"It Takes a Village..."

Once I mused that though they say "it takes a village to raise a child, on rare occasions, a child must step up to raise a village." Though probably not fair to a couple of middle class Jersey boys, over the years we have no doubt charged ourselves with that responsibility... Much like Auggie who'd unfairly take it upon himself to save everybody until eventually everyone around him began to expect exactly that. It is motivating to think, though, that were we so fortunate to break on through to the other side, we'd hold the door wide open for all of the good and decent, talented and hungry folks we'd been so lucky to encounter on that steep ascent up life's great mountainside.

That said, we've met so many benevolent, supportive, positive people on our way to bringing IGU to fruition. These wonderful individuals proved that it does indeed take a village--to bring a dream to life. These are just a few of the many we will cast a light upon in future days from this very platform...

Andy "A-Robb" Robbins from BPG (http://www.BigPictureGroup.net), who we bumrushed with DVDs and biz cards at Sundance 2004 and who was hip and open-minded enough to see the hunger in our eyes and the unique voice in our words. Reading every script along the way and signing on to orchestrate the multimedia tour de force that has been the IGU marketing materials, we are forever in his debt. A man of talent, vision and honor, we've been so blessed to have him in our corner since day one. Thanks for believing in us, Andy.

Katherine "Kat" Hinchey and the ladies of Weist-Barron-Ryan. In the seminal planning stages of IGU pre-production, our lone resource was the time to meticulously put together an astonishingly talented and diverse cast. Our goal became a reality because of the efforts of a few very special ladies. Whether it was the brilliant casting instincts of Kat spending her nights and weekends filling in the gaps and finding the exact actors we envisioned in our mind's eye when we first penned the script in '06 to Ursula and Stefanie so generously opening their Atlantic City doors to us, helping us hold the auditions that would find some of our most integral characters and populating our backgrounds with some amazingly hard-working and dedicated extras. These ladies quite clearly made contributions to Ice Grill, USA that are so great they as yet are still unquantifiable.

Anthony "Tony" Vorhies. The producer extraordinaire was among the very first to believe that IGU was even possible. From the first pre-production meetings to the day we wrapped sound, AV was Ice Grill, USA's lucky talisman. Quirkily charming, immensely resourceful and connected out the ass, AV could always be counted on to make shit happen. Keeping the ship afloat when Mark & I were locked in the lab with Andy or Chen, AV was exactly the man this film needed and he delivered in the clutch every time. Much respect goes out to AV for his hustle, his heart and for having our back. Keep doing your thing, my brother.

These are just a few of the many names that turned chicken scratch on yellow legal pads into viable art. In the future we'll shout out many more stellar members of the IGU dream team like "The Mayor", "Tall Shady", "The Phenom" and "Big Rich".