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IFC Midnight Acquires Retro Thriller ‘Rent-A-Pal’

Posted on By Wil

I am so excited to share this with all of you.

About a year ago (or ten years ago, what even is time amirite) I worked on a FANTASTIC movie called Rent-A-Pal. It’s a retro thriller, and I am intensely proud of the project as a whole, and my work in it.

The thing about movies is, making the thing is just a small part of the whole process. The real barrier is distribution, so people can actually see the thing you worked so hard to make. It’s not uncommon for a film to be made and finished, yet never get a chance to find its audience, because it can’t find a distributor.

So it’s extra exciting for me to learn that Rent-A-Pal has been picked up by IFC Midnight! You can see this fantastic little movie I’m in, from the safety and convenience of your own home!

Here’s a little bit from the press release:

“Inspired by the real-life VHS tape, Rent-A-Friend: The Original Companion, Rent-A-Pal is set in 1990 and follows a lonely bachelor named David (Brian Landis Folkins). In a pre-Tinder media era, David is looking to find an escape from the day-to-day drudgery of caring for his aging mother (Kathleen Brady). While seeking a partner through a video dating service, he discovers a strange VHS tape called ​Rent-A-Pal bosted by a charismatic gentleman named Andy (Wil Wheaton). The tape offers him much-needed company, compassion, and friendship but Andy’s friendship comes at a cost — and David is desperate to pay that price. Amy Rutledge also stars.”

You can read the whole release at Deadline.

blog

Selfish, ignorant people are going to make this worse. Don’t be one of them.

Posted on By Wil

A gentle reminder: when we are out in the world, it’s incredibly important to maintain a six foot distance from each other. This virus doesn’t go away and stop being dangerous, because we walked into a building.

Most of us who are able to quarantine have been doing that, and it’s working to flatten the infection curve, to give our doctors and researchers time to find a vaccine and a treatment to reduce the mortality rate of this virus. Most of us aren’t sick, and we aren’t carriers. That doesn’t mean we should act like it when we are in public.

When we’re in public, it’s our responsibility to behave as if we are infected and we don’t want to spread Covid-19 to anyone else.

This means that we keep our distance from each other, even though it feels weird. This means we wear a cloth mask in public, even if it’s uncomfortable or whatever bullshit reason selfish people are using right now to justify their choice to ignore a simple and effective way to keep us safe. It means we respect one-way aisles in grocery stores, and we wait in those aisles, six feet apart, instead of pushing past our fellow humans who are shopping.

If the worst thing we have to deal with in a given day is the inconvenience of actively maintaining six feet from our fellow humans, to protect them and ourselves, there’s just no real excuse to ignore that, other than laziness and selfishness.
Let’s remember that we are in this together, and let’s make an effort to care for ourselves and for each other by making the deliberate choice to stay six feet away from each other, wash our hands frequently, wear our cloth masks in public, and never forget that all of us are going through this at the same time, together.

I know you aren’t lazy or selfish, but I know there are people in our lives who need a gentle reminder.

This is for them.

This whole thing we are living through is a lot, and it’s really understandable to want to get back to normal. The thing is, science and virology don’t care about your timetable, and until science and virology have a vaccine for Covid19, this is our reality. Wishing it would go away, and acting accordingly, is only going to make this worse. Refusing to follow medical guidelines, because you’re pissed off and frustrated is only going to make this worse. Ignoring medical advice because you’re bored and want to go to the beach is only going to make this worse.

Selfish, ignorant people are going to make this worse. Don’t be one of them.

Please, please, please be mindful and self-aware. I get that you’re stressed and frustrated and low-key scared all the time, and not just about getting sick. So am I. You’re worried about our terrible leadership, you’re worried about our cratering economy that our terrible leadership is making worse. So am I. You’re worried about this pandemic that we can’t control at all. Me too. You just want to get in and out of the store or wherever, the faster, the better.

So do I. So do all of us. But let’s remember that we are in this together, and let’s make an effort to care for ourselves and for each other by making the deliberate choice to stay six feet away from each other, wash our hands frequently, wear our cloth masks in public, and never forget that all of us are going through this at the same time, together. We can choose to be patient and make the best of a terrible situation, or we can selfishly make it worse for everyone, including ourselves.

Please choose to be kind. Please choose to be patient. Please do not be selfish.

Thanks for listening.

Books

By request, an HP Lovecraft short story.

Posted on By Wil

Since I started Radio Free Burrito Presents several weeks ago, lots of you have asked me if I would narrate something by HP Lovecraft.

I love the Cthulhu mythos, but I’m not crazy about Lovecraft’s storytelling. I feel like he spends a lot of time in the high concept and the world building, without ever really going more than skin deep on his protagonists and narrative characters. NB: I haven’t read a ton of Lovecraft, probably six or so short stories, so maybe he has a novel or novella with rich characters and narratives, but I haven’t found it.

None of this is to suggest that he wasn’t brilliantly creative and imaginative, just that his stories aren’t the most satisfying use of my time.

However, hundreds of you have reached out in comments and emails, asking me to narrate something from the Cthulhu Mythos, so today’s RFB Presents is a short, weird, lurid story called Dagon.

This wasn’t published until 1919, and was published again in 1923, so I take that as a reminder not to get discouraged when things take time in publishing.

The text I read is here: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dagon

 

Books

Radio Free Burrito Presents: A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift

Posted on By Wil

A Modest Proposal is brilliant, biting, hilarious satire, that is as horrifyingly relevant in 2020 as it was in 1729. This reads like one of those brilliant editorials from The Onion, or a Hannity monologue.

I am embarrassed to admit that, until last week, I had never read this essay. I knew it existed, but I never made the effort, and I am so glad that I finally did.

My education wasn’t particularly diverse, broad, or focused on art and literature. I went to a parochial school for elementary education, and they were more interested in indoctrination and spreading religious propaganda than they were at actually educating us. We learned the sort of facts that can’t be denied, like math and stuff, but history, art, music, and literature were all presented from a clear and deliberate point of view that encouraged blind devotion and adherence, working backwards from a conclusion. I was never encouraged to ask questions, learn independently, or encouraged to challenge myself outside of the classroom.

By the time I was in middle school, I was struggling to deal with my abusive father, and I just did what I had to in school to keep my grades up and not fail. My teachers were fantastic, but the curriculum was very narrow, and there was little appreciation for art and literature in it. When I got into high school, I was working full time on Star Trek. I had a magnificent on-set tutor who took me all the way from grade 9 to grade 12, who encouraged me to do all the things my previous educators had not, but by that time it was just too late for me. I have regretted all of this, from the moment I became aware of it in my 30s, and I’ve been working hard to educate myself in the middle of my life, since I was not educated fully at the beginning of my life.

I am so embarrassed and disappointed that my education is a mile wide and half an inch deep. I realized this years ago, and I’ve been doing what I can to educate myself, using college lectures that are online, and by reading as much as I can, to expose myself to the great works of art and literature that my parents didn’t care about, and my educators didn’t teach me about.

There’s a ton of study available to you, if you want to go that way. Here’s the Wikipedia link to get you started:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal

This is about 26 minutes long, including my introduction. I hope you’ll listen, and I’d love your feedback, if you do.