Adam Reed is Bruce Wayne. Satchel Underwood is Batman. As producer of MUTUAL ADMIRATION SOCIETY, Reed handles the business side of things. As writer/director of MUTUAL ADMIRATION SOCIETY, Underwood leaps tall buildings in a single bound to entertain through an art medium known as filmmaking. Together they are one man with the same goal.
Litchfield, NH native Adam Reed (sometimes going by the pseudonym Satchel Underwood) completed his film MUTUAL ADMIRATION SOCIETY in late 2001 and has since been screening the highly original piece of celluloid throughout the North East and beyond. Recently Reed was named 1 of 50 finalists in the Project Greenlight competition, an HBO reality show supporting independent filmmakers created by none other than Matt "GOOD WILL HUNTING" Damon and Ben "Daredevil" Affleck. In its second season, Project Greenlight has changed formulas, now not only accepting submittals of original written works by screenwriters, but also previously filmed scenes by directors. The winning director will then film the winning script. The irony...Reed submitted the script of MUTUAL ADMIRATION SOCIETY to the original contest.
"It's kind of sweet revenge in a way," states Reed. Admittedly the script was not a shooting script. It needed work, but some of the reviews...I got torn to shreds. It was awful. As a young person trying to scrape together all of these creative thoughts and instincts and to try and create a cohesive piece of work...you think you've got something decent, but then all of a sudden you're knocked back to the ground and you wonder if you really have any ability. It was kind of tough to swallow, but at the same time it was motivating in a way. It's funny because now a scene from that script is the one I submitted.
Reed didn't second-guess giving it another try. Having the material already at his disposal, it seemed like a no-