I'll be sitting with Stephen every day as we finish the editing process.

I've already been working with Ragnar Rosinkranz, our composer - he'll be looking at the rough cut as it is built and coming back with more themes and scoring music that we'll finesse along the way and at the end.

Following that is sound perfection and "sweetening." That's where I add all the birds and other ambient sounds that we've been careful to avoid during the filming so I can put them in just the right place.

I'm not posting pictures until the film is finished so you'll want to see it and get a kick out of the "behind the scenes" snapshots that were taken.

Two seniors from the University of Arizona arrived yesterday to begin the process of doing a documentary on the making of THE WHOLE TRUTH. A total of six students will be "covering" us without getting in the way. One of our producers, Larry Estes, teaches a film producing class there - in his "spare time."

They get credit for working on THE WHOLE TRUTH.

Me, too.

writer-director and some sort of producer ... ;-)

Back to work!

He's baaaack!

After being told three times we couldn't have Sean Patrick Flanery for our film THE WHOLE TRUTH because of the production schedule of Boondock Saints 2, in which he stars?

We got him!

Thanks to Sean's insistance and the willingness of Boondock Saints 2 producers, he's coming up to star with Elisabeth Rohm, Eric Roberts, Rick Overton, Jim Holmes, John Fugelsang and our little Talented Animals star pup, Tin Tin.

We're also introducing Seattle actress Pisay Pao.

I was out location scouting last week with our scout "master" Craig Stewart, 1st Assistant Director Megan Griffiths, Production Designer Rachel Thompson and our Director of Photography, Paul Mailman. A Teamster driver took us to all the places we evaluated for their potential as natural "sets" for the film.

Tucker Dropout Productionz' THE WHOLE TRUTH production offices are set up in a school that's not being used. My assistant Matt Schmidt will be joining me there in our office Monday.

Lots to do before cameras roll in two weeks, but we have a great team - crew and cast - all of whom are very enthusiastic about our project.

Stay tuned!