Tuesday, January 15, 2008

The man from earth: science fiction is back

UPDATE: Mr. Eric D. Wilkinson, the producer of "Jerome Bixby's The Man From Earth", was kind enough to leave a comment on this post. From my part, I can only say that it is a pleasure to provide any support to such an excellent film.

Recently, I came across an interesting post reporting that a certain independent movie director, Richard Schenkman, was thanking P2P networks for having helped spreading the success of his low-budget movie "The Man From Earth". He has, in fact, recognized, if it weren't for these networks, his film would never reach the thousands of people that it has so far.

To satisfy my curiosity as to why a low-budget movie would become such a success among the P2P file-sharing community, I decided to have a look at it. It was only then that I discovered that this story was written by Jerome Bixby, a science-fiction writer, known for being the author of a few of the most interesting episodes of the original series of Star Trek.

So, at this point my curiosity was spiking in face of the potential of the film. I mean, what to expect from a movie written by a well-known science-fiction author and that is a huge success among the so-called "geeks"? Guaranteed success, right? Absolutely RIGHT!

The film is a gem of science-fiction and it is impressive how it can "suck" you into a story with such a simple premise: is it possible that a pre-historical man could survive the ages and roamed the Earth for 14000 years?

This simple story takes place at a cabin somewhere in the United States where a group of friends is gathered to say goodbye to John, which has decided to "move on". It is at this setting that John decides to test his friends by hypothesizing that he is a pre-historical man that has survived for the last 14000 years. At first, everyone decides to play the "game" but as the stories that John tells become more accurate, interesting and intriguing, beliefs will be shattered and suddenly the question is out there: is John really a caveman?

I won't spoil the end, of course but I can say that the film is a box of surprises and you must wait until the very end to see them all.

I definitely recommend you all to see the movie. And so does the director, Richard Schenkman, who in face of the surprising success, appeals to all the fans to support him in making the film even a greater success, by donating or spreading the word.

I did both. Will you?

2 comments:

Eric D. Wilkinson said...

This is Eric D. Wilkinson, Producer of "Jerome Bixby's The Man From Earth". I want to say THANK YOU for the kind words and supporting our independent film. It has been a labor of love for us for years and it's great to see posts like yours complimenting our film.

If you can, please, head on over to our IMDb message board at:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0756683/board and post your wonderful comments. You can also "rate" the film and post a review.

Check out our website at www.manfromearth.com and send us a "friend request" at www.myspace.com/manfromearth (if you have a myspace page).

Thanks again.

Sincerely,

Eric

António Lopes said...

Dear Mr. Wilkinson,
thanks for your comment.

I'll certainly be glad to provide any support to the movie on IMDB.

Kind regards,
António Lopes