rickfriedberg

R.I.P. Charles Champlin. As former L.A. Times film critic, Mr. Champlin chose my film KGOD (later retitled PRAY TV) as his entry in to the USA film festival. Meeting and being championed by him was one of the most exhilarating moments of my life. He was a classy, humble and passionate-about-film people I have ever been fortunate enough to meet

Congrats to my friend, John Leonetti for the successful opening of Annabelle.  No one deserves good fortune more than he.  He was the brilliant Director of Photography on my movie, Spy Hard

Here's an excerpt from Hollywood War Stories.com:
          
          During the casting of my movie Spy Hard, when first speaking with the head of casting for Disney, I told her I wanted Stevie Wonder or Ray Charles to play the part of the bus driver in the Speed spoof. She looked at me like I just told her her teenage daughter was pregnant. To say she didn’t get it is the understatement of the year.
          
          Days later, having cast some incredible actors, rumors about the movie were floating around Disney. The head of casting phoned me and said, “I get it. I’m so sorry. I thought you were out of your mind. Go. Stevie Wonder or Ray Charles.”

I just published a new edition of my book, entitled HOLLYWOOD WAR STORIES: How to Survive in the Trenches.  Find it on Amazon at:  http://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-War-Stories-Survive-Trenches/dp/1500991619
          and KDP at: http://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-War-Stories-Survive-Trenches-ebook/dp/B00NQERKVY
          
          Please buy it, enjoy it and write a review

To those of you who may not have seen the 2010 documentary film, "Joan Rivers, a Piece of Work," find it on netflix or anywhere you can. No matter how much you enjoyed her quips, wit and irreverence, this film makes you understand what an incredibly courageous, barrier-breaking national treasure that she was.  I haven't read her newest book, Diary of a Mad Diva, but I plan to.

Tim McIntire was an actor. He played Alan Freed in American Hot Wax and the warden in Brubaker.  He was also the hottest voice-over talent in Hollywood—his Orson Wells baritone was recognizable on hundreds of movie trailers and TV commercials. He sometimes did three or four voice-overs in a day. But he hated it. He only wanted to be a singer/songwriter.
          
          Tim offered to score my Rodeo documentary and had a theme song in mind for the opening credits called  “Ride in the Rodeo,” about a crippled kid who couldn’t walk. In the song, the kid’s parents tied him onto a horse, and he became a bronc rider.   Here’s some of Tim’s lyrics:
          
          Well Mary had a baby but she didn’t call him Jesus.
          
          She called him Billy Bob after Papa Buttrey’s dad.
          
          Now Billy only had one good foot,
          
          the other one looked like a pine tree root.
          
          So it seemed like all the Buttrey’s luck was bad.
          
          There was a doctor in Cheyenne, said do everything you can to make him feel like every other child.
          
          So they took Billy Bob to the Cheyenne Fair
          
          and Billy saw somethin’ while he was there
          
          that drove him plumb stark mad dog ravin’ wild.
          
          He saw that whole big show and he knew just
          
          where he wanted to go and he whooped and he
          
          hollered and he told his mama so.
          
          Said, Mama, I wanna ride, ride, ride,
          
          I wanna ride in the rodeo,
          
          I wanna ride in the Big Time rodeo . . .
          
          Tim became the voice of Honda Motorcycles.  They gave him a Honda Ninja, a monster of a bike. He crashed it and broke his back. He got hooked on pain pills and when he was only forty, he flipped his bike and killed himself. The world lost one of the most talented artists I’d ever known to drugs, self-destruction, and rock and roll—all of which are not mutually exclusive.
          
