LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR

Emotions stirred in the Sci-Fi world.

Long lost unfinished film by Ed Wood found - reality or myth?

Sci-Fi sensational discovery:  Is an old Sci-Fi flick unearthed recently,

a genuine Ed Wood, unfinished last attempt?

Persistent rumors: old time Sci-Fi mystery resolved.

Did Ed Wood leave an unfinished movie behind?

A few months ago I got a phone call from my friend, the scriptwriter Sam Oldham. The excitement and urgency in his voice told me something was up. I felt right away that this call was going to change things for me. And I was right.

A little background my friend Sam is a devoted, if not fanatic, fan of old sci-fi flicks. VHS, DVD, posters, props, magazines, websites, you name it. Forbidden Planet, This Island Earth, Queen of Outer Space, Ed Wood, Robby the Robot these are the kind of movies he lives for. When he called me, he was working for minimum wage at one of the small, dinghy, forgotten film vaults that exist all over Hollywood. His job was to check the condition of old negatives and prints stored in rusting tin cans, to see if any were worth saving, and catalog them.

Before we get to Sams life changing phone call, there is another important fact. You all know of Ed Wood, director of the infamous Plan 9 From Outer Space, the man who was crowned as the worst director of all time. Tim Burton chose to make a movie about his life starring Johnny Depp, remember? If you surf the Internet youll find lots of sites devoted to Ed Wood and his work, with something cult like surrounding this man and his legions of devoted followers. Ed Woods name is connected to quite a few tacky Hollywood projects, from cheap sci-fi to soft porn. But for many years, rumors have been circulating in Hollywood about one last project Ed Wood started but never finished. He either ran out of money or died before it was finished, depending on who tells the story. Ed Wood was so strange, that it is not unlikely that such a film, or part of a film, really exists. The supposed title of the lost film was Amazon Women From Outer Space, definitely a typical Ed Wood title. Nobody has ever confirmed it, and no one has come up with any evidence to authenticate the rumors, but nevertheless, they keep resurfacing again and again over the years. Not long ago a lost and forgotten Ed Wood script was found and is now being produced if actual footage from an Ed Wood film was to show up, it would definitely stir up excitement in the sci-fi film crowd.

Now back to the phone call! Sam Oldham is on the phone with me, sounding emotional and excited, and tells me that he has just come across a few dilapidated reels of celluloid tucked away on a hard to reach, cobweb covered shelf. After running it through the film viewer, he now strongly believes that this is it. He has hit the jackpot and has discovered the lost Amazon Women From Outer Space. I am notoriously skeptical when it comes to sensational information, so my first reaction to Sams revelation was less than enthusiastic. On the other hand, I know Sam and his vast knowledge in the field of sci-fi films. The guy can recite 20-minute passages from any old horror or sci-fi flick, so no matter what else I was thinking; I had to give him the benefit of the doubt. It was after midnight, but Sam asked me to come down and look at the footage. I found myself twenty minutes later in a pitch-dark alley off Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood, knocking at the back door; two minutes later we both hunched over the viewer, checking out the moving images on the small square glass. Despite the fact that I am not an expert in old sci-fi flicks, nor in Ed Woods filmography, it struck me immediately that my film pal might be right. The yards and yards of unedited material we viewed were so tacky, so ridiculous, and so incoherent, that they definitely had the Ed Wood touch. It was full of Amazon looking women running around in skimpy outfits, but it just might be the forgotten and lost last attempt by Ed Woods. The cans and boxes were not labeled, and the scenes were not slated, so there was no way to determine whether Sam was right. None of the actresses was even remotely familiar either. We knew right away that the first step would be to contact experts and scholars in the area, to help us authenticate, recover, and maybe even restore the remnants of the historic Amazon Women From Outer Space.

The next few weeks were devoted to sampling the material, and running it by people we believed were authorities on Ed Wood film historians, critics, directors, sci-fi buffs, Ed Wood fans, trekkies, and the heavy duty hard core sci-fi B movie crowd. This process proved to be an emotional roller coaster for us. As soon as one person supported the Ed Wood theory, another would dismiss it as preposterous. Since I did not obtain permission from the people we approached to use their names, I am unable to mention them, but suffice it to say that among them were some pretty big names and Sam and I were nervous wrecks.

