Nearly eight years ago I got together with my good friends Jon Grundvig and Zach Bjorge at a diner not too far from my home to begin planning a feature length film project (something we had attempted several times with only marginal success). Infatuated at the time with Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring, we began putting together a story that would blend elements of fantasy adventure with Simpsons-esque comedy. That was the beginning of Thomas Destiny which premiered two and a half years later on April 16th 2004 at the Organ Loft theatre in Salt Lake City, Utah.What is Thomas Destiny about? Thomas Destiny is a classic story much in the spirit of the Alice In Wonderland, The Wizard of OZ, and The Lord of the Rings about an unlikely hero far removed from home who gets called upon to save the world. Along the way he meets companions who aid him in his quest all the while struggling to overcome his own weaknesses and self doubts. But instead of meeting the normal (operative word here) types of fantasy allies and enemies, Thomas is thrown into a world where the bizarre is commonplace and many of the fantasy genre’s cliché’s are mocked.
So what’s the big deal about a bunch of film maker wannabe’s getting together to shoot a home movie about swords and sorcery? It’s not like that hasn’t ever been done before. True, and much of the movie’s value is sentimental. However, there was a certain magic about the project that clearly shines through on screen. First of all, this film was produced by an all volunteer cast and crew for an estimated two thousand dollars. No one got paid, yet from pre-production to principle photography to post, everyone made sacrifices to bring the story to life. All of us had regular full time jobs and would get together after work and on the weekends, drive all of over Utah (sometimes for hours) just to work on “our” movie. It was an impressive thing to consider the level of dedication to something we all knew was being undertaken simply for the love of film making. And although Thomas Destiny has some minor production quality faux pas, it looks and feels like a professional production with a unique mixture of comedy, drama, action, and adventure. Enjoy the Special Edition!
4 comments:
I can't believe there is no mention of the precursor "Thomas Thomas Thomas" That is still one of the funniest things I have ever seen.
Uh...I don't know what you're talking about....
Thomas Thomas Thomas was a film in which Ewan McGregor stars as Lincoln Six-Echo, a white jumpsuit wearing, tennis shoe missing young man who is having bad dreams and who increasingly questions the world around him. Also clad in a clingy white jumpsuit is Scarlett Johansson as Jordan Two-Delta. Actually everyone in the world these two inhabit wear white jumpsuits. It’s the required uniform in the sanitary, sterile, carefully controlled facility in which they live.
The facility residents, all of whom have their food intake monitored and their health checked on a continual basis, live for just one thing: to be chosen to win a trip to The Island. Supposedly The Island is the only place that wasn’t contaminated when an ecological disaster wiped out the entire population of Earth.
But something’s literally bugging Lincoln Six-Echo. When he discovers a moth inside the building, he starts to question where it came from. If one moth exists, what else is outside the walls? The old expression curiosity killed the cat can also be applied to clones as Lincoln Six-Echo grabs Jordan Two-Delta and hightails it out of the facility, with a whole slew of security people (and a squad of professional killers) ordered to hunt them down.
Once in the real world, Lincoln Six-Echo and Jordan Two-Delta - with the help of Steve Buscemi as a facility worker who sets them straight – figure out they’re clones. They’re merely living beings created to be used as harvest material should their human counterparts become sick or need spare parts. Pissed off and immediately deciding they’d rather live with all their extremities and internal organs intact, thank you very much, they set off to find the people who had them created – the real humans who paid to be cloned.
I honestly do not remember writing that last comment. I cannot believe I would actually compare something as magical as Thomas Destiny to something as devastatingly horrible as a Michael Bay film. I apologize. I also need to apologize for my blatant rip-off of my favorite video game at the time, Final Fantasy 3 (American 3). It really wasn't on purpose, I just wasn't creative. Aside from the inconvenience of audio dubbing I caused, this film holds a special place in my heart and I am so saddened that I was not able to be a larger part of it. When I watched it for the first time, I actually sat there in awe of the time, effort, creativity, energy, and love you guys put into it. I honestly did not expect something so well done. After all, even though I do not know what Scott is talking about, I did happen to catch that flick he mentioned. That thing was an atrocity that actually does not exist in our dimension. Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe it is on a "parallel plane....".... I hate getting old.
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