          Read more about Tim and others in How to Make it in Hollywood:The Inside Story

Review from Joseph McGarry:
          
          When I read this book, I thought of a commercial from a few years ago. I don’t remember the product. It showed a group of studio execs sitting around a conference table talking about a slug movie. They had everything ready to go–the posters, the toys, the kids’ meals, the music video–everything. At the end, the studio head says, “What about a script?” One of the other execs says, “We’ll have one hammered out by Friday.” That’s the state of the movie business these days. It’s a deal before it’s a movie. The author knows this all too well. He’s the director of Spy Hard, a spy movie spoof starring Leslie Nielsen of Airplane! fame. (I haven’t seen the movie, so I’m not going to comment on it.) He describes the trials and tribulations he went through in getting the movie made, and other movies and TV shows he made. He’s an anomaly in Hollywood–same house, same wife, same phone number for over 30 years. The chapter titles are very descriptive. Chapter 2 is If you want a career in show business, be determined to the point of obsession. The whole book reminds me of that song from Richard Marx back in the 1980s. “It don’t mean nothin’ till you sign it on the dotted line.” The corollary to that is read the contract very carefully. Good book for anyone who wants to know about going into the movie business, and then decides to do it anyway.

Excerpt from How to Make it in Hollywood:The Inside Story
          
          IF YOU WRITE IT WELL, THEY WILL COME
          Although there is great pain in casting, there is also joy. In the movie KGOD (later retitled) Pray TV, there was one part left, and it was almost impossible to cast—a preacher/auctioneer. We had dozens of actors read for the part. Finally, co-writer, Dick Chudnow, threw up his hands and said, “Let’s call the auctioneer’s union and get a real auctioneer!” Casting director, Fern Champion,  said, “Just give this one last guy a shot.”  His name was Woody Eney, scripted name, Reverend Hal Tramer. In his scene, he takes a breath, spits out a wad of tobacco, and starts to preach:  TRAMER: And the Lord sayeth unto his disciples, ”Giveth your first born unto the Lord and be plentiful and multiply.” But they couldn’t multiply ‘cause they hadn’t learned simple addition yet. So they begot. They begot whenever they could.
          
          (faster:)  And unto them Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japeth the Elder, even unto him were children born.
          
          (faster yet:) and Eber begat Salah and Salah begat Obal.(even faster:) And Obal begat Sheba and Jobab and Jobab begat Samuel and Sanuel begat Claude and Claude begat Bee Bee and Bee Bee begat and forgot to begot so she hopped to the hop doing the bibbity bobbity boo.
          
          (auctioning:) I got a boo, I got a bop, I got a—
          
          DIRECTOR (V.O. from booth): Cut!
          
          DIRECTOR:  CUT!!!
          
          TRAMER: I got another cut. I got two cuts, do I hear three—
          
          DIRECTOR: Would you please leave the stage!
          
          TRAMER: I gotta leave the stage. I gotta leave the stage once. I gotta leave the stage twice. I gotta leave the stage three times. Gone! I’m off the stage.  SEE THIS EXCERPT ON YOUTUBE:
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8bMD4FnW6c
          
          LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK

5.0 out of 5 stars
          A Valuable Resource
          By Samfreene -
          How to Make It in Hollywood: The Inside Story (Paperback)
          So you want think you want to be a writer, director, actor, and movie producer or even create
          your own music videos and commercials. Not so fast! There are many things you need to
          learn, many strategies that will help you survive and stay afloat before you wind up on a
          sinking ship or worse on a collision course. But, after you read this insightful, humorous and
          at times frustrating account of what movie producer, director and writer Rick Friedberg
          shares with you, I can guarantee that you will be better prepared, have a clearer
          understanding of whether this business is right for you. Where to begin? He has worked with
          Academy award-winning actors and has written produced and directed many movies but
          what makes this book quite unique and outstanding is the stories he shares from his own
          personal experiences and the honest and straightforward way he imparts them. With his 32
          rules that you need to follow, underline the salient points, keep a log of your own and jot
          down how each rule works for you.  Like a novel with a twist at the end and a plot that will
          keep you glued to the printed page until the very end, this book will not only keep you
          reading until you come to the postscript at the end but will enlighten you as to what you
          might or might not want to deal with as you enter the world of Hollywood.
           
          
          Fast paced, straightforward, honest, to the point, humorous author Rick Friedberg takes readers on his real-life journey from the beginning until the present where he hopes to write many more chapters in his life as he made his way to the highest rung on his dresser drawer!
          
          So, you think you want to be part of the Hollywood Scene: Read this outstanding book and
          decide if you have what it takes!