G.I. JOE: Initiate (a fanfilm)

Some of you may have noticed my absence from the blog world for a bit. Well, I can assure you, I've been building up a new stockpile of films to share with you that totally rock. But, what has been distracting me is also highly cool.

Since watching films like "Troops" and "Batman: Dead End" I have always wanted to do a fanfilm. The trouble was what to do the film about. Well after watching Mark Cheng pave the way with his badass fanfilm "Operation Red Retrieval" that "G.I. Joe" was a viable option.

As many of you know, I was in the first film "GI Joe: Rise of Cobra". I play an apache gunner and as awesome as it was, it's a brief role in the film and while I do get done in by Cobra, my character isn't an official member of the Joe team. In short, I wanted to be a bigger part of the Joe universe and while I was so happy to do what I did (it was awesome), I still had this itch to do more. Then, I got to submit reads for three different roles on Jon Chu's "GI Joe: Retaliation" which looks AMAZING, but alas...it wasn't in the cards.

Then, one day a couple weeks ago, while kicking around the desire to do some short films and rethinking fanfilms like "Modern Warfare: Frozen Crossing" (one of the best out there), it hit me. I have a lot of military hardware and access to a lot of fellow veterans with even more hardware and more credentials than I have...and we all love JOE!

So, I posted a thread on facebook and was shocked at the response. Director Brian Jaynes of "Humans vs. Zombies" jumped on board to direct for us. Also, my buddy, writer/graphic designer, Anthony Schiavino ("Sergeant Zero") was more than happy to co-write a script with me. We quick turned what has been praised by some folks I can't mention.

Since then, we've added people like veteran producer Kerri Navarro, and acting talent such as Billy Blair, Bryan Massey, Brandon Slagle and Samuel Haun. Real life badasses Michael Brown, Rusty Brooks, Aaron Self and Michael Marcano round out the cast.

Here are some key things that we believe set us apart from the other fan films out there. Most of our cast has real world training with weapons and tactics. We have some top notch crew onboard with more than a few notches in their belts and they have some amazing equipment that will give us solid production value. We have access to cool stuff like tanks and APCs. We have credentialed actors. We are also intent on blending the lighthearted atmosphere of the original series with a more tactically grounded harshness of actual combat.

We've also received some awesome support from one of the premier Joe fansites THE TERROR DROME. Those guys rock!

What you can do to help, is go to the link below to the kickstarter project and donate to our cause, even if it's only a few dollars. We truly appreciate the support and we can't do it without you!CHECK OUT OUR KICKSTARTER HERE!