Hello, David:
I am a producer with the feature film The Road To Freedom,
which chronicles the last tragic days of Sean Flynn, the adventurer son
of Screen Gem, Errol Flynn. We will be released in theaters next month.
In the meantime we are on Netflix for all those who can't see our
limited theatrical release.. We need all the support we can to make this
great film have the impact we had intended. If you can spread the word
about The Road To Freedom we as filmmakers will be grateful. Have a
wonderful weekend.
Cordially,
Blu de Golyer
— David DeWitt
Anonymous
August 20, 2011 at 5:46 pm
Hi David;
Great News!
Please forgive me but I am somewhat confused about this movie.
Is this a movie in a regular sense? Produced by whom – a company like Warner Brothers or who? Is this a movie which will be released like any other movie – in cinemas with an advertised schedule of playing times? Is this a documentary or a movie?
I think the more detail we have the better we are able to talk knowledgeable to our friends and any media we are associated.
I Hope you don't mind me asking all this questions?
Take care,
Tina
Anonymous
August 20, 2011 at 7:32 pm
The film is listed on Netflix, but as yet unavailable to view.
In the meantime, a question: what is it about filmmakers that, regarding titles, they either don't do their homework to find the titles have previously been used, or don't care (hardly a respectable creative position) to come up with something original? A number of films come to mind that are guilty of this : The Lost World, Edge Of Darkness, Broken Arrow, The Man Who Wasn't There, etc, etc. This peculiar habit also occurs in the publishing and music fields as well. One wonders why an artist would want his work confused with another. Strange.
Anonymous
August 20, 2011 at 7:41 pm
This is an independent movie with a limited theatrical release. You can go to YouTube and see some clips. These are young filmmakers who need help getting their film seen and eventually distributed. I have only see the trailer so far…
Anonymous
August 20, 2011 at 7:43 pm
My understanding is that you can't copyright a movie title or book title, or short story title for that matter. We'd run out of titles for movies and stories pretty fast. Some may not give this a thought, others might want to capitalize on a title that is already popular with the public – , and some capitalize on their own titles, so you get OUR MOVIE, OUR MOVIE II, OUR MOVIE III… I could write a novel called SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS if I wanted to… as silly as that would be! Agree, I would not want my work confused with something else that had the same name. I worked on an indie film called SCOUTS HONOR until the producers discovered that title was already used, so they reluctantly changed it to EDGE OF HONOR which they felt stank but was the best alternative they had…
Anonymous
August 20, 2011 at 8:05 pm
I know that titles (as well as musical arrangements) cannot be copyrighted. But this has nothing to do with why an artist would want to use a previously used title. And to say that we'd run out of original titles is up for debate; I, myself, believe that our creativity is only as limited as we allow it, and that there are, in fact, an infinite amount of title possibilities.
Anonymous
August 20, 2011 at 8:17 pm
I exaggerated a bit there, didn't I, about running out of titles!
Anonymous
August 21, 2011 at 9:52 am
Have just watched the trailer for this movie looks like a very poignant and sad story and a good film, the story is a mixture of different events that took place at that time not necessarily excslusivley about Sean Flynn and Dana Stone even though the lead characters are called Sean and Dana Im sure there is some of their story in there but it is a movie to remind people of the many photo journalists who never returned and to keep their memory alive.
Anonymous
August 22, 2011 at 6:59 pm
You are correct that the US does not provide titles with protection via copyrights. In some cases titles can be protected via a trademark. For exaple, if a title has a “secondary meaning” it can be protected. If a title contains a slogan that has a trademark it can be protected. Series titles can be protected (e.g., Harry Potter).
Anonymous
August 23, 2011 at 9:59 pm
One must remember that contrary to what the producer above said, this is not a movie about Errol's first born, but a film inspired by the exploits of Vietnam combat photographers such as Sean Flynn and Dana Stone. One has to wonder what, if any facts was this film based on? We do know that although the lead characters are named “Sean and Dana” they are never referred to as Flynn and Stone! Also may I point out that this is the second time, so far (not including the film, “Flynn” based on Perry Deane Young's book, “Two of the Missing”, as that film as yet, I believe has not been completed), that Sean Flynn has been portrayed on film, (the first being the mini-series, “Frankie's House” from the 1990s where he was portrayed by a young Kevin Dillon of “Entourage” fame) where they got an actor who looks nothing like Sean! One merely has to look at the pitures of Sean and Dana in the new edition of Young's book and the face of the actor in the preview above. Oh well he kinda looks like him, but not really. I am still looking forward with interest to seeing this movie.–A. R.
Anonymous
August 23, 2011 at 11:04 pm
Hi A.R.
Thanks for this update, very appreciated!
I sincerely hope that we will find an avenue to see – when completed – “Two of the Missing” and “The Road to Freedom”.
Where would one look to see if the movies are playing as they are independent movies – so I am told and that becomes confusing, at least to me.
Anonymous
August 24, 2011 at 2:39 am
The best way to keep track of where and when a movie is playing is probably the internet. Especially if the film in question has its own website. Or websites like the IMDB or just use a search engine to get the latest info on a particular movie. We already know that “The Road to Freedom” is getting a limited release to theaters in major cities in the U.S. beginning Sept. 30th of this year. I am sure the distributors will do everything they can to get their film to the widest audience so eventually if it does not play near you or you miss it I am sure at some point it will play on cable or as someone mentioned it will be available for viewing thru Netflix. BTW the film based on Young's book is listed under the title, “Flynn”(2011) (at least for now) on the IMDB. Oh, one other thing, I am sure someone on this “Blog” will definitely put the word out about these movies or any movie about our hero for that matter.–A. R.
Anonymous
August 24, 2011 at 4:41 am
Thank you A.R. for this valuable information an I will follow your advise and watch out for it! I just don't want to miss it.
You see I live in Canada and these kind of thinks are not made very readily available to us – we are sort of second class to the USA – hahaha! Same with Netflix – it is since a very short time available in Canada and I signed up. Low and behold they don't have one Errol movie in their movies listing. Needless to say I canceled my subscription. Not that I need to watch Errol's movies on Netflix as I have all of them anyway, but if they don't have a movie of Errol I don't want to belong. I looked through the list and it had all the more up-to-date movies, quite different to the US Netflix. So Netflix is not for me, but if they will show the two movies we talk about I will sign up again!
Thanks again,
Tina