30 Years!

An unlikely title you say?

Here’s the story. A few nights ago… a Thursday night actually… Jac went to bed at his usual, after midnight, a nightly event full of activities that are mostly cat related. He had a long day, with a lot of things he had to do, so he was tired. After a bit of fussing with the pillows and struggling to settle in a space not occupied by cats, he finally fell asleep. At around 3 am his Whatsaap started announcing he was getting messages, the classic alarming ring woke Jac up, a bit. He was’t going to look at his cell, no seri, but he did, it was a number, no name, but he could read that the messages were in Spanish… there was one phrase that he thought identified Veronique: “Como es?” and something about having problems finding plane tickets to Bolivia. One last line was kind of weird in a funny way It was your birthday! 80!!!

Jac decided he was going to read the intriguing messages and respond to them sometime in the day, after his morning coffee. He went back to sleep. He dreamt of Veronique who was telling him that she wanted to travel to Bolivia, with her boyfriend, sometime soon. The funny part is that she was with him in the dream, in Bolivia, telling him she wanted to travel to Bolivia. The boyfriend was also in his dream, no one he knew. Weird. Then the phone rang! He woke up again.

He answered the phone, it was Carmen! aka Camille!… it was four in the morning! “Were you sleeping?” Carmen said when she heard Jac’s drowsy, almost incoherent “Hello?”

Jac responded “Yes“. Carmen laughed as she apologized. “Sorry!” Jac thought ‘Carmen has a beautiful laugh‘.

“I’ll call you later! Bye!” Carmen said and hang up, still laughing with that beautiful laugh of hers. Jac tried to go back to sleep.

On Friday, early afternoon, Carmen made a video call. There she was, in her home in France, with her daughter, smiling happily. After chatting a bit, Carmen mentioned the reason of her messages and calls. She wanted to travel to Bolivia, in December, but she wasn’t finding a good fare, everything she got was over 2,000 Euros per person, she needed two tickets. Did I mentioned that Jac’s family had a travel agency in the past? For over 30 years? Does that make Jac an expert?

In any case, Jac and Carmen worked for a few hours in finding a good price for her tickets. At the end of their efforts she ended up paying around 2500 USD for both tickets! She was so happy. At the end of their conference she said “I’ll see you in 59 days!“

Well… I bring all this up because something weird is happening. Not long before that conversation, a week or so before, Jac was crossing the bridge near his home when he had an interesting encounter. He saw a man walking toward him, smiling, big smile, but he was wearing sun glasses so Jac couldn’t recognize him at first, until he was near enough. It was Monkey… that’s his nickname, who at one point was Jac’s film student, back in the 90’s, then he was his production assistant and actor. Jac produced Monkey’s first short way back then and the film went to win awards. Monkey is now heading the Film Office in Bolivia.

During their encounter the two men talked about everything. Jac’s productions mainly, and then Monkey asked. “Did you digitized El Hombre de la Luna?” Jac told him that he did and added “I want to make another series using the old footage with a new story that combines both” Monkey was impressed, he commented “30 years later! Because it’s going to be 30 years next year!“

Jac was suddenly aware of that fact, something he hadn’t thought about, even if it was so obvious. When Jac mentioned both events to Beto, the Associate Producer and actor of so many films and trusted old friend said The universe it telling you something.

Jac added two and two together and came to the conclusion that working on El Hombre de la Luna now is a must! He has to convince Carmen to recreate her role of Genevieve for the new series… and be ready to film in December!

With all the projects at hand, it does look like an impossible thing… but… knowing Jac…

His first argument with himself was… What about a script? Do you think you can have a script before December 9? And a Cast? and a Crew? and Locations? Impossible you say?

One thing is for sure, Carmen, aka Camille, will be in Bolivia in December and part of January … and Jac is even towing with the idea that she might have a cameo role in the series of four films The Crucified Four, which is headed for production for November-December, if everything falls into place, that is.

Are all those things coming together? Time will tell.

Jac discussed the possibility of making The Man From The Moon with his favorite cast, at separate times. First with Dani and Mila who found the idea interesting, then with Ligia who loved the idea of meeting Camille and finally with Simonne who would play the victim in the new miniseries. One element of the story is the famous Caporales comparsa, part of many festivities in Bolivia, most importantly during Carnival. Simonne is part of one such comparsa and for many years. Jac mentioned the possible escenario when she’s is taking part of the rehearsals and at one point she’s kidnapped by the bad guys.

Simonne mentioned that her comparsa were preparing some rehearsals and she could mention to them that possibility. I bring this up because Thursday the 30th, Jac and Simonne were shooting a scene for CruXbound IV where Simonne is tied up, upside down, arms and legs open, and Jac whips her mercilessly.

When they were done and getting ready for tea, she said: “I was thinking, while you were whipping me, that we could shoot some scenes with my Comparsa any Saturday during next month… we’ll be rehearsing.”

Jac was very amused… she was engaged in heavy thinking for another production while suffering torture in this one. Funny.

We have a clip, one of the first videos Camille ever made at our Patreon site. You can view it by joining as a VP Patron.

For those interested in having this film in their collection, it will be made available to get a streaming link for a contribution to our up and coming TV Series.

I’ll have more news pretty soon!!!

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