Russ Burlingame Talks At You

This is going to be a very brief update, because there isn't a TON to say. Best Movie Ever  is now available for preorder on Amazon! With my first draft turned in and a PDF I could provide to the publisher, I pushed a preorder page live. You can see it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096HQP75Z/ref=sr_1_1 It's still much cheaper to buy the ebook here, and a little cheaper to buy it directly from me at josiebook.com. I'm sharing this just because I feel like it's a major step, and the people who made the book possible should be made aware of those!  

Rockstars, It has been a busy week and change for Best Movie Ever . I managed to get a significant number of the t-shirts and headphones out the door, so that hopefully people who have rare and delicate things will be receiving them sooner than later, so they are not sitting in my office. This doesn't count the "distressed" headphones that required repair, because I had to find time to do that. Which I can do in the coming week, because I just turned in the first draft of Best Movie Ever to Evelyn Duffy at Open Boat Editing. She's going to look at its structure, to make sure it makes sense to someone who isn't me. I still have some massaging to do, and even a few interviews that have been promised but not yet completed -- but with 249 pages and counting, Best Movie Ever is one step closer to being ready for the printer! With a first draft completed, I will be working to get the book up for preorder through Amazon and Barnes & Noble in the next week or so. Du

  What's new with your project today? It's JOSIE Weekend! On Sunday, not only will the crowdfunding campaign for  Best Movie EVer  wrap up, but it will mark the 20th anniversary of the theatrical release of  Josie and the Pussycats . To celebrate that, and give eveyone a very small taste of what's coming up in the book when it hits those virtual stands in August, I've put together  Twenty .  Yep -- like  Seventeen , except to celebrate 20 years of  Josie and the Pussycats . This is a fun little bit of business I've put together for the web, so that those of you who have supported the book see some of the early quotes from my interviews with director Harry Elfont, stars Rachael Leigh Cook and Russ Leatherman (Mr. Moviefone), and author and YouTuber Jeremy Scott. This is my "very cool perk" that I had promised people who supported the book by March 21, but given that we're about to hit 300% of our original goal, I went ahead and decided that it was proba

  As of today, there are 3 weeks left in the campaign. I'd once again like to thank everybody for being so responsive to the book, and for supporting this passion project. After reaching out to the guy who I got most of my prop collection from, I've got a number of pairs of mind control headphones (stunt version) available again -- with a hitch. These are distressed pairs -- cracked and/or missing the foam covers over the ears. I've put them up for half the price of the "regular" ears, and included a note that if you'd like, I'll do my best to restore them by reconnecting the cracked part and/or buying new foam pads (which are cheap to get in bulk). But I doin't want to ASSUME that's what people want since technically itw ould be making a modification to an original prop.  I know that the ears are a big thing people have said they're sad they missed, so I got my hands on as many of them as I could, and I'm only hanging onto a few sets for w

  This was a very productive week for the #JosieBook, in terms of finalizing some straggling interviews and getting some actual writing done. I also read a number of responses to the poll that I put out the other day (see the previous update if you missed it), and am doing my best to respond in kind. To that end, I have obtained a few more sets of the stunt headphones and another couple of t-shirts, and listed them as perks that people can buy on here. I'm also going to set up a small digital storefront to allow people to purchase a few of them outside of IndieGoGo. My plan at present is to deliver most of the non-book perks shortly after the campaign ends, so that you should start getting mail in April or May. Exceptions to this will be for international buyers, where I will have to package everything together to minimize shipping expenses, and custom made items, which may take time to produce. If you have any questions about any given perk, feel free to reach out. This week, I

  Hey, folks! Been a few days, and I apologize for that. The end of the month is always pretty brutal for my day job. Since the last time we "talked," the $5,000 stretch goal that I laid out is pretty far in the rear-view mirror. We're currently up over $6,000, which means we are 200% funded in the first 25% of the campaign. Wow! Again, I can't possibly thank all of you enough for your support. This means that a lot of the little things that I had planned to do out of pocket, will now be covered by the campaign, making the book less of an insane passion project. It's still an insane passion project; just  less  of one. The $5k Gold Exchange stretch goal reached, I can share that I'm currently tweaking and cleaning up the old Gold Exchange collection I had assembled in 2011 for a release in ebook form. Everyone who buys a copy of  Best Movie Ever  will get a Gold Exchange ebook. I am still not sure about the plausibility of doing a paperback run for it, but if

Wow! The campaign is still going strong in a way that I couldn't possibly have expected. I know I sound like a broken (purple vinyl) record at this point, but thank all of you so much for your support. It really means a lot to me. So, I'm going to figure out some fun stretch goals in the coming days and weeks, but the first one is something I wanted to bring up since we are already closing in on the amount I had in mind for it: If the campaign reaches $5,000, I'll provide everyone who bought the book with a PDF copy of a collected edition of my "Gold Exchange" columns, which ran on ComicRelated and Blog@Newsarama from about 2006 until 2011. The Gold Exchange was a monthly interview column in which I and the creators of the comic provided a running "commentary track" on  Booster Gold .  What does that have to do with  Josie and the Pussycats ? Well, not a ton, but there are two things. The first is that I wrote it, and you're theoretically supporting

  Another, briefer update! We are fully funded! That's a great way for me to end the week, and I promise that some of the cool new perks I had teased will be coming your way over the weekend. I also spoke with the probable editor for the book today, and have to get her a chunk of the book so she can give me a price. It feels like a lot of good things came together today! Going to spend some time with my kids, and have a gin and tonic.

  First of all, thank all of you who have donated to the campaign or pre-ordered copies. It means so much to see that there are people out there who are as excited to read this passion project, as I am to complete it. If you don't know me, you probably don't know that I'm the kind of person who spent the last week telling my wife, "This thing is going to raise about $150, and then I'll have to print copies out of pocket so fulfill my commitments to those five people." I could not have dared expect that I would cross the 90%-funded threshold in less than 72 hours.  I'm floored by the passion and generosity of everyone involved. I'm also acutely aware that the cool perks that I had included in the initial roll-out of the crowdfunding campaign have basically sold completely out! I didn't expect to burn through all of the premium merch so soon, and I'm working on seeing what else I have to offer. In the next couple of days, I'll have additional

My name is Russ Burlingame, and I'm an entertainment journalist. I currently work for a major geek-news site and have worked in and around that space consistently since 1999. For the last six months, I've been conducting dozens of interviews with cast, crew, and fans of the 2001 movie  Josie and the Pussycats. The film, which was a box office bomb when it was released, has become a cult classic in the intervening years, and to celebrate its 20th anniversary in April, I wanted to write an (unofficial) oral history -- one which incorporates some of the well-worn stories of the film's production as well as new information, some folks who I don't believe have ever been interviewed about their ties to the film, and more. Josie and the Pussycats  isn't the kind of film that generally gets a book written about it, but like the wonderful (but unrelated)  Josie and the Podcats  podcast from 2020, the aim here is to inform the reader while celebrating this movie and the peopl