A few months back, I took my good friend Jason Cuadrado to hear Ray speak. He'd been an admirer of Ray's all his life, and like most of us, never thought he'd have the chance to meet him.

Ray was on fire as usual, and Jason left feeling inspired to break out and take some of the big risks Ray urged us all to time and time again in his talk.

Cut to... today, and Jason has made good on Ray's inspiration.

First he walked away from the security of a very cushy gig to write, produce, edit and direct a film in a town where he'd only just moved from New York and knew almost no one (not to mention working with no budget and a punishing shooting schedule), then this lunatic decided to shoot the entire film in JAPANESE - a language, I should mention, he does not speak a word of. Why Japanese? Well, he likes Japanese movies!

Still, using little more than the twin cyber-magic of Craig's List and MySpace, he managed to land a full, dedicated crew and a phenomenal cast, many of whom were fresh off the set of highly acclaimed Oscar contender LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA for director Clint Eastwood.

And damned if he didn't managed to pull it off. (I can imagine Ray's response - "I told you so!") It's a real life dollar-and-a-dream story, and hopefully it'll be also be a rags-to-riches one.

Jason's launched a website for this, his independent feature directorial debut: TALES FROM THE DEAD. It's an omnibus-style horror film inspired by some of the best in Asian horror from the last sixty years or so, with equally strong nods to Bradbury and The Twilight Zone.

You can check out the just-launched teaser trailer here: http://talesfromthedead.com/trailer.html, then be sure to sign up for the mailing list at http://talesfromthedead.com/home.html so you can follow the film's progress.

Don't worry - you won't get flooded with email spam, and no one's going to sell your address. All it'll do is keep you in the loop so you can continue to follow this amazing story as it unfolds.

And if you know someone in the industry, why not take a minute to drop them an email and introduce to this incredible project? Think of it as a good deed done on behalf of all the poor folks out there with more talent and determination than good sense.

Jason is a great guy and a gifted filmmaker; and what's more he's been a big help to me and the gang at my website ( www.NewTexture.com ). So as a fellow Bradbury fan, will you trust me just a little on this and allow him the opportunity to scare the pants off you?

Now go check out the site - and if you like what you see, pass the word around!

Thanks for indulging me on this, and thank you Ray, for reminding us all that sometimes inspiration can take the form of a good kick in the pants!

P.S. - Naturally, TALES is on MySpace.com ( http://www.myspace.com/talesfromthedead ) so if you are too, add 'em!

Another awesome success story via Ray Bradbury!!! Thanks for sharing and welcome to the board!

Rotsa ruck!

Thanks for the support!

I have to wonder if anyone who's been lucky enough to hear one of Ray's talks (or read ZEN IN THE ART OF WRITING) *hasn't* walked away feeling they can take on the world!

I saw Him and Sam Weller (His biographer) on C-Span a while back. It was great. Each member of the family stopped whatever it was they were doing and gathered together by the TV. They were finally able to connect with the man I'd been talking about, quoting, and reading all these years. We were all inspired, and there was no argument that day. Actually... I think we did argue. Oh well, it was cool.

Welcome aboard, Speedlace, please look around Ray's little sandbox, grab a shovel and dig in.

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