Hey there, Zopp fans. At long last, Illegal Use of Joe Zopp is available to rent on Netflix, starting today. Help us out by telling your friends! Nothing like national availability to guilt them into watching. Plus, you can help our numbers and draw attention to future renters by putting it in your queue. Give us a good rating and rent the movie, then send it back right away if you can't bear to watch it yet another time. It's all in the name of finding the eyes and ears of the people who, like Zopp, think Toledo is an exotic city and who, like Winslow, thought Mamie Eisenhower was attractive.
ZOPP AIRS ON WPT ON JUNE 6TH
Our movie's improbable television debut will happen on Saturday, June 6th. The festivities on Wisconsin Public Television get started at 9:30 pm. Our Director's Cut episode will air before the movie. Then, in its entirety, Zopp will show throughout the state with all the appropriate bleeps and blurs. We hope you'll be able to check it out. Emery is hard at work getting those "As Seen On Television" stickers on our DVDs. :)
Saturday, June 6th, Wisconsin Public Television/PBS
9:30 PM - Director's Cut Episode featuring Seth and Nick
10:00 PM - Illegal Use of Joe Zopp (edited for television)
We're closing in on our big weekend for The Entertainers documentary project. We'll be shooting the heck out of the Hotel Père Marquette in Peoria, Ill., at the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest May 23-25. We'll have eight cameras, a crew of four thirds of a dozen, and just a couple of days to capture it all. So yeah, it high time to panic...but it sure will be fun.
April 24, 2009
Check out the profile of Zopp from the Chippewa Herald's Andrew Parkhurst.
April 3, 2009
It's a great weekend for film lovers in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Film Festival kicked off last night in Madison with thousands expected to be in attendance for the slew of movies downtown and on the UW campus.
Of course, Illegal Use of Joe Zopp shows tonight at the Memorial Union Play Circle at 10:15 pm. The house is expected to be full. We can't wait.
Adding to the fun, we had a terrific review of the movie printed in today's Badger Herald, one of the University's student-run newspapers. Check it out here.
And we'll be appearing on a radio preview of the festival on WORT 89.9 radio in Madison today at 1:00 pm.
Have a great weekend and hope to see you tonight...or soon.
March 12, 2009
NORTHERN LIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL
Real quickly, wanted to let the earth know we got into another festival! We were invited to make our Michigan debut, U.P. style, at the Northern Lights Film Festival at Michigan Tech University in Houghton, Michigan. We will play at the McArdle Theater at 2:00 pm on Saturday, March 28th. With the short notice and current travel plans for The Entertainers, we won't be able to make it there, but if you're in the neighborhood or have a Lake Superior swimming trip already scheduled, check it out!
WISCONSIN FILM FESTIVAL SELLOUTS
Dane 101 reported yesterday that the Wisconsin Film Festival has sold more than 18,000 tickets and already has more than a dozen sellouts so far. Zopp is not one of them...yet. If you are planning to join us in Madison on April 3rd, make sure to order your tickets on the Film Fest web site: www.wifilmfest.org. We'd hate for you to miss out and have to party on State Street instead.
February 28, 2009
The Beloit International Film Festival is kind of a Wisconsin gem if you ask us. We had never been to the festival until this past weekend. And, of course, this was because our movie was playing there. But we were welcomed to an awesomely well-organized, terrifically planned festival with really enthusiastic moviegoers. We never doubted we were getting some of that already, but truly the festival did exceed expectations. They had a great welcome room for the filmmakers, a terrific box office with loads of information, posters, trailers running on the wall. The venues were cool too, from restaurants serving food during movies to bigger theaters with multiple screens.
The Zopp screenings went well too. We filled the Atlanta Bread Company with 50 or so people on Friday and probably couldn't have planted a more "into it" audience. They laughed a lot and left us with smiles, so you couldn't ask for much more than that. Our Sunday pre-Oscar show had less people expectedly but seemingly the same enthusiasm. We left feeling pretty damn good about the experience. And we got a chance to catch a few movies ourselves, some really good ones like the shorts Bookie, The Waitlist, and Vanessa Rising, as well as the drama prize-winner Abanunule. Those Beloit people deserve a round warm of applause for putting on a great show.
February 18, 2009
After a seemingly dormant few months this fall and winter in the Wut Wut World, we are so excited to unleash a whole bunch of terrific news over the next couple of weeks. The first batch, though, is here. Now. We got a new project, a national DVD release, a festival in two days, and a new baby. Here we go:
If you don't have plans and are within a few stone throws of Beloit, Wisconsin, this weekend. Come check out Illegal Use of Joe Zopp at the Beloit International Film Festival. Zopp will play at Atlanta Bread Company, 2747 Milwaukee Road, Beloit, Wis., on Friday, February 20, 2009 at 7:30 pm and a pre-Oscar Sunday, February 22, 2009 at 5:00 pm, same place. Nick, Seth, Paul, and Jon Voight will be there and unsquare, serving soup, salad and leavened Atlantese bread. Jon Voight probably won't be at Zopp, but he will be lurking around town as Jon Voight always does. Come join us.
ZOPP NATIONAL DVD RELEASE
Any crack investigative unit looking for the Zopp DVD on the internet may have noticed it is now available for pre-order everywhere, including on Amazon, Target, and Best Buy's web sites. That's because on March 10th the Zopp DVD becomes available to retailers nationwide. We have inked an agreement with a distribution company to help us make the film available to a wider audience and to help get into rental houses like Netflix and Blockbuster. So kind of cool it is getting a big push out into the thriving American retail market. It's going to be fun watching Emery's moods swing with our position on the Amazon Sales Rankings.
