derek sieg en 'Hot Air' rises: Filmmakers reach $65K, push on to Nolte <p>For 45 days, Derek Sieg and Jeremy Goldstein did everything they could think of to raise money to make a movie. They sold t-shirts on the Downtown Mall. They buttonholed every connection they had. And they smoked a 300-pound pig.</p> <div class="sidebar"> <h2>Previous story</h2> <p><a href="">Get Nick: Can 'Hot Air' filmmakers raise $65K?</a></p> </div> <p>"That was pretty extreme," says Goldstein of the pig. "Neither one of us had ever done anything like that before."</p> <p>That was phase one of their efforts to get their script, <em>Hot Air</em>, made into a movie. And to do so, they're convinced they need Nick Nolte to star as the personal injury lawyer and hard-partying restauranteur whose misdeeds have pushed him to the point that he decides that faking his own death is his only recourse.</p> <p>A name like Nolte is essential for attracting money to the movie, say the filmmakers, so they brazenly launched their <a href="">"Let's get Nick"</a> campaign.</p> <p>Using a funding-by-the masses system called <a href="">Kickstarter</a>, the filmmakers set a goal of $65,000&#8211;- the minimum required by the Screen Actors Guild to get Nick Nolte to sign on as the <em>Hot Air</em> lead.</p> <p>With 258 different backers, Sieg (<em>Swedish Auto</em>) and Goldstein (<em>Skid Row</em>) raised $65,527 during their 45-day campaign.</p> <p>"We thought 45 days was a bit long," says Goldstein, "but it took 44 days and 20 hours to go past $65,000. It was a nail-biter with the last $500."</p> <p>The filmmakers plan to shoot <em>Hot Air</em> in Austin in October and November.</p> <p>"We are putting together a budget and schedule for shooting with the line producer," says Goldstein. "Once that's ready, we're going after Nick Nolte and money for production."</p> <p>He adds, "We can't wait to walk into Nick Nolte's agent's office with 258 Cville folks behind us!"</p> <p>Will Nick Nolte say yes to <em>Hot Air</em>? To be continued...</p> _BreakingNews Business Featured Entertainment People derek sieg hot air jeremy goldstein nick nolte News Thu, 03 May 2012 19:49:45 +0000 lisa 103882 at Get Nick: Can 'Hot Air' filmmakers raise $65K? <p>Derek Sieg and Jeremy Goldstein want <a href="">Nick Nolte</a> bad. So badly that they've launched a "Let's get Nick" campaign, with <a href="">website</a> and videos. They've taken to the streets&#8211; and the Downtown Mall&#8211; selling raffle tickets and t-shirts to raise money to get Nick. And to get Nick, they need $65,000.</p> <p>The two filmmakers have written a script called <a href=""><em>Hot Air,</em></a> and they think the '70s icon from <em>Rich Man Poor Man</em> (and, more recently, <em>48 Hours, The Prince the Tides, and Tropic Thunder)</em> would be perfect in the lead role of aging lothario/personal injury lawyer/hard-partying restauranteur who's looking at jail time for questionable business practices and decides the only way out is to fake his own death.</p> <p>"We would love to get him," says <a href="">Sieg, a native son of Charlottesville</a> who's back in town after living in L.A. and who wrote, directed, and, in 2006, filmed <em>Swedish Auto</em> here with Lukas Haas and January Jones (now of <em>Mad Men</em> fame).</p> <p>So why must they raise $65,000?</p> <p>"That's an important number," says <a href="">Goldstein, who made the documentary <em>Skid Row</em></a> and has written a half-dozen screenplays with Sieg. The Screen Actors Guild puts $65K as the minimum amount a low-budget film like <em>Hot Air</em> needs to contract a big-name actor like Nolte, explains Goldstein. And they need a high-profile name to get funding for the film.</p> <p>"No money, no actor&#8211; no actor, no money," explains Sieg.</p> <p>The "Let's get Nick" campaign breaks tradition by <a href="">using the Kickstarter </a>crowd-funding system to brazenly campaign for an A-list actor.</p> <p>"We're the first ones to do it this way," says Sieg, who wants to be able to say to Nolte, "All these people have given money to get you here."</p> <p>So far, the filmmakers have raised over $36,000&#8211; and locally raised actress/singer-songwriter/Sissy Spacek-offspring Schuyler Fisk is attached to the project, according to Goldstein. The <em>Hot Air</em> makers need to have the $65,000 in hand by April 22 to begin filming in Austin in October and November.</p> <p>Will they make it? Stay tuned.</p> _BreakingNews Featured Entertainment People derek sieg hot air jeremy goldstein nick nolte schuyler fisk News Fri, 06 Apr 2012 20:34:26 +0000 lisa 103157 at