Waiting for Waiting

So I was cruising some of the film junk mail I get the other day and
came across something familiar. I had an email for a pitch session —
this is basically where somebody organizes a bunch of producers and
production companies in a hotel room, and you pay some money for the
priviledge of pitching your movie ideas to them in the hopes that
they’ll take interest. I’ve never been to one of these, and don’t
necessarily intend to, but as I was perusing the list of companies that
were to be in attendance, one of the names caught my eye.

Catchphrase
Productions. Hmm. Catchphrase Productions. Where had I heard that
before? The name totally rang a bell, and at first I thought it was
Robert Rodriguez’s company.

After a quick internet search, I
realized what I was seeing. When I was an intern at MGM Studios in
Orlando, I worked with a guy named Dean Shull. He was organizing a
fundraiser for an independent film called Waiting that a friend of his
had written and planned to direct. A girl I was dating at the time and
I even tried to go to the big fundraiser they had planned (Fall 99),
but we searched and searched and could never find the building
downtown. The name of their company was Catchphrase Productions

I’d
kept in very loose contact with Dean for a year or two, then lost his
contact info while we were in Japan. Last I had heard from Dean, they
had raised enough money and started shooting the movie. Once, every
couple months or so, I would scour the internet looking for any mention
of Waiting. The only thing I could find for a while was this imdb site,
and I looked through the forums every now and then to see how things
were coming along.

So imagine my complete and utter surprise to
stumble upon this website and trailer — the movie is coming out this
month! This might not be news to any of you who have seen the trailers
on TV, but I don’t watch TV, so it struck me out of the blue. Lion’s
Gate
picked it up and it’s now playing in a theater near you. From the
looks of it, it’s Office Space with waiters instead of cubicle monkeys.
They even use the music from Office Space on the trailer.

Anyway,
check it out, and by all means, go out and see this movie. You may not
realize that it’s a picture-perfect example of a grass-roots
independent film that, after several years of screenings and
negotiations, has now hit the big time. Give director Rob McKittrick mad props and check out his blog.

I didn’t think things could get any more surreal, but they did. I visited St. Louis this weekend to be a
rockstar for an evening, playing in a band in a hoosier bar with some
old music fraternity buds. While we were there, we got in touch with
some old friends from college, and one of them is now a lawyer at a law
firm. She mentioned that one of the partners at the firm is the father
of James Gunn, the writer of the Scooby Doo movies and the Dawn of the Dead remake. Of course, I
recognized the name instantly, and mentioned that I liked him better as
the writer (and actor) for Tromeo & Juliet, Terror Firmer, and book of
Lloyd Kaufmann’s. She didn’t know what the hell I was talking about.
Unless you’re a Troma fan, I suppose you wouldn’t understand.

In fact, if you are a Troma fan, you may want to check out this movie, also called Waiting. There’s a picture of Lloyd Kaufmann there. This is getting too weird.

1 Comment

  1. Yurodivy says:

    My favorite part are the “Critics quotes” on the home page, especially this one:

    One of the most grost-out comedies of the year!

    What sort of Engrish is that?

    The site is cool and, based on the trailer, I might actually have to see this one.

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