Bless Them All was chosen by the Sundance Institute 2004-selection committee, for the final round of the Sundance feature film screenwriters lab. Susan Aston, professor of the Actors studio, has read it since, and guided me through the rewrite process. West Coast script doctor, Penny Allen has provided me with suggestions, on which areas needed work. She said, "the first eighty pages are sensational". Susan Batson has also read it, and has given me her guidance. I have taken every suggestion to the best of my ability, from these three brilliant women, and I am grateful for their guidance. New Orleans legend Dr. John played the title song Bless Them All at the reading, and wants to score the movie. He says "Johnny it's good because you come from the heart, it's the best script I ever heard. I grew up in the Bronx in the 60's, and this screenplay is inspired by my experiences- my life. I wrote and performed my one-man show Bless Them All, at the Knitting Factory, The Bowery Poetry club, and Mopitkins in New York City, which is the foundation of this screenplay. I have written and performed in a variety of venues: theatre, film, spoken word, poetry, performance art, and presently work as an actor in theatre, film, and television. I've studied screenwriting at New York University, Acting with William Hickey at H.B. Studio, and at The Lee Strasberg Institute. I invite you to read my work.
"There's not much difference between junkies and wiseguys they both gamble with their lives everyday, they both love to steal, and they both live for the action. Oh, there is one difference, the junkies shot themselves and the wiseguys shot everyone else" (2/117).
Bless Them All documents the history of the Bronx, N.Y., in 1969. When the junkies, the wiseguys, the hoodlums, and the hippies, all hung out on the same street. Suped up metallic blue Malibu's, and candy apple red GTO's, raced and roared the streets. Seen through the eyes of an Italian American teenager Joey, who grows up in a working-class household headed by his father Carmine, a World War II Marine. Carmine has been greatly affected due to the atrocities of war. Joey witnesses his father's irrational thinking and his violent behavior. The other men that Joey has in life as role models, are either junkies or wiseguys. Joeys confusion and hopelessness lead him to a life as a junkie, although he wants to be a wiseguy. He works for the wiseguys for a while, but his heroin addiction takes hold, and gets involved with a plot to rob the bosses of the neighborhood. The wiseguys spare him but not the heroin. Years later, Joey discovers he never wanted to be a wiseguy - a killer, or a junkie and a thief. His life as a dope addict leads him to revelations about himself, his creative passion, and a new way of life. This film is about how war affects the family life, about addiction, compassion, and perseverance, about lost dreams awakened. It's a story about an addict's journey to freedom. This is a film that has never been made, that needs to be made- to help heal future generations for the 21st Century.
UPDATE:
We had a screenplay reading at Studio Dante (Michael Imperioli's Theater in NYC) with a great cast including; Michael Esper, Peter Appel, Brian Tarantina, Karen Giordano, John Tormey, Christina Brucato, Richard Mover, Saul Stein,
Joe Barbara, John Lanzillotto, and Dr. John who played some of Bless Them All's sound track. It was a great night!
We are ready for a greenlight!
