That's the Power of #MovieBro

Movies bring people together.  I've been fortunate enough to meet some great folks who became firm friends over the years thanks to the power of cinema.  In the mid-2000's I made pals with a Jean-Claude Van Damme fan from the U.K. through the forum board of a fan site and we're still e-homies today.  Around the same time I e-met the administrator of the premiere Dolph Lundgren web site and now he works with the big Swede, has visited him on countless movie sets while writing and producing his own works.  A one time student in Los Angeles, we even met up when he was visiting a few years back.  Then there was the co-worker who noticed the Escape From New York button on my shoulder bag, we became instant #MovieBros and now he runs his own frigging film festival.  After attending one of the Van Damme Double Dips and Dolph night, an author recognized me at San Diego Comic-Con, we met for lunch where he was wearing an I Come In Peace tee shirt and we proceeded to discuss action movies known and obscure for a couple hours.  It just goes on and on and I'm only too happy to see them all succeeding.

Tom, the U.K. based Van Damme fan and I have traded movie ideas with for years, always joking that one day we'd meet up in Bulgaria to make a low budget action movie starring Michael Biehn or Rutger Hauer for Nu Image.  Now, Super Tom is one step closer as he's just wrote and produced a short film called Out.  The trailer just hit this past weekend, it looks great and I know he's got much more in the pipeline.  Watching the handsomely shot and edited trailer concerning a newly released convict helping his adopted brother get out of the world of crime has inspired me to keep moving towards Bulgaria, in a sense.  Running the blog, traveling to conventions and planning events has been fun and rewarding but it's good to keep pushing towards something bigger.

The author who introduced himself to me in San Diego was one David J. Moore, a prolific writer who has contributed to the likes of Black Belt Magazine, Fangoria and Filmfax while visiting movie sets around the globe.  He published World Gone Wild: A Survivor's Guide to Post-Apocalyptic Movies this past year and it is awesome.  It's hardcover with glossy pages and color text and photos, in other words, it's a real book.  The tome consists of bite size movie reviews for over 800 titles in the End of the World genre featuring dozens upon dozens of interviews with cast and crew.  After reading his review and interview with director Roger Christian, I actually want to see Battlefield Earth!  There's plenty of titles I'd never heard of but now want to check out.  Like me, David is celebrating these films and showing the filmmakers that someone out there enjoyed their work, no matter how obscure or how limited the release.  Sit downs with the likes of Albert Pyun, Michael Pare, Martin Campbell, Russell Mulcahy and Paul W.S. Anderson are highlights.  Mr. Moore's next book is The Good, The Tough and the Deadly: Action Stars and their Movies which pays homage to you guessed it, my favorite genre, the action movie!  David has lined up another winner with something like 60+ interviews with actors, martial artists, writers, directors, etc.  Yours truly contributed to one of them and has a couple reviews included.