I cannot yet divulge the new developments at work, but I am exceedingly excited about them, to the point of being unable to sleep. While I’ll hopefully be able to post more in the next couple of weeks, allow me for now to simply fall back on metaphor in saying: we’re grabbing the bull by the horns, kicking back into high gear, and jumping into the deep end without water wings.

[Addendum: Following writing that paragraph, the dangerous combination of the power of Google and an overly inquisitive mind led me here. ]

[Addendum to the addendum: My inner eight year old is endlessly amused by this one: “I’m shooting from the seat of my pants.”]

Though it’s likely tacky to cross-post between one’s own sites, my entry this morning on cyanpictures.com about fundraising for film and the fiscal basis of moviemaking is pretty damn good.

Yes, Cyan Pictures’ site has gone live. Head over, add a comment to the first post, and bookmark the site so you can return regularly once it officially launches a week from Monday.

Oh, and if you find any errors or bugs, let me know.

Yesterday, as I was laying out a rough version of Cyan’s upcoming weblog, I received an email from my mother suggesting I scrap the whole idea. Films, she pointed out, are likely similar to the proverbial laws and sausages; if you like them, you should never watch them being made. And, reluctant as I am to admit it, she has a point. We’re a young company, likely to make all sorts of embarrassing mistakes in the process of creating our first few films. Hide the interim from the world, only show off the polished end products, and we’re certain to come across looking savvier, more competent than if people had watched us through the whole messy process.

Still, a Cyan blog provides at least one very powerful advantage – it establishes a direct line of communication between us and the people for whom we’re creating films. And by incorporating their suggestions at each step along the way to a final cut, I suspect we’ll end up making substantially better movies than we would going it alone.

So, sorry mom, it looks like we’ll be doing a Cyan blog after all. Feel free to say I never listen to your advice; apparently you’re right.

Countering yesterday’s vitriol, some happy notes of film-related progress:

1. As sort of a warm-up for feature making, Cyan will be producing a fifteen minute short later this summer. Tentatively titled “Coming Down the Mountain,” the film will be shot in the small mining towns of the Appalachian Mountains, centering on the family of an unemployed coal miner addicted to the prescription pain-killer Oxycontin.

2. At the completely opposite end of the spectrum, TriBeCa’s Porn n’ Chicken, on which I’m serving as Associate Producer, will begin filming next week, barreling towards an October premiere on Comedy Central.

3. No doubt riveted by these two developments, you’re likely asking, how can I learn more about the ongoing progress of these and other future projects? Well, good news! Cyan’s web site (hopefully to be completed shortly) will now include a production blog, allowing you to voyeuristically experience the ins and outs of these and other future misadventures in filmmaking great daily depth.

A quick quote from The Hollywood Rules indicating why filmmaking might, in fact, be a perfect match for me:

Anyone who thinks he has a story that’s worth spending $50 million or more to tell, who believes his vision is so compelling that tens of millions of people worldwide will be eager to give up $8 and two hours of their lives to share it, who has the guts and confidence to command an army of thousands and create an entire world from the ground up, is not likely to be a paragon of humility and self restraint.

While I know of handful of people who have previously transitioned from high tech to film (witness the highly successful Kip Hagopian, a founder of the iconic Brentwood Venture Capital, who later produced Mel Gibson’s Ransom and a handful of other major films), apparently I’m not the only one currently making the switch.

According to the nearly infallible IMDB, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has been cast as Mr. Fantastic in next year’s Fantastic Four. Despite the site’s usual accuracy, I’m a bit dubious, as, while my cartoon memories are a bit hazy, I seem to recall the character being named Reed Richards rather than the listed Richard Reed. Still, anyone lucky enough to catch Ballmer’s infamous “monkey boy” dance video or his stirring “Developers, developers, developers” monologue can imagine the dramatic potential Ballmer would bring to the role.