Mike McCafferty Announces the Return of “The Invisible Man,” Plus New Projects for Vince and Paul, and an Old One and an Interview

The Invisible Man Returns!

With all the hints and buzz that something might be happening on The Invisible Man front lately, it was very exciting to see this announcement by Mike McCafferty from the other day!

Dear Fans,
Talked to Vinny.
Talked to Paul.
Talked to Eddie.
They’re all on board.
We’re making a little something. Gonna kickstart it in a bit.
For reals this time.
Stay tuned.

What exactly is this little something?  A full-blown movie?  An I-Man short?  My guess is the latter, but we’ll eventually find out.  Even if it’s a short film, it’ll be awesome to see the guys back together again in the roles we loved them in!  And, who knows?  If it’s a short and it does well, we may get more I-Man.  One can dream, can’t one?

Paul Ben-Victor’s New Series:  Vinyl

The very talented Paul Ben-Victor has landed himself a role on another HBO series.  This one is called Vinyl and it’s helmed by Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger.  It’s about the New York City rock and roll music scene of the 1970s. Paul plays the role of music executive Maury Gold.

Vinyl is due to air in 2016.

Paul Ben-Victor in Friends and Romans

Paul Ben-Victor in "Friends & Romans"

Paul Ben-Victor in “Friends and Romans”

Friends and Romans premiered at the Woodstock Film Festival last year as well as the Boston International Film Festival.  Now it is due to be released October 23 in Philadelphia and Providence, Rhode Island, before heading to New York in November. No word yet on if it will get a wider release.

What is it about?  Well, here’s what writer/producer Gregg Greenberg has to say about his film.

Paul plays Dennis Socio in the film.  Here’s a trailer.

Cooper Talk Interviews Paul Ben-Victor

Steve Cooper from Cooper Talk interviewed Paul back in March.  It’s a great hour-long interview and well worth your time.  Steve and Paul talk a little Invisible Man too!  Listen to the interview here.

Vincent Ventresca in Wicked City

It’s been awhile since we’ve seen Vince regularly on our TV sets but, now, with his new recurring role on Wicked City, we’ll be seeing him on a somewhat more regular basis.

Vince plays the role of Jimmy, ex-boyfriend of Betty, one of the lead characters.

If you look closely at the following two pictures, you’ll see Vince sitting in the corner at the table read for Wicked City.  Click on the pictures for a better look.

Wicked City Table Read

Wicked City Table Read

Wicked City Table Read

Wicked City Table Read

Wicked City premieres Tuesday, October 27, on ABC.

Stakeout:  A New Webseries Starring Vincent Ventresca

stakeout

Vincent Ventresca and Erik Palladino have put together a little web series that will be coming out in November.  Erik describes the series as basically two guys in a car on a stakeout.  It sounds pretty low budget but, also, sounds like it will be a lot of fun.

Here’s a video promo for the show.

Real Life Unaired Pilot

Finally, here’s an unaired Vincent Ventresca pilot for you.  Real Life is a pilot from 1998 that was never picked up or aired.  Vince has a supporting role in it as a doctor and the husband of one of the main characters.

Maybe it’s a good thing that it didn’t get picked up, because shortly afterward, Vince landed the role of Darien Fawkes on The Invisible Man.

Enjoy!

Vincent Ventresca Co-Stars in “Break Point” and Talks “Invisible Man,” and a Dragon Con I-Man Panel This Weekend

Vincent Ventresca’s latest movie Break Point is out in theaters this weekend. Vince has a small role in it as Gary, the douchebag hair model boyfriend of Amy Smart’s character, Heather.

Hmm…I seem to remember Darien Fawkes from The Invisible Man also doing some hair modeling in his past.

Break Point stars Jeremy Sisto and David Walton.  It’s about two estranged brothers who reunite to make a run at a major tennis tournament. Here’s the trailer for the film.

In this scene, Gary meets David Walton’s character, Darren.

In this interview, Vince talks about the director, the writer, and the relationship between Gary and Heather.

Here’s some behind-the-scenes footage from the film.  Look closely and you’ll see Vince in a couple of scenes.

