Daniel_Runyon
Well-known member
The stuff about Mewes/Rehab/Promises is absolutely true. During the making of Jersey Girl (dont recall the exact "phase" of developement), Mewes discovered that there was an active warrant out for his arrest due to not showing up in court for a past herion charge in Jersey. There were various triggers that led him to spend about a year wandering the country as a maintainence addict, and it was during this time that I saught to help him in a sort of unique way, and yadda yadda yadda ( :grin: ) he was set to come down and play a part in a movie I created for him (during which time I was going to "administer" my aid" when about one week later he turned himself in and went to rehab. While he was in rehab, Kevin made him the promise that if he would stay clean when he got out, he would make another J&SB movie, as Jason had been begging him to keep making them...when Jason got out, he moved in with Kevin and his family and stayed clean.
Now, I'm not at all saying that the other factors have nothing to do with Passion being created....regaining his cred, getting back to roots, whatever, but the above is 100% true.
As for Hornet, yes, Kevin was indeed slated to direct, and even when initially asked was afraid he couldnt handle such a project, but did indeed later bow out. As far as I know, Fletch is still happening at a later point. Kevin initially wanted Jason Lee in the lead, but Harvey wouldnt have it...said he wasnt bankable enough. Perhaps that will change with Earl. My opinion, Fletch would be awesome with Lee, but Hornet, or any other comic movie really, is lame to me.
All of the above info was gleaned from simply reading Kevins forum from time to time, direct posts from him. But the heroin thing I know 1st hand as a direct fact, through both personal interaction with Mewes, knowing his whereabouts during that time, and speaking with the producers of a movie he was working on at the time, which he was fired from for failing a drug test. This took place during a very strange part of my life, and I will never forget the part it played in the genesis of my life as a movie maker. As a matter of fact, it lead to an intervention set up by several members of my family who thought I had totally flipped. My mom didnt even believe that an actor from known movies was coming down to be in my production....she kept insisting that I "call that man" for her so she could ask him herself! Can you imagine calling up someone like that and saying "My mom doesnt believe me, will you please tell her"!!! That would have been to funny. She had no concept of how ridiculous I would look.
I've never told that little story publically...hope you'll forgive my wee little bit of self indulgence. Obviously nothing came of it, but it did serve as a nice fat inspiration boost to be able to experience something so unique so early in my "career"...it gave me a strange confidence that I could pull off more than I would have otherwise believed myself.
Just for shits and grins, I'll tell you about his character. He was going to play himself (uncredited...non union movie) as having joined a Tibetan Buddhism monestary...the most enlightened monk there...the wise man. Jason didnt even know this himself...we had just hit it off in a phone conversation and he was just willing to help me out. Beautiful guy, really. I was going to try to help him break both his character typecast (which I told him) and hopefully through that, his own personality typecast (that was part of my covert therapy). I devised all this when I found out that publically his whereabouts had been unknown for a while, and then that he was an addict, and that he was only about 4 hours from me working on a shitty movie. I was going to use his public "disappearence" to feed the monk character...that he had realized all the people who surrounded him were only there because of his fame, and this caused him to rething his life. I wanted this character to seep through to his real self and hopefully make a real difference. All I told him was that it would be very much outside his usual box, and that it would be an opportunity to rebuild himself. He seemed to like that idea a lot.
Now, I'm not at all saying that the other factors have nothing to do with Passion being created....regaining his cred, getting back to roots, whatever, but the above is 100% true.
As for Hornet, yes, Kevin was indeed slated to direct, and even when initially asked was afraid he couldnt handle such a project, but did indeed later bow out. As far as I know, Fletch is still happening at a later point. Kevin initially wanted Jason Lee in the lead, but Harvey wouldnt have it...said he wasnt bankable enough. Perhaps that will change with Earl. My opinion, Fletch would be awesome with Lee, but Hornet, or any other comic movie really, is lame to me.
All of the above info was gleaned from simply reading Kevins forum from time to time, direct posts from him. But the heroin thing I know 1st hand as a direct fact, through both personal interaction with Mewes, knowing his whereabouts during that time, and speaking with the producers of a movie he was working on at the time, which he was fired from for failing a drug test. This took place during a very strange part of my life, and I will never forget the part it played in the genesis of my life as a movie maker. As a matter of fact, it lead to an intervention set up by several members of my family who thought I had totally flipped. My mom didnt even believe that an actor from known movies was coming down to be in my production....she kept insisting that I "call that man" for her so she could ask him herself! Can you imagine calling up someone like that and saying "My mom doesnt believe me, will you please tell her"!!! That would have been to funny. She had no concept of how ridiculous I would look.
I've never told that little story publically...hope you'll forgive my wee little bit of self indulgence. Obviously nothing came of it, but it did serve as a nice fat inspiration boost to be able to experience something so unique so early in my "career"...it gave me a strange confidence that I could pull off more than I would have otherwise believed myself.
Just for shits and grins, I'll tell you about his character. He was going to play himself (uncredited...non union movie) as having joined a Tibetan Buddhism monestary...the most enlightened monk there...the wise man. Jason didnt even know this himself...we had just hit it off in a phone conversation and he was just willing to help me out. Beautiful guy, really. I was going to try to help him break both his character typecast (which I told him) and hopefully through that, his own personality typecast (that was part of my covert therapy). I devised all this when I found out that publically his whereabouts had been unknown for a while, and then that he was an addict, and that he was only about 4 hours from me working on a shitty movie. I was going to use his public "disappearence" to feed the monk character...that he had realized all the people who surrounded him were only there because of his fame, and this caused him to rething his life. I wanted this character to seep through to his real self and hopefully make a real difference. All I told him was that it would be very much outside his usual box, and that it would be an opportunity to rebuild himself. He seemed to like that idea a lot.
