Joshua Ligairi » 11.16.08 »
The quirky indie comedy
Pirates of the Great Salt Lake, a flick I worked on several years ago, will finally make it's way to the public...maybe. See, the film has been scheduled for release several times. In fact, the original tagline on the poster was "Sailing Slowly to a Theater Near You." The producers flirted with several distributors over the past (let's call it four) years. The film played at loads of film festivals, winning best picture and audience awards almost everywhere it played and in doing so has built up a cult following with a lot of anticipation. For instance, every time I talk to anyone who knows I worked on it, they inevitably ask, "When is that Pirate movie coming out?" To which I responded, "Uh, pretty soon." This turned out to be a lie that I told over and over again for (what did we say? four?) years. Then, in early 2008, the film was purchased by The Weinstein Company (the guys that started Miramax) and it seemed as though the wait was over.
When the movie was purchased by ol' Bob and Harvey, I think the producers were hoping for a big summer release, but that didn't happen. Then, they told the director he could do a limited release in Utah, which they later backed out of. Finally, a DVD release was scheduled for September '08 in conjunction with the international "Talk Like a Pirate Day" which is an actual celebration throughout the world when pirate enthusiasts (you guessed it) talk like pirates. Anyway, I was amped for the DVD release. Not just because people kept asking me about it, but because I worked really hard on the grueling production, scouting locations, shooting behind-the-scenes, as the Property Master and Locations Manager, and even directing some of the 2nd unit shots for the film. When you work that hard on something, it is nice to see the fruits of your labor--especially when said fruits would be good Christmas gifts.
Talk Like a Pirate Day was fast approaching when I got this email to the POTGSL mailing list members:
Many moons ago
Pirates of the Great Salt Lake signed a blood oath with The Weinstein Company. The DVD was scheduled to set sail this week, but as is often the case with projects as piratey as ours, the date was pushed.
The exact date of release fer
Pirates of the Great Salt Lake be December 9, 2008. T'will be an exclusive rental at Blockbuster Video, and should be available fer sale at other major retail outlets. We’ve already seen a page dedicated to pre-order on Amazon.com.
It’s been a long road to be sure, and ye’ve been very patient as we’ve struggled to get our movie into yer hands. But we swear it’s finally going to happen and we can’t thank ye enough! We owe this success to every one of ye our fans! Soon, the whole world will know of this movie, but ye will always be the first. We promise to pass more news along to ye as soon as it develops. Pirate’s word!
And so, at long last, these Pirates of a landlocked sea will sail for distant shores and my buddy Eric (that's ER Nelson to you) joins the ranks of the Weinstein's tight knit group of directors that includes Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Rob Zombie, and Kevin Smith and has included Gus Van Sant, Woody Allen, Anthony Minghella, Wes Caven, Michael Moore, and Guillermo del Toro. The films stars two friends, Trenton James (in a breakout performance) and Kirby Heyborne (in his best performance to date) and has some great performances in smaller roles by other friends like the incomperable Matt Mattson and the certifiable Tomek DeBowski. I got a chance to work on the film with a lot of my good friends like clothing designer Gigi Ashley Munns, Production Designer Anne Black and her awesome crew, my homies Brandon Christianson, Ty Arnold, and Brandon Smith on camera and a bunch of other cool people like my home-girl Amber Bollinger and my most frequent collaborator William Rowan Jr to name just a few. It was a great time and this release has been a long time coming. Let's just hope the flick is any good. Eric...
Moderator's update » 12.12.08 »
Pirates of the Great Salt Lake was indeed released on DVD and is available on
Amazon.
Digital Domain VP Ed Ulbrich was recently at the TED (Technology Entertainment Design) 2009 Conference where he gave a presentation called “How Benjamin Button Got His Face.” The annual conference brings together the world’s most accomplished thinkers and doers who give these amazing 18 minute presentations explaining their craft.