One of the people we approached was a hard-core sci-fi fan and long time trekkie, Dr. Elliott Haimoff, Ph.D. A documentary producer, Elliott was so excited when he heard about our discovery, he immediately insisted on joining us on our mission. We decided that the evidence was heavily weighted on the side of the footage actually being Ed Wood material and as a trio of producer, director, and writer; we resolved to rescue and restore the treasure we had found.

The first step was to purchase the original negatives and prints that were part of that mystery package. Sam gathered each and every piece of film that existed in the vault that he suspected was related to the same production. Since copy rights and ownership could not be established, the vault management sold us the film by the pound and we launched into our next task, which was to try and make sense of it all. It was basically a collection of takes and we had no slates and no script to follow so we didnt know the storyline nor which take belonged to which scene, nor could we determine the order of the scenes. If you know the type of movie I am talking about, then you know what I mean. At first glance this movie fell into that type of category a thin or incoherent story with complete disregard for continuity or logic. So it was time to catalog the material and attempt to edit it.

Now enters the story the editor Danny Hooten, another diehard sci-fi buff (they tend to stick together). He gets hooked on the project and decides to join our group, lending his editing computer to the task. Three months of hard work, seated in front of Dannys computer, three months of trials and tribulations, hits and misses, endless combinations of trying to fit puzzle pieces resulted in an Ed Wood-ish type of movie the most hideous, ridiculous, campy, tacky sci-fi we ever saw. But nonetheless a film, even though it had a stupid storyline, bad acting, and awful dialogue. It was one ugly baby, worse than Plan 9 From Outer Space and we fell in love with it immediately. The plan was to get it the right exposure, bring it out to the public so the sci-fi crowd could judge it for themselves. The only problem was that the finished product was too short, only 62 minutes long, and it had no beginning and no end. It was clear that this movie, that we now officially called Amazon Women From Outer Space was never completed. As exciting as it was, we all felt unsatisfied and that our mission had not been completed. Discussing and debating our predicament, we made the decision to go the extra mile and attempt to extend and complete Amazon Women into a 90-minute full feature, with a beginning, middle, and end. It was too good to neglect.

Having in our group a writer, a producer, an editor, and myself a director, we were confident that we could pull it off, whatever it took in terms of money, talent, work, and time. Sam Oldham sat down to compose a script around the existing material, with a storyline consistent with the genre. In the new script a central character was added to the plot, a man. In the revamped story, the Amazon women from outer space realize they need a male in order to produce the next generation, so after a long intergalactic search, they find the ideal male on planet earth. They invade the planet and kidnap their chosen male to impregnate their civilization to ensure the next generation of Amazon women of outer space. With a male at the center of the new script, the title of the new movie became The Interplanetary Surplus Male and Amazon Women of Outer Space.

Thirty minutes worth of movie had to be produced in order to complete the film and August 2002 was set for photography. A crew was assembled and all the parts have been cast, including the surplus male (David Rabius), the emissary to earth (Elise Muller), and the Amazon queen (Sherry Goggin). In keeping with the character of the original material, most of the Amazon women come from the world of female body building and wrestling, including Monica LaBlanc, Brenda Kelly, Sherrie Jackson, Kellie Peters, Eve Monroe, Cynthia Bridges, Timea Majorova, Nicole Rollolazzo, Valentina Chepiga, Lauren Powers, Jayne Trcka, Amy Smith, and many more. All participants are competing champions, professionals and amateurs, in national and worldwide tours. In addition Michael Dorn of Star Track series joined in for guest appearance.

Despite the fact that at the last minute our financial backer pulled out and left us with no money for production, the entire cast and crew stayed on and worked for deferred payment in order to complete the 18-day shoot. Miraculously the filming was completed to my satisfaction, using credit cards and other funds our producer successfully scraped together here and there. Now, with all the material in the can we are back in the editing room and visual effects lab.

As I said in the beginning, Sams phone call changed things for me. Maybe I am now a co-director with Ed Wood on a movie, maybe with someone else. In any event, we are going to end up with a very funny, very campy, very authentic 50s and 60s type of a sci-fi spoof. You will not find any continuity or sanity in it, but when it is finished around the end of the year, you will be able to experience our discovery, with many familiar sci-fi characters and situations. In order not to spoil the delight, I wont reveal the surprises in store for viewers of The Interplanetary Surplus Male and Amazon Women of Outer Space.  But we are convinced that when it is available and you get your copy of this treasure, you will enjoy it as much as we are enjoying it now.