Live Animals trailer

My buddies, director Jeremy Benson and producer/composer Mark Williams are just about finished with post production their 5th feature film. "Live Animals" deals with the white slave traffic. It stars John Still from Craig Brewer's Hustle & Flow and The Poor & Hungry. I've watched these guys grow as filmmakers over the past six years. The fact that my scenes in Live Animals ended up on the cutting room floor is proof that Jeremy has matured as a director! This is by far the best work by Jeremy and Mark. I predict that you will be seeing this title soon at either the theater or video store.

CLICK HERE to view the trailer for Live Animals.

Jeremy's 4th film was the 2005 horror film Shutter which also starred John Still as a homicidal redneck. The movie opened some doors for Jeremy with a couple of producers. If you look close toward the end of the trailer you can see me get my head cut off with a shovel!!!

CLICK HERE to view the trailer for Jeremy Benson's 4th feature, Shutter.

Click Here to read an archived review of Shutter at Entertainment Insiders.

As long as I'm passing out the love to my friend, here are a couple of more links to give you an idea of a guy you will be hearing from very soon.


Jeremy and Mark's third feature film, The Smallest Oceans was an intense drama about fatherhood. This movie marked the beginning of Jeremy leap from amateur movie maker to a real director. The movie won Honorable Mention as Best Feature Film at the 2005 New York International Independent Film & Video Festival.

Click Here to read Jonathan Hickman's review of The Smallest Oceans at Entertainment Insiders.

I met Jeremy in 2001 when he and Mark rented a local theater to show their first movie Friday's Menu. The comedy showed a lot of promise. It has its share of flaws but there are some great moments of comedy in the film.

Click Here to read my archived review of Friday's Menu from Entertainment Insiders, and Click Here to read my 2001 interview with Jeremy.

Just so you don't think this is a fluff piece of me kissing my friends's ass, Jeremy's second film Nothing But Flowers is a total piece of crap which I refused to review. It does however contain a topless lap-dance scene by Peaches.

EInsiders Obituary Column Archive

Just wanted to let you know that I will be archiving all of the obituary columns from EInsiders on this blog. It will take some time to post, upload photos and reformat. Took about an hour to put in the January 2001 column last night. I thought it would be a good idea to have a back up of the columns on this site.

Charlie Joffe???

Heard from a source today that agent/Oscar-winning producer Charlie Joffe died yesterday. I haven't been able to find another confirmation but my source was someone in the industry. Mr. Joffe is (or was) one of the most powerful managers in the industry. Clients include Woody Allen, David Letterman, etc. He won a Best Picture Oscar for Annie Hall. Produced nearly all of Woody Allen's films.

UPDATE: It made the LA Times today (July 12), but you heard it hear first!

RE: Christine Finn

Reader John Horrox came up with the confirmation I needed. Ms. Finn's passing was reported in the bmd section of the Times last December. I'll be adding Ms. Finn's tribute to my December 2007 column at EInsiders. Thanks for the help John!

Off Topic Post: Whatever Became of...

There have been actresses and actors who seemed to be here one day and gone the next. Not dead, but just away from the movie business. I don't want to impose on anyone's privacy, but I've often wondered what ever happened to the actresses Joy Bang and Jenny Wright. Joy Bang was great in Roger Vadim's Pretty Maids All in a Row and countless other films from the early 1970s. Then she's gone. I would love to interview her about her experiences in the movies back in the day. Then there is the blond beauty Jenny Wright: Garp, The Executioner's Song and of course Near Dark...then she vanishes. She sure had a mysterious quality to her. I guess I miss her screen presence for selfish reasons.

Where ever those ladies are, I hope they are happy and "thanks for what you left us on screen!"

How about you. Who do you miss...or wonder where they went?

UPDATE: Thought I'd post Arbogast's comment here and add a picture of the lovely Traci Lind.

ARBOGAST: There was a busy young actress in the late 80s to mid-90s named Traci Lind who appeared in Survival Quest, Fright Night 2, and Wim Wenders' The End of Violence, among other films... and then (seemingly) vanished. Knowing how the Industry grinds up pretty young things, I'm not surprised when one of the more successful ones opts out of the sausage factory and into something like a normal life. But I would love to know how all these gals are. Wright is another favorite of mine.

RE: Brian Langley

Once again reader Cathy Ellis came through with two confirming links. Thanks Cathy!

Bryan Langley

James M posted this on the Voy Board: The hunt is on!

According to the BFI, Bryan Langley passed away on February 1st of this year. I could find no other supporting information.

It is sad that his death has not been reported anywhere else as this man had worked with Hitchcock many times and had been a director of photography for his film Number 17 (1932)!

Hos other films include Blossom Time (1934), Miranda (1948), Dark Eyes of London (1940, starring Bela Lugosi) and Bond Street (1948) and worked as special effects cameraman on Night of the Demon (1957), 1984 (1956) and several Lewis Gilbert directed films of the 1950s.