Jack Grisham wants to make a movie about teenagers fucking the dead.
Oddly, that's the least offensive thing about the author and T.S.O.L. frontman wanting to make a movie inspired by the band's immortal punk anthem “Code Blue.” What's more offensive to us is that Hollywood would never have the balls allow him make it. Luckily, fans of Grisham and the band are doing what they can to spread their wallets to try and make it come to life.
For the last few weeks, Grisham and director Susan Dynner have campaigned on Kickstarter to fund the movie which will require a mere $34,000 to complete. Think of it, for the price of a lightly used Astro Van you could see a live-action feature about teenage awkwardness and love-making corpses and lines like “I like it better if she smells of formaldehyde!” make it on the big screen.
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Since the song's release in 1981, “Code Blue” continues to be one of those tracks that makes society cringe. Of course if it didn't, this depraved, melodic ditty probably wouldn't be the classic it is today. Last year, we saw Grisham (a former Weekly columnist) turn the song into an illustrated book, titled Code Blue: A Love Story with the help of illustrator Scott Aicher. In the process of working on that project, Grisham's ideas got even bigger.
“When Scott and I were discussing his illustrations he asked me for character sketches to make his work easier,” Grisham says. “I went to the Internet and I typed in, 'bus driver', 'old mortuary', 'teen boy', and 'dead girl.' The pictures that appeared were those of living people ( one not ) and I compiled a folder. In the middle of the process I realized that what I was doing was casting a movie of sorts and I got an idea.”
Building on that project, he got the idea to hammer out a script and partnered with producer Susan Dynner (whose credit as director of the acclaimed documentary Punk's Not Dead makes her an obvious choice) to create the film version of Code Blue.
With just 13 days left to go, the project has 158 backers totaling just over $14,500, still less than half of what the project needs. Which means there's still time for one of you angel investors out there to really come through for your favorite punk band, with plenty of rewards available whether you're pledging $20 or $2,000. And of course the prizes for turning in the big bucks are nothing to shake a stick at, including the opportunity to hang out with Grisham and Dynner, be an extra in the film or landing a speaking role (or a non-speaking role if you choose to be one of the corpses). Hell, they'll even name you an executive producer in the credits.
But if you really feel like throwing down some serious coin–$9,999 or more–you can pretty much do whatever you want, according to Grisham's priceless reward description:
And now things get weird. What do you want, a casting couch set up, do want to be in the first coffin that James opens, or would you like to act like a real Hollywood producer with all the creepiness that entails. Does your band want a song in the film? Want Susan and/or Jack to come to your house and screen the film for you and your friends? Contact me for this perk. No request too weird.
Yeah, Jack. We read your columns. And we definitely believe you. Below, check out Grisham's passionate plea to make this movie happen.
