I first came to Hollywood, Studio City to be more exact, in 2003, backed by wealthy friends from my highly successful real estate days in Chicago. They believed in me for seven long years, and I delivered on my promise by making three films during that time. The heartbreak was that those movies didn’t catch on enough to make their money back. It’s still my dream to repay those early believers in my talent to shift from a real estate developer into a filmmaker—not in dollars except for one brilliant and loyal guy who never stopped believing and supporting my dream, but in appreciation, gratitude for the start they gave me, and by letting them share in the fun of what I feel is coming now: a new kind of rock star status, with Elizabeth at my side.
What it takes to make it in Hollywood is equal parts talent, connections, and luck. I’ve had all three—but my luck has sometimes been brutal. How often do two executive producers die mid pre-production within in a seven year span?
After those epic Hollywood setbacks, I took a twelve-year hiatus. Instead of pitching feature film scripts, I dove into the world of filming quantum planetary meditation events, traveling the globe and filming the greats of the New Age movement—Deepak Chopra, Dr. Patrick Flanagan, Don Miguel Ruiz, and more. It was a groovy era, but I watched the scene slowly corrode under the weight of old-age racism, anti-vax conspiracies, and Q-driven hard-right nonsense. That sent me packing after a short Denver stopover, back to California last year.
Yet that spiritual quest gave me more than just adventures. The biggest gift I brought back—besides finding Elizabeth, my wife and producing partner Elizabeth England, sweet yet strong, and suggested to me as the perfect mate by an ET guide who has proved time and again infinitely accurate—was this: I finally learned — with a lot of help from Elizabeth — to accept love. For years I deemed myself unworthy of my fans, my friends, even my family. The truth was simpler—I was afraid they’d discover I wasn’t worthy. Now I know it’s time to love on my friends, family, and fans—and let them love me back.
Once back in California last year, I dusted off the past. With Elizabeth, I rescued eight of twelve finished and as many half-finished screenplays from an ancient Chicago-bought Toshiba laptop I had written them on before switching to Macs in LA. Elizabeth proofed while I updated the first three scripts for 2025 audiences. It was a labor of love constantly interrupted by my musings on Trump’s alternate-universe antics—and by my bad habit of consuming way too much news about his real-world fuckery.
Satire has always been part of my DNA. I laughed this week when the South Park creators took it to a place even I haven’t gone in my TrumpsFeverDream.com musings—Trump getting Satan pregnant. That’s an epic dig. This author of the the coming book MAR-A-LAGO PRISON I will be watching closely to how these brave creators are treated.
Still, I believe Trump is fading, and something new is arriving. The cosmic traveler 3i/Atlas has become a personal symbol of that shift. Elizabeth and I have named our three-film slate the 3i/Atlas Film Fund. These are my best low-to-medium budget screenplays, polished and ready, backed by Largo AI’s analysis showing strong ROI potential.
Now, as I circle back to my Chicago roots, I plan to reconnect with the backers who first believed in me—and even visit with one of the most amazing clients of my days as Chicago’s number one broker and developer in the late ’80s and early ’90s, according to the awards I won from the Chicago Sun-Times: none other than Oprah Winfrey. Yes, this is going to be huge.
With Elizabeth at my side, Largo’s AI insights to how awesome my work is, 29 years of films, and a little luck this time, I’m betting the merry-go-round goes all the way around and we grab the ring.
