A couple of our intrepid readers asked me to share a little more detail about our efforts to sell a "mockumentary" a few years ago. We had international rights on this film; "Who's The Caboose," but not domestic rights. So we were acting only as a sales agent repping the film to international buyers. At the time that we took this film out, probably back around 2000 and 2001, Andy Dick, who has a supporting role in the film, was the biggest name. The film really was an ensemble piece for up and coming comedians. Other recognizable names included H. Jon Benjamin and David Waterman. Sara Silverman had a big part but was just starting out and really wasn't well known. Sam Sedar, now of Air America Radio fame, was the writer/producer/star of the film. He co-directed it along with Charles Fisher.

So this film was just loaded with talent and as I said in an earlier post, it is just funnier than hell. As a young company, we were psyched beyond belief to have something so clever and hilarious in our catalog. Unfortunately it only took one international market, I think it turned out to be MIP TV in 2000, for me to start to worry. We'd play the trailer and any buyer who spoke English (and just about all of them do) rolled with the humor--and then politely declined to even request a screener. They just had no place for a film like that. The humor wouldn't translate to their native tongue, and besides, it looks like a doc. "But!" I'd say, "it's hilarious and spot on!" They would agree whole heartedly about the quality and then complain about their programming mandates before asking if we had any erotic thrillers. Things went on like this for a couple of years, with just one or two sales in English speaking territories to help keep our spirits up.

Obviously if "Who's The Caboose?" were a new film we'd do great business with it on tv and dvd all over the world due to the recognizability of its cast. But back in the day, these very talented people were not really established and the foreign market just didn't know them at all. Sam wanted to hang onto the domestic rights and I think self distribute the film. To my knowledge, it was never released on vhs or dvd in the States. There might have been a small tv sale, but basically, this very witty film about an idealistic actor being chewed up by the Hollywood hype machine has never been seen. Unfortunately, this happens more often than any indie film fan would like to think.

In many ways "Who's The Caboose?" was ahead of its time. Yet in spite of its deft touch and pitch perfect satire, the mock doc style that they used probably doomed it from the start. I think Sam told me once what the title referred to, but I could never remember. When we were selling the film we used some railroad metaphor to explain it. But like so many good films, words didn''t really do it justice.

---

LINK THIS ARTICLE

Average user rating

   (0 vote)