As you guys know- I have constantly had to find innovative ways to get around the system to get Hatchet made and distributed.  For those that have heard me speak at any of the conventions, festivals, or appearances on my tour- you’ve heard about me “borrowing” the cable company’s equipment, stealing food off of plates in the restaurant I worked in, and all of that stuff.  Well with our upcoming theatrical release- we have virtually no financial powerhouse behind us.  Every now and then you hear of one of those stories where an indie movie just so happens to get picked up by a place who can afford to blow it out on 2,000 screens with 20 million in P&A behind it just to see if it sticks. And they get to open at decent numbers and declare themselves the “1 movie in America” and all of that stuff.

Well- that ain’t us.  We’re gonna have to earn every inch that we get the hard way and start on a small amount of screens across the country.  No national TV ads or billboards, etc.  Just the fans and word of mouth.  We are less than the underdogs…but we keep finding ways to pull things off.

Now, I consider myself at the top of my ‘indie’ game having pulled off my first movie (Coffee & Donuts) without spending more than $400.  I’m pretty resourceful when it comes to “finding a way”.  But then I met Jonanthan Saba from Anchor Bay.

You may recall my story about Jonathan from an earlier blog, where he went to find a bottle of Jack Daniels at 2 in the morning in San Diego during Comic-Con.  When he showed up- triumphantly waving it as he stepped out of the cab…he dropped it.  As sad as he was- the cast and I have never laughed so hard.

At an earlier stop on the tour in Chicago, he actually figured out a way to call the front desk of the hotel at 4am and convince the hotel manager to go out and buy us beer.  One of these days I need to bring a video camera and tape one of these calls.  They are HILARIOUS- and they actually work.  “Steven- you just said that for a million dollars, you would figure out a way to get us more beer.  That means that there IS a price and that there is a way we can work this out.  Let’s start over again.  Hi, I’m Jon.”

By the way, it may sound from those two stories that we are all a bunch of drunken fools on the road- but actually- we’re just fools.  These two stories just happen to center around alcohol.

Anyway- we’ve got HATCHET coming out in 3 weeks and we are Davey vs. Goliath.  Everyone in the HATCHET camp- both behind the scenes of the movie and on Anchor Bay’s team is constantly figuring out a way to make things happen- even though we really can’t afford to do the same things as the “big boys” that we are going up against.  But then Jonathan Saba suggested this great idea to go to WWE events and raise awareness of HATCHET there.  Though we have the real KANE HODDER and not that other guy who stole his name and wrestles- the WWE audience is surely a good cross section of our potential audience.

But what was he gonna do?  Stand in the parking lot and pass out fliers?

For those that have been to a horror convention lately- you’ve probably seen Jonathan working the Anchor Bay booth- getting fans to chant “Crowley” and gather around the monitors to watch Victor Crowley kill some folks.  It’s amazing watching his enthusiasm and watching him work.  But seriously…WWE events happen in HUGE arenas and it’s a big deal.  What could he possibly talk his way into accomplishing there?

This morning I got these photos in my inbox.  They are from last night’s wrestling match in the SOLD OUT Madison Square Garden in New York City.