[CW-Grad] Congratulations

[Bala Rajasekharuni]

--- On Fri, 4/16/10, Robin Russin <robin.russin at ucr.edu> wrote:

Dear Chuck,

Bala here. Congratulations on this success:-)
I hear so many good things about your film,
can't wait to see your film on DVD soon:-)

Best wishes.
Bala.

From: Robin Russin <robin.russin at ucr.edu>
Subject: [CW-Grad] Fwd: Evered piece on AOL News today and Tomorrow
To: "cwgrad-announcements Gradlist" <cwgrad-announcements at lists.ucr.edu>
Date: Friday, April 16, 2010, 1:01 AM

Go Chuck!

Begin forwarded message:
From: CBEvered at aol.com
Date: April 15, 2010 9:56:35 PM PDT
To: robin.russin at ucr.edu
Subject: Fwd: Evered piece on AOL News today and Tomorrow



 

From: CBEvered at aol.com
Date: April 15, 2010 9:55:00 PM PDT
To: CBEvered at aol.com
Cc: abgriffith at comcast.net, alicia at capemaystage.com, amevered at gmail.com, BGfanSpark at aol.com, bonesrn at yahoo.com, carolyn.stark at ucr.edu, catk0n at mac.com, chane at cpcentertainment.com, charles.g.rucker at ampf.com, Chris_Palmeri at businessweek.com, christina.youhas at ucr.edu, bclavenna at gmail.com, dedie at carrollonline.com, dogarion at gmail.com, DoubleBco at aol.com, eric.barr at ucr.edu, emailmarktaylor at gmail.com, tomloueve2 at msn.com, fardon1023 at yahoo.com, BroadwayPl at aol.com, jacques22 at earthlink.net, jakob.modeer at gmail.com, jayekko at yahoo.com, jim at fallproductions.com, joy at stingers.com, jwestfeldt at gmail.com, kathleen.deatley at ucr.edu, kcramer at alumni.flagler.edu, drfkennedy at sbcglobal.net, kevinontheriver at gmail.com, Larry.Daniels at doj.ca.gov, larrycedar at gmail.com, lee.neuwirth at verizon.net, amyrosecane at yahoo.com, macleod at kenyon.edu, marc.longlois at ucr.edu, SandK at sover.net, melisa.vicario at ucr.edu, martyjamesinc at hotmail.com, marybjo at verizon.net, mclemmer at ucr.edu, Merrfolk at yahoo.com,
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Subject: Evered piece on AOL News today and Tomorrow









hello all! Please see below, running tomorrow on AOL 
News,
Chuck wanted to make sure you had a copy, all 
best,
Wendy



 
Hollywood Warms Up to 
the Military




 Updated: 5 hours 13 minutes ago 




 
By Charles 
Evered 
Special to AOL News 
 
(April 16) -- It amazes me 
when I read accounts today of the comparatively non-acrimonious relationship 
that existed between the military and the Hollywood establishment of yesteryear, 
particularly before the war in Vietnam.

Reading accounts of major stars 
who joined up to fight during World War II, of socialites and actors in Los 
Angeles establishing the Hollywood Canteen and encouraging the mingling of those 
who serve with those who portray, boggles the 21st century mind. 

 
Ethan Peck, above, stars along with Emmy 
winners
Bebe Neuwirth and Peter Coyote in 
Adopt a Sailor,
written and directed by Charles 
Evered
One need not go into a long treatise about 
why this doesn't happen anymore. Wars are different now. It is -- at least on 
the surface -- a more complicated time. 

So when I started to travel with 
a tiny budgeted film I wrote and directed called "Adopt a Sailor," I girded my 
loins and readied myself for a gantlet of rolling eyes and exasperated sighs of 
indifference. 

I had myself lived in both worlds, having joined the U.S. 
Navy Reserve at a comparatively old age (in my mid-30s). My recruitment began as 
I toured an aircraft carrier in San Diego while writing a script called 
"Carrier" that I had sold as a pitch to DreamWorks. I met kids on that ship who 
were just 18, making an annual salary of what would constitute a week's stay at 
a high-end hotel on Central Park West or in Santa Monica. I was humbled by their 
dedication -- and since my life had become nothing more than sitting around and 
whining at Starbucks about the state of my career, something in me seized on a 
chance to break out of my own complacency. 

After I joined, some of my 
friends were supportive, while some of them where aghast. One asked why I would 
"want to take a step back like that." An actor (and ex-friend of mine) said that 
he thought my joining was the same as "ending up a garbageman or something." 


So when I got the opportunity to write and direct a little film about a 
sailor from Arkansas who spends the evening with a sophisticated couple from New 
York City, I harbored no illusions about it jumping into a "Juno" stratosphere. 


On paper, the film is almost unmarketable -- mostly dialogue, no overt 
political ax to grind, no drug deals gone bad, no effects per se, no sex, no 
overt auteur directing style. (I studied with George Roy Hill at Yale, who said, 
"If you want to direct, find a compelling story, hire great actors and get out 
of the way.) My expectation was that we'd screen the film for patient friends 
and my stunned agent on a white sheet strung across the living room at my 
producer's house. 

Miraculously, however, great actors did agree 
to appear in the film, including Emmy winners Bebe Neuwirth and Peter Coyote, 
who worked for about one-sixtieth of their usual salary. 

And then it 
went on to screen at more than 20 national and international film festivals, won 
a couple of festival awards, garnered a distribution deal of its own and 
actually started to get seen by people. Was it "Juno"? No. But it wasn't on a 
white sheet in the living room either. 

My heart was reinvigorated by the 
number of people who gave our "little film that could" a chance. People who put 
aside their own sometimes reflexive aversion to all things military and related 
to our little story. 

The truth is, "Hollywood" -- or what that word has 
come to represent -- isn't as close-minded as lots of people make it out to be. 
The town was fair to us. 

And for a brief moment in time, I thought I saw 
-- reflected in the response to my little film -- a vision of what our country 
could be. Less divided. More integrated philosophically and, more important, on 
the mend. 

Charles Evered is a writer and director who lives 
in Los Angeles and Princeton, N.J. He served in the U.S. Navy Reserve, ending up 
a lieutenant. His feature-film directing debut, "Adopt a Sailor," will be 
available on DVD from Echo Bridge Entertainment on April 20. The film stars 
Peter Coyote, Bebe Neuwirth and Ethan Peck. For more information about "Adopt a 
Sailor," go to www.adoptasailormovie.com. 


END




Robin Russin
Associate Professor & Graduate Advisor
Department of Theatre
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
(951) 827-2707
(213) 949-1061 cel
robin.russin at ucr.eduhttp://robinrussin.com

"I try all things; I achieve what I can." - Ishmael in "Moby Dick," written by Herman Melville
"Deserve's got nothin' to do with it." - William Munny in "Unforgiven," written by David Webb Peoples



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