Monday, January 3, 2011

John Landis: FOUND



Back in October I wrote a letter to John Landis. A real letter on paper, sent in an envelope and sent to an address somebody retrieved for me off the Internet somewhere. Alright so I typed the letter, but in my defense my handwriting looks like the handwriting of a small boy suffering from shaky hands. Anyways in this letter I expressed amongst other things, my gratitude and my hope that he will make his comeback soon. I told him how continuously inspired I am by him almost every single day as I try to find a similar balance of comedy and brilliance in my own writing. Or something along those lines. On the envelope went a stamp and into the mailbox it went.

You know what happened next; months of waiting in anticipation. *DORKY HARRY POTTER REFERENCE WARNING* I stood waiting eagerly trying to predict how the correspondence of John Landis would happen. By letter? By email? By comment on my blog? By giant Russian ship??? I should also mention that I wasn't entirely hopeful. Not because I didn't believe John Landis was kind enough to return any kind of anything--but more so because I seem to have bad luck with this sort of thing. When other people tweet Eli Roth for example, he likes them and recommends their blog. But if I do I get blocked. No comment on whether or not I was trying to seduce him via Twitter.

Ahem. Anyways. I waited and waited and just a few days ago I wrote this post on the 5 things I learned this year. One of them was of course that I still loved John Landis. Even if he never wrote me back, even if he wrote me back and said nasty things--I would continue to support a man who I believed was for lack of a better word--awesome.

And that brings me to today.


Today will live in infamy as the greatest day of my life (so far). I went to the mailbox hoping to receive my latest super sweet care package full of Fangirltastic goodies. I DID get that super sweet package but then another package fell out of my mailbox. A blue package with no name on the return address, just an address and the city---Beverly Hills. As is customary, I immediately thought that finally Dylan McKay was returning my love letter after all these years,


but then a suspicious thought crept into my head. It couldn't be true though. A package? A package that quite obviously held something exciting in it? Never.

I took the package upstairs, my heart beating fast as I closed and locked the door (you should never take chances when you think you are about to have the greatest day of your life). I ripped open the package and saw that there was a DVD inside. My first thought was that someone had sent me a screener. But then I realized I don't accept screeners. THEN I saw the words Innocent Blood on the bottom. That was when I felt the lump in my throat.

I turned the DVD over to find a piece of paper with the words JOHN LANDIS at the top. Just like a piece of one those personalized message pads that say something like "A Message From Andre" except they never had my name on those so I had to get one that said Andrew and scribble out the W. ANYWAYS.

There it was. I couldn't believe my eyes. In his scrawly authentic John Landis handwriting was a note written to me from John Landis on some personalized John Landis stationary. That is some shit!



I didn't even open the rest of the package. For some reason I thought that was all there was and that was enough for me. I started crying and called my sister in a panic. She thought my cat died because I was hysterical and had tears in my voice. She was confused, sort of excited but ultimately still worried that something was wrong. Then I called my Mom who was a bit more excited. Then I wrote a crazy email in all caps to my friend Chris Hallock of All Things Horror. He had been chatting with me when I decided to write the letter and always ensured me that one day John would respond.

Finally it was time to open the rest of the package. Inside there were 3 postcards, 3 COOL postcards with things like the Catacombs and hologram elephants. Postcards from ROME. On the back was a three part handwritten message from John himself.





The note says for those who need glasses:

"Dear Andre- On the last day of 2010 I am finally responding to your kind letter from god knows when. I have returned from over a year of living abroad and only now answering my pile of correspondence I found when I got home. Anyway- I appreciate your generous words about my work. Enclosed is a DVD of INNOCENT BLOOD, one of my wackier fantasy films for your enjoyment. Thanks again and have a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year! Best always--John Landis"

Then there was the Innocent Blood DVD


and the picture of John, Andy Serkis, and Simon Pegg autographed by each and with the words "For Andre". I think I may have fainted.



I still can't get over it. He mailed the package himself! He addressed it himself! He wrote my name 4 times total. He actually answered fan mail and then gave me free stuff that I didn't ask for. I've been staring at it all day now and I still can't wipe the smile off my face. I'm positive this will all be a dream.

So here is the moral of the story. John Landis is the most sincere, down to earth, REAL "celebrity" there is. Never in my wildest dreams would I have expected something like this to happen. Never in my wildest dreams would I guess that a package addressed to me by the font of John Landis would be sitting in my mailbox.

John Landis has been found. He has been "abroad" for over a year and spent his New Years Eve returning fan mail and sending his best wishes for the new year to people he has never met before. Don't worry, I can't believe it either.

So John if by some other odd chance you are reading this, I thank you. You have gone above and beyond anything I ever expected and you have made my year great already. Have a happy new year as well--and make sure your next movie is fucking amazing. Thank you a million times over. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Andre


13 comments:

The Mike said...

This seriously made my day when I saw your post while boredly checking facebook from work. So, so awesome, and I'll always hold Mr. Landis in an even higher regard from this day forth.

Unknown said...

This is a wonderful post, Andre! It's awesome to know that one of the greats is actually great!

Andre Dumas said...

It really is! It made me fist pump the air because I KNEW IT. I just knew.

Bryce Wilson said...

Excellent Andre!

It's always nice when one of the greats actually turns out to be a great one.

Christine Hadden said...

All I can say is OH Holy Crap! I can't believe it. This is simply Epic.

EPIC, I say!!

kindertrauma said...

I take this as a sign that 2011 is going to be a great year.

Monster Mike said...

As I sat and read your article i couldn't help but feel joy and excitement vicariously through you and for you. John Landis is also one of my heroes and there are no words to express just how jealous i am of you right now. The only words I can find are...Dude, you so rock!

Pax Romano said...

Wonderful!

I am so happy for you.

Andreas said...

It's always so reassuring when a horror legend like Mr. Landis sends replies - lengthy, handwritten replies! - to his fanmail. Congratulations! This is about the most awesome thing I've read about in a while.

M. Hufstader said...

This post made me ridiculously happy. I'm so glad to hear that he got back to you! And it's really refreshing to hear a story about an actor who's THAT sweet and willing to fangirl out about his own projects. SO HAPPY.

Pearce said...

I'm sure I don't need to tell you that this is the coolest thing ever, Andre. But I'll tell you anyway:

THIS IS THE COOLEST THING EVER.

Hooray for John Landis, and hooray for you. This post brought some much-needed sunshine into my day.

DVD Infatuation said...

Very, very cool! An absolutely awesome story.

Anonymous said...

Great story. Landis always hang out with the regular crowd on every convention. I meet him many times on the Fango con and at the SD Comic con.

On every panel his a little bit out there but he is the real deal with the fans