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