 

Break Point is getting a limited release this weekend in these cities.  It’s also available on VOD at iTunes and Amazon.

Rama’s Screen recently did an interview with Vincent, which you can read here.  I really love this interview.  Rama starts out revealing that he is an Invisible Man fan and that makes the whole interview even more fun, especially when he comments on the shirtless scene.  Vince gives all you VVSB’rs a shout out when he mentions the Vincent Ventresca Shirtless Brigade!

Vincent Ventresca shirtless in "Break Point"

Vincent Ventresca shirtless in “Break Point.”

But the best part of Rama’s interview was by far when he asked Vince if The Invisible Man could come back. Vince replies saying that he’s been talking about it with Matt Greenberg, the series’ creator.  He doesn’t really give us much information in the interview, but Mike McCafferty has hinted that something might be going on.

Although they are being tight lipped about it, the fact that, at the very least, discussions are taking place, makes the fan girl in me squee with delight.  As some of you may know, years ago I had an entertainment lawyer approach Universal so that we could start a dialog about the rights to The Invisible Man.  I got turned down flat.

My thoughts since have been that if The Invisible Man is to have any chance of coming back, it would most likely happen if the people involved in the making of the original series worked to make it happen.  And even for them, there are a lot of hurdles to overcome.  When it comes to the movie and TV world, getting anything made is hard.  Real hard.

But the fact that there is actually some kind of effort being put toward that goal is so freaking awesome.  How cool would it be to get the cast back in both The Invisible Man and my movie too?  To my knowledge, I don’t think anything like that has ever been done before.

In the interview, Vince mentions his hope for finding a bigger audience.  And that’s going to be vital to its success.  We already have a small loyal audience for the show, but it needs to grow.  With such a huge quantity of media clamoring for the audience’s attention nowadays, it’s hard to stand out and get noticed.  So, from a strategic point of view, getting both the show and a fan-produced movie made could be enough of a tipping point to get us known to the wider audience.

I know I’ll keep working on my end to help make that happen.

I-Man at Dragon Con

Lastly, but by no means least, in commemoration of the show’s 15th anniversary, there is fan-run Invisible Man panel happening this weekend at Dragon Con in Atlanta, Georgia!

The panel takes place tomorrow evening at 7:00 p.m. in the Marriott hotel, room M303-M304.

If you’re attending Dragon Con this weekend, be sure not to miss it!

Treatment Update and Important Mailing List News

Treatment Update

I’ve been really quiet on the blog for a while because I’ve been putting my focus on writing the treatment.  Here’s a bit about the writing process:

Each time I go through the treatment, I’ll go back over what’s already been written and clean up anything that needs to be fixed.  Then I’ll usually write another page or two.  After that, I hand it off to Shawna who looks at the old stuff again and the new pages and gives me her thoughts and edits.  It may be a slow way of working, but it is making the older pages better and better.  And while Shawna is working on it, I’m thinking about where I want to go with the next scene or two.  I know how the story is ending.  It’s just mapping out how to get there.

The treatment is getting a lot more detail this time around, which I think will help the script writing go a bit easier.  It reads more like a short story than a dry synopsis, which is what it should do.  Synopses are short matter-of-fact summations of a story…basically a condensed version of the plot.  Whereas, treatments are more entertaining—like a story.  Writers use treatments to sell their screenplays to producers.  But in this case, I’m using the treatment to get the details of the story worked out; and then I’ll use it to get cast and crew on board until the screenplay can be finished.

One of the many challenges with this story is making sure that all five of the main characters (played by Vince, Paul, Eddie, Shannon, and Mike) serve a real purpose in the story.  I don’t want any of their characters to be throw-away characters, like Eberts was in The Invisible Man.  As much as we loved Eberts (and there was even an episode about The Importance of Eberts), in reality, the producers could have easily taken the character out of the series and it wouldn’t have hurt the storyline.  I think it’s to Mike’s credit that he connected with the fans early on and endeared himself and his character to us.  By doing this he assured his continuation on the series, even becoming a series regular in season two.  So I really want to make sure that Mike’s character has a role that is vital to the story and I think we accomplished that.

