GUNS OF POWDER RIVER RELEASE

It's finally here! We thought we would have this one out in July, but at last we are able to offer our 226th production - GUNS OF POWDER RIVER in download format. GUNS is a feature length program, and I think fans of the show will enjoy it (hopefully even non-fans :)

Most of the cast from season one returned to Studio G for the May 26th recording session: Shane Clarke, Sam Donato (from Florida no less), Cynthia Pape, Lincoln Clark, and it was great how everyone just fell into the old characters and made everything click. Chris Snyder did an outstanding post production. We are planning to release our next Powder River feature, POWDER RIVER and the MOUNTAIN OF GOLD late this fall, with our special guest stars Rex Trailer and Sgt. Billy O'Brien! But that's later! Right now - here's GUNS OF POWDER RIVER

ON XM AUG. 13 - 31

CAPTAIN BLOOD returns for a three week run on SONIC THEATER, XM. CH 163. Dramatized from the book by RAFAEL SABATINI.
MON: Kirke's Dragoons
TUE: Human Merchandise
WED: Plans of Escape
THU: Pirates!
FRI: The Rebel-Convicts

Late Night Conversation

I thought we would have released GUNS OF POWDER RIVER by now (I had promised mid-July), and hopefully we will have it on Spoken Net this week, and XM shortly afterward. I'm at the mercy of our editors, and I can only push so much. I haven't edited a show myself since DANDELION WINE a year ago! Sad to say our editor in Australia who I raved about has not worked out, as he left the FATHER BROWN project hanging with two incomplete acts of two different episodes, and an entire episode. Unprofessional and frustrating has been the experience "down under." He did great work, but if you don't deliver, you dont deliver.End of story. End of case. I should have noticed something was wrong as far back as April, when my eyebrow was first raised at one of the many excuses. I must be slipping, or getting old. The shows will now be completed by Chris Snyder when he gets a chance, but my hope of getting FATHER BROWN released this fall is pretty much crushed.

TOM SWIFT is now in post-production and sounds just fine! I think folks will like this little slice of Americana from the early 1900's.

We have upgraded our entire music department with the worlds best music software program! This cost a bundle and I am dying to hear the results. We are now in talks to bring a TV/ Movie Icon to life in Audio (as I mentioned before), and its possible that that production will be the first to debut with our new music program.

This coming week we have new air times on XM Radio. We were lucky, as many shows got the axe. We have a lot of loyal fans on XM, and they let XM know it! Our new times are ok, and we cant complain. We are going into our third season with Sonic Theater! THE DIBBLE SHOW is now airing Thursdays at 3:30, EST. Not the best slot for Dibble, which is mostly for kids (it will run 12:30 in the West, during school hours), but we'll take it. The staff at XM have been very good to us.

POWDER RIVER continues to generate fan mail here at CRT! We've had requests for autographed photos, scripts, caps, mugs. I think we need to get some stuff made up; what do you think?

It's a great feeling knowing that POWDER RIVER has caught on. The other night I was listening to the Radio Classics station on XM. It was an old Lone Ranger show from 65 years ago. I started wondering if, perhaps 65 years from now, when I'm long gone, if someone would be listening to a POWDER RIVER episode saying "Man, this thing was recorded 65 years ago!" It's a nice feeling, knowing that someone who perhaps isnt even born yet, might be enjoying your work years from now. I hope so, anyway.

3:10 To Yuma

Hey you Powder River fans, here's some cool news! On Sept. 7th the BEST
WESTERN in YEARS is going to be released nation wide! It's called 3:10
To Yuma, and it stars Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, and Peter Fonda.
Tonight I saw a sneak preview with J.T. Turner in Boston -with Peter
Fonda in the house! I can't say enough about this one. Wait till you
see it! Tonights screening had no credits and a slapped on music track -
but without all that, it is a powerful gutsy western the way John Ford
used to make them! Wait till you see it!You're gonna love it! Peter
Fonda delivers one of his best performances, and brings the Fonda
legend back to the classic westerns. Man oh man, what a night!
Hollywood can still deliver!

