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BLAIR WITCH co-director’s next film going straight-to-DVD! PART I

That's the headline that came to mind as soon as Gregg Hale told us the news that sunny Orlando day back in March or April of ‘06. I honestly have tried to forget the exact date. Gregg, one of the producers of ALTERED, had gotten the call the night before from executive producer Bob Eick, who had talked to David Linde, out-going head of FOCUS films. Based on the film’s test scores, theatrical was not an option. A DVD release was where they were headed with ALTERED. We were completely deflated, to say the least. We had met in Orlando for a “roll up our sleeves and work this out” kind-of meeting at Rob Cowie’s house, the other producer of the film. Also there were co-producer Mike Monello and associate producer Andy Jenkins. This was supposed to be a motivational two days where we were going to talk about marketing and possibly making some changes to our film, which we knew was in some trouble based on the test screening that had happened a few months before. We were ready to get on it, brother! We had even celebrated the night before when some friends from Orlando came over Rob’s and we drank, smoked and released a bit of the tension that had been building up for many months now, ever since FOCUS execs had screened the film at bit before the holidays in December of ’05, almost exactly a year ago today. Though that’s another day that I try to forget… -ed PART II ALTERED MYSPACE ALIENPAYBACK YOUTUBE