How fortunate for the Veronica Mars fans that Warner Brothers is willing to bring back their show in the form of a movie, even if the fans have to fund it themselves.  I wish Universal had been as cooperative with The Invisible Man.  Instead, I was turned down flat.  Of course, I was not the show runner, so that gives me considerably less pull with them.  In spite of all that, I’ve always kept in mind that this movie is first and foremost for I-Man fans.  While I can’t copy I-Man, I’ve definitely been using it as inspiration.  I’m hoping that this story will be so good that it will get past any disappointment you may have that it’s not I-Man.  Just to be able to see the cast together again will be such a treat!

This last pass through, I ended up writing five new pages and I’m really happy to say that we are sitting right smack at the beginning of act three, the final act!  The end is so close, I can taste it.  I can’t wait until I’m able to share this story with all of you!

Mailing List News

Some of you observant ones may have noticed that there is an email sign-up form on the front page of my website as well as the Shoom Zone Facebook page.  It’s actually been there a few months.  I’ve been experimenting with a new mailing list service so I really didn’t want to say anything about it until I got the kinks worked out.

The mail service has a cool feature that allows one to split up the mailing list by interests.  I really like the idea, but in practice it was a pain in the neck, so I removed that feature.  I apologize to those of you who signed up already and specified their interests because this means that you will now be getting all my blog posts by email, not just the ones that match your interests.  Although I feel that I need to be blogging more, even at this blog’s busiest, you shouldn’t be inundated with email.  And if a subject doesn’t interest you, you can always delete the email.

My plan is to move everyone from the old mailing list over to the new one within the next month or so.  If you want to go ahead and sign up now, please feel free to do so.  You’ll be able to choose whether you want html, text, or mobile format.  If you don’t sign yourself up, your default will be html.

I won’t sell, rent, or share your email address with anyone except in rare cases as spelled out in the privacy policy.  Please read it if you have any concerns.  Your privacy is important to me.  I don’t like it when someone else abuses my trust and I won’t do it to you.  If you have any questions about it, please feel free to ask by posting a question below or contacting me via the contact form.

Click here to sign up for the mailing list and enjoy the convenience of getting blog posts in your email.

Mike McCafferty in “Austin & Ally” Tonight!

Hey, Invisible Man fans, here’s a heads up that our own Mike McCafferty will be appearing in tonight’s episode of Austin & Ally! The episode is entitled “Backups & Breakups” and Mike plays the role of Mr. Conley in it.  The show airs tonight on the Disney Channel at 8:30 p.m. PT, but be sure to check your local listings for your time zone.

When I was checking out the show’s website, I was pleasantly surprised to see that actress Raini Rodriguez is in it.  She’s probably best known for Paul Bart: Mall Cop.  I met Raini a couple of years ago at a film festival and she really impressed me with her friendliness and professionalism.  She’s a very talented young lady and it’s nice to see her as a regular in a TV show.

Mike in “Operation Cupcake”!

Heads up, everyone!  Mike McCafferty will be starring in the upcoming Hallmark Channel movie Operation Cupcake!  It premieres this coming Saturday at 8:00 p.m. Pacific Time.

We all know that Mike has a heart of gold, but here he’ll get to play the bad guy.

The movie also stars Dean Cain, Kristy Swanson, and Donna Pescow.

If you miss it, don’t fret.  Operation Cupcake will have an encore at 10:00 p.m. as well as a few other times.  Just check the new event calendar right here on Shoom Zone for the times; and don’t forget to factor in your own time zone because I’m on Pacific Time here in California.

Be sure to check out the preview video on the Operation Cupcake website page to catch a sneak peak of Mike in action.  This looks like it’s going to be a fun movie!

 

I-Man Scripts for Sale!

