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As of now, there’s one “Entourage” that’s known as a group of hip, East Coast-transplanted Hollywood types, who live their lives around the actions of Vincent Chase. But that entourage is fictional. The real entourage just appeared at Comic Con 2011, and produced a sure-fire hit movie called Bellflower, that has as its mechanical star, a flame-throwing car called “Medusa.”
The real entourage is based on an idea that grew in the head of Evan Glodell the director, and writer of Bellflower – and impacted by a relationship that ended, badly.
The idea of Bellflower is that we dip ourselves into something we’re working on, in order to escape the pain of relationships – in this case, a relationship gone bad. And the something they’re working on is Medusa – a car made for the anticipated apocalypse.
I met Evan at a press event at TGIFriday’s in San Diego’s Gaslamp District last Friday during Comic Con 2011. While the video may indicate otherwise, I really did just meet all of the cast members – Evan Glodell, Tyler Dawson, Jessie Weisman, Rebekah Brandes, and Vincent Grashaw as producer – for the first time, and Evan and I really do share the same birthday: August 4th.
I’m a firm believer in the maxim (I created) that “a family make a film.” That is, the better the people who make a film get along with each other, the better the finished film’s going to be.
From that perspective, Bellflower‘s going to be a massive hit.
When I talk with cast members, I believe in connecting with them as people, because in getting to know them from that perspective, you can better understand what they’re trying to accomplish.
Bellflower Made From Hand-To-Mouth Conditions
From hanging with Glodell and his entourage at Comic Con 2011, it was clear from the start that Bellflower had a lot in common with Silicon Valley startup tech firms, where many founders start off dirt-poor, sleeping on friends couches and moving around, but are working to create something: a labor of love that can change the World. Once finished, everything seems to come to them, from money to fame, but no one saw how terribly they suffered to get to where they are.
That’s the trajectory Glodell and his mates are on; they’re not shy about what they put up with. “No one would give us money,” Glodell said. But he pressed on anyway, and got the word that Bellflower was accepted into the Sundance Film Festival, just as he was coming out of a rejection meeting.
Then, Glodell’s life changed. But not just for him; life changed for the bad of friends formed from people assembled to make the film, but liked each other, and believed in what they were doing so much, they made enormous sacrifices to get it done.
In part two of my blog, I’ll focus more on Bellflower the story, and in part three, more on the video we made. It’s, without a doubt, the best video “hang” I’ve ever done with a movie cast to date. The last one that compared to this (to a degree) was for Hatchet II at Comic Con 2010:
Stay tuned.
Bill Carroll