So, what happened at Sundance 2002?  Well...

...as faithful viewers will no doubt recall, I recently attended the legendary indie film fest as co-screenwriter (with director Jed Weintrob) of ON_LINE, a cybersex comedy starring Josh Hamilton, Isabelle Gillies, John Fleck, Vanessa Ferlito, Eric Millegan and...Mom's personal favorite...the lovely and talented Harold Perrineau, Jr., a.k.a. Mercutio from Romeo+Juliet.
 

And I must say, even for a cranky old jaded old crank like me, hitting Park City for the first time was a gas:  fellow strugglers and celebs everywhere, glam parties, open bars, babes in hot tubs and all that thin mountain air, not to mention the Big Man himself...

...no, not Robert Redford but ROGER EBERT, right there at our first, packed screening!  (Apparently, he'd stuck around after Stolen Summer, the much-hyped Project Greenlight fiasco that screened just before us.)

Unfortunately, though various members of Team On_Line reportedly saw the Big Man laughing and enjoying himself, he didn't stick around for the Q&A, and he didn't give us the benefit of his famous Thumbs (Up, Down or Indifferent) in any of his Sundance articles for the Chicago Sun-Times.

Nor, as it turned out, did we find ourselves on the receiving end of any fierce bidding wars...although the film did make noticeable waves in the Internet community, and a correspondent from Aint-It-Cool News called it his favorite flick of the fest.

The nice people at MTV also seemed to dig it (which may lead to some interesting Gen-Y adventures in the not-too-distant future...stay tuned!), and On_Line went on to play festivals in Berlin, New York and San Jose (where it was named Best Feature).

And so...while Team On_Line waits for news of the project's ultimate distribution fate...I'm back on the Right Coast, developing a new feature project with Jed, writing a script for the good people at Platinum Studios, teaching a screenwriting course and starting work on a variety of top secret (well, not all that secret) projects that could very well change the face of Ol' Bait Shop Productions forever!!!

It's Act Three, people.  You've been warned.