If you’ve always wanted to own an Invisible Man script or if you know anyone who would like to own one, today is your day!  Joan McCartney (formerly of Perseus Project) is selling some of her scripts!  Here’s what she has available:

Season One

  • Cat and Mouse
  • It Hurts When I Do This
  • Brother’s Keeper (writer’s draft, dated 5/10/02, autographed by Craig Silverstein)
  • Brother’s Keeper (revised writer’s draft, dated 2/21/01)
  • Diseased (autographed – hard to see – by Vince, Mike and Shannon)
  • Frozen in Time
  • Flowers for Hobbes (autographed by Dungeon Dan – special effects make up artist, with production notes on cover)

Season Two

  • Den of Thieves
  • Bad Chi
  • Immaterial Girl
  • Germ Theory
  • Mere Mortals

All scripts are $10.00 each plus shipping.  If you purchase all of them, they are $8.00 each plus shipping.

If you are interested in purchasing one or more scripts, please contact me via my website contact form.  I will forward all requests to Joan and she will reply and work out the details with you.

ADDENDUM: Please note that the scripts, and thus the autographs, are copies, not originals. Also, there is currently a waiting list for “Diseased.”


Two Weeks to Go!

Can you believe there are only two weeks left of voting for Round 1 of this competition?  Yikes!  So how are we doing?  Well, in one week we went from 40 people voting and 95 votes to 111 people voting and 341 votes!  We more than doubled the number of voters we have and we more than tripled the number of votes!  Way to go!

But the big question is, how are we stacking up against the competition?  Last week I found 33 entries with more votes than we have.  We plowed right past about a dozen or so entries that seemed to have started out pretty strong, but then fizzled out.  And we are getting very close to passing by four more.  But then I found a few more entries that were in front of us.  So as of today, there are 25 entries that I know of with more votes than us.  While it is very encouraging that we appear to be moving up, please keep in mind that I haven’t seen all the entries and have no idea how many that I haven’t seen have more votes than us.  Also, I’ve found at least three entries that started after us and have passed us by.  So we need to keep voting every single day and we need to keep finding more voters! 

To see how we stack up against the top players, here’s how the top ten entries (that I know of) are doing:

  • 3,235 votes, 706 voters
  • 1,334 votes, 299 voters
  • 1,283 votes, 156 voters
  • 1,025 votes, 269 voters
  • 958 votes, 145 voters
  • 898 votes, 111 voters
  • 895 votes, 196 voters
  • 863 votes, 181 voters
  • 722 votes, 96 voters
  • 721 votes, 151 voters

So please don’t get complacent!  We’ve got a ways to go yet!  We need every vote!

Joyce, our I-Maniac fan club president, is currently moving the fan club mailing list to a more reliable program.  So if you get an email from her, be sure you opt in.  She’ll be sending out an announcement about this contest as folks opt in.  Some of the email addresses no longer work, so if you have contact with an I-Maniac that may not be aware of this contest, please lend a hand and let them know about it.

I attended a United Filmmakers Association mixer over a week ago and was able to get a free copy of the Reel Directory, which is the Northern California version of the Hollywood Creative Directory.  Basically, it’s a directory of services and everyone in the business from audio post facilities to production equipment to stunt equipment rentals to traffic and crowd control services…virtually everything you could possibly think of and would need to make a movie.  I’ve used it to start calling around to studios and getting rental rates for the video we’re shooting.  My director is prepping for another shoot right now, but we’ll be meeting again on Friday.  I’m happy to say that my financing came through, so this video is officially green lit!

I’m also starting to get quotes from artists and will be commissioning some custom artwork as part of my submission.  Exciting stuff!

The contest requires that if I use any third party’s name, I must have a signed release from them.  This weekend, I got emails from Paul Ben-Victor, Eddie Jones, and Mike McCafferty and I talked on the phone to Vincent Ventresca on Sunday.  All these wonderful guys are very willing to sign a release so that I can use their names when entering my submissions into the contest!  Vince is contacting Shannon for me and I’m still waiting to hear from her.  Do you realize how lucky we are to have such a supportive cast?  I can’t think of another cast that would do what these guys do.    

There is still so much to do and it’s going to get crazy.  Please don’t mind me if you see me wearing a straight jacket in the near future!