Tony Katz interviews Jazmine Ramay ("Mary Boyle") at the Premiere

I talked to a guy in Michigan yesterday who was so excited about selling our movie, he wants to take it out and sell it to his church, his school, and even his neighborhood. He bought 30 copies of the DVD in our July deal, (a case of 30 for $99).

He did not, however, start out that passionate. “When I first looked at the DVD case,” he said, “I thought ‘bunch of guys running around in funny clothes and talking about history.'”

He went on: “I didn’t expect too much, but then I started watching and there were scenes that reached in and socked me right in the gut, that touched me. I was deeply moved by the whole story.” He told me he was going to screen it anywhere he could and sell it as hard as he knew how.

The fact is, of course, anyone can make a DVD these days. Anyone can cut a CD. Anyone can make it all available to literally billions of people on Youtube in seconds. The “insta-package” nature of technology these days means the DVD jacket or the CD Jewel case you hand someone won’t be too much different from the one that Paramount shrink-wraps by the pallete-load.

And the consumer knows that. That’s why the writer/producers of “The Office” spend so much time mocking Michael Scott’s need for self expression.  It’s also why the star system exists.   If you see Scarlett Johansson on the cover, you know it’s not a Michael Scott home video, or your friends’ for that matter.  We’re all vulnerable to it — even those of us who are desperately looking for better entertainment.    It’s just difficult to take a movie or a television show seriously if we don’t see someone we recognize on the cover — even if, and this is the really odd thing, we end up settling for yet another so-so comedy with so-so laughs delivered by a so-so talent.

So back on the Courage front:  we’re hearing great things from the audience;  we even had a very highly placed studio executive (just yesterday) compliment us on the production values and the acting, and we’re talking to lots of broadcasters who are potentially interested in distributing the series — but we’re having trouble getting people to unwrap the package and sit with it a spell.

Take it from “Patrick in Michigan”  — it’s worth it!