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Message

Subject: from jms
Date: 6/7/2008 10:36:00 PM   	
From: "jmsatb5@aol.com" 
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated 

It's been a while, I know...but things have been awfully crazed at
this end of the modem.

I was there for the premiere of Changeling (no the name isn't going to
change) at Cannes, and it was, overall, perhaps the most surreal
experience of my life. I was ensconced at the Hotel du Cap
overlooking the French Riviera, just abaft from Clint Eastwood and
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt and Mick Jagger (who came to dinner with
the bunch of us that Friday) and surrounded by sights I could never
have imagined myself seeing. Day-trip drives into the South of France
for shopping, into Monaco and Monte Carlo where I dropped five hundred
Euros at the casino because, well, you pretty much have to...and the
premiere.

Imagine for a moment: a procession of twenty one cars preceded and
followed by French police running lights and sirens to get the
motorcade through the streets of Cannes en route to the press
conference and, several hours later, the premiere. A sea of popping
flashbulbs. Paparazzi and TV cameras and microphones, reporters from
all over the world, and everyone shouting questions, to look this way
or that way. The red carpet, long and broad as the ocean. The
theater, three thousand seats filled with tuxedoes and gowns and
stars. Smiles and tears at the right moments as the film rolled by.
A ten minute standing ovation. Proclamations and prophecies of
Oscars.

Surreal. Dream-like. Impossible. Was any of this really happening?
To me?

Impossible. But there it was.

Then: after more days of interviews and press and screenings and
stunningly positive, glowing reviews, on to Berlin, where my script
for Ninja Assassin was being filmed. Brilliant stunt work. Dinners
in the cool German evening. Then off again to London for meetings
with several production companies regarding TV projects, and a meeting
with director Paul Greengrass on They Marched Into Sunlight, for Tom
Hanks' company, before flying back to LA for four days of massive
jetlag.

Never give up, folks. Never stop trying. Never surrender dreams.

Because sometimes they come true.

Two asides before I crash.

First, on the plane ride home, I'd picked up the July issue of T3
Magazine, which contained in the mylar packet a subsidiary slim issue
about future tech and jargon and looked ahead to gadgets yet to come.
I meant to take it with me off the plane for research on another
project, but left it behind and it doesn't seem to be available
anywhere here; I may have missed the issue. Point being, could one of
our UK friends scan that magazine (it was only like 20 pages) and
upload it to me? If you do volunteer, could you note it here first to
avoid lots of folks duplicating the efforts? Accept my thanks in
advance.

Second, keep an eye out for Daily Variety on June 19th. Another
surprise yet to come.

This is the dream. This is the fairy tale we all expect but so rarely
get. I am at peace. Go figure.

jms