(Although, just for the record, the Zopp Shop still boasts the cheapest DVD and fastest shipping around.)
THE ENTERTAINERS, A NEW WUT WUT PROJECT
Somewhat quietly, a few of the gang has been hard at work shooting footage and preparing to make a documentary! The Entertainers is a film-in-the-making about ragtime piano and, more specifically, the hilarious and talented contestants at The World Championship of Old Time Piano, held each year on Memorial Day Weekend in Peoria, Illinois. Nick is co-directing the movie with our pal Michael Zimmer, and Paul and Seth are producing.
The web site for the movie was launched last week, and there you can see a trailer from preliminary footage, find out more on what the movie is about, and learn how you can help us move this project along. It's a film that is wildly different than Zopp, but it's going to be a lot of fun doing it we reckon. Check out the site at:
Last week, we were pretty dang pleased to welcome Paul's new daughter into the Wut Wut family. He and his wife Tara are now sportin' a worm named Adrienne and enjoying all the cuteness and dirty dipes that come with her. "She is perfect," claims Daddy, and we ain't doubting that.
That's it for now. If you can believe it, this is only Outstanding News, Part 1. We got more to share in a couple of weeks. And check back early next week on the web site. We'll have a recap of Jon Voight and Beloit if you can't make it in person. Cheers!
February 1, 2009
The schedule for Beloit has been announced. Zopp will play at the Atlanta Bread Company on 2747 Milwaukee Road in Beloit on Friday, February 20th at 7:30 pm and on Sunday, February 22nd at 5:00 pm. Seth, Paul, and Nick will be on hand to serve you sandwiches and soup during the filming! Check out the BIFF web site and download the complete program for the festival.
January 15, 2009
We got terrific news to celebrate the merry New Year. Illegal Use of Joe Zopp was selected to be a part of the Beloit International Film Festival in Beloit, Wis., February 19-22. We're happy and humbled to make our Wisconsin film festival debut in Beloit, which has gotten national attention in recent years as an excellent winter alternative to Sundance. BIFF boasts 150 films from around the world, terrific parties, and last year sold more than 6,000 tickets.
Check out their web site for more information. The official schedule will be posted on January 21st, but Zopp will be showing twice, on Friday evening (2/20) and Sunday afternoon (2/22). We will post exact details once we have them.
We would love to see you in Southern Wisconsin in February. A handful of us will definitely be on hand, full of good spirits and cheer and anxious to show off our movie once again.
Our episode of Director's Cut, featuring Seth and me not being funny enough, will re-air Saturday, January, 31st at 10:00 pm Central. Check it out if you haven't seen it yet.
December 16, 2008
If you are looking for last-minute gifts for your Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Christmas, or Winter Solstice celebrations, don't forget we have Zopp DVDs galore at the Wut Wut Alma store. There is nothing your great aunt wants more than a bizarre, low budget indie comedy with foul language, no-name actors, and dorkish jokes about Dwight Eisenhower.
Visit The Zopp Shop and buy it now! And now until Christmas (and usually all other days), there is same day shipping on orders before 4 pm CST. That's practically Amazon-like!
And speaking of Amazon, for the past few months Nick -- along with our good friend James Seidler -- was quietly hard at work, editing an anthology book of humor writing from their web site FLYMF.com. Selections from more than three years of the magazine are collected in the 352-page über-volume, including a dozen or so pieces written by Nick himself and one terrifically-crafted, hilarious tale of young love by our very own Paul Hogseth. The whole book is really funny and creative and great for nearly all senses of humor. Except bad ones.
FLYMF's Greatest Hits is available now on Amazon, Target.com, and CreateSpace. You can read more about the book and its contributors at FLYMF's web site too, along with links to the online stores, Facebook, MySpace, and you can link back to Wut Wut Alma because we sure do celebrate synergy up in this mutha.
And finally in other more exciting news, we are working on completing a deal to get Zopp on Netflix and perhaps some other retail and rental outlets across the country. This is pretty great and hopefully will help our movie catch on with the larger, untapped audience of the universe. We'll announce here when and where the DVD becomes available nationwide.
In the meantime, have a freakin' awesome holidays, and like Emery always says, "Gloria in excelsis Deo." Okay, he doesn't say that. But it would be funny if he said it a lot.
November 8, 2008
A great review of Zopp was written by Los Angeles writer Glen Golightly and posted on his blog recently. Read it here now.
October 30, 2008
After some rescheduling, our episode of Director's Cut is going on the air next weekend, debuting on Thursday, November 6th on Wisconsin Public Television's Digital Channel at 11:30 pm. It airs on the main WPT channel on Saturday at 10 pm. So if you live in Wisconsin, check it out! If you don't live in Wisconsin, don't worry. You can still watch our episode here.
Wisconsin Public Television Main Channel
Saturday 11/08/08 10:00 pm
Wisconsin Public Television Digital Channel
Thursday 11/06/08 11:30 pm
Friday 11/07/08 4:30 am
Fri 11/07/08 2:30 pm
Sat 11/08/08 6:30 pm
Sun 11/09/08 12:00 am
Mon 11/10/08 8:30 am