Ernie Day

I was very saddened to have read that Ernest Day had died this past November. Ernie was an INCREDIBLE cameraman, Director of Photography, and Second Unit Director.
I met Ernie in the summer of 1987 when I was in Montreal to start work on the film APRIL MORNING that was to Star Robert Urich and Tommy Lee Jones. Pretty much all of my two weeks on the picture was with second unit, and I got to know Ernie very well on the set. I couldn't believe I was working with the man who photographed LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, and I let him know it! We had a lot of laughs, and he was very giving of his time to me with all my questions about shooting a picture. A couple of days on the set when the rain poured down, he invited me to sit in the camera truck and we would discuss all the films he had worked on. He also gave me some really cool bits to do in the picture, and those are two weeks that I will always remember with great fondness. I wrote to him a couple of times after the movie ended, but, after time, as it is with many shows, the cast and crew drift apart. The last time I saw him was in the production office of the movie, and as I was leaving he said "I think we made a good one here!" I said something back like, "We'll do it again!" Well, we never did, and I never saw him again after that day.

I thought about him today, looked him up, and saw that he had passed away. A wonderful man. He was nominated for an Academy Award for A PASSAGE TO INDIA. Some of the films he photographed include BECKET, EXODUS, THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS. STONE, LORD JIM, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, RYANS DAUGHTER, NICHOLAS AND ALEXANDRA, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, MOONRAKER, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, RAMBO 3, APRIL MORNING, and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, his final credited film.

So you've seen his work. Next time you see one of these pictures, know that they were shot by a good guy. a real good guy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATE

Our friend Kate Phillips turned 94 on July 19th! Kate was known in her
Hollywood years as Kay Linaker, and appeared in featured roles in such
pictures as DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK with Henry Fonda, BLOOD AND SAND
with Tyrone Power, KITTY FOYLE with Ginger Rogers, THE INVISIBLE MAN
with John Barrymore and many more, including a few CHARLIE CHAN
pictures! I met Kate in 2003 when she saw our BIG CHRISTMAS RADIO BROADCAST OF 1946 at the Claremont Opera House in NH. She's quite a lady, and has
known everyone from Bing Crosby (she used to babysit his kids, and
said the claims of abuse is "bull"). Glenn Miller, Errol Flynn, and on
and on. Kate also wrote the screenplay for the motion picture THE BLOB, as well as a ton of radio shows and TV shows, including BONANZA and LASSIE. She gave me some great pointers on script writing! Kate still teaches film at Keene State College! She doesnt have
a computer, so she won't see this posting, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY anyway,
Kate! She's one amazing lady. ~JR

Show Biz Royalty

I'm in Cohasset MA tonight with Liza Minnelli! (She has GOT to guest star on THE DIBBLE SHOW- how cool would THAT be?).

This week I'll see the first storyboards for THE DIBBLE SHOW from our friends up in Toronto at HoC! I can't wait to see how it's developing. Also, we are now in talks with a rather successful motion picture producer in CA about bringing an iconic character to life in a radio series! This is VERY exciting stuff, and I hope I can tell you all about it soon.
Also, in another couple of days I will be able to announce our third collaboration with Ray Bradbury, but we have to wait until the agents do their thing.

New Times on XM

After a comfortable two years in a nice time slot on XM Radio, Colonial is being moved to a NEW spot on Sonic Theatre! CRT will now be heard at 4am, 12pm, 6pm EST, and THE DIBBLE SHOW will air on Thursdays at 3:30pm! All this starts August 6th. All in all, not bad.

SONY - Entertaining the Future, and RUINING my schedule.

You know, there was a time when I SWORE by SONY. Everything in "sound" the I had was built by them. I had a CD player that lasted 18 years! EIGHTEEN YEARS! It still works - the only reason I replaced it was because it would not play back computer burned CD's (I dont think those were commonplace back then). Then I got a NEW player, that would play the computer burned CD's. It died after three years. Just took on a mind of its own and would not play the right tracks or the right CD's, or would start playing them then switch to something else all on its now.
So now I find myself using a sound editor from SONY and it causes me nothing but headaches and ulcers. Today alone I ditched 5 CD's when this "entertaining the future" system failed to burn all the tracks that were programmed. SONY, while you are "Entertaining the future" I suggest you spend some time entertaining how to make your products actually work properly "today." And I wish to thank you for putting me several hours behind schedule.Love and kisses - JR

DIBBLE CROSSING

From his Radio series to his TV series - Dibble is getting closer to coming to the tube (well, they're not tubes anymore, are they?)! Just a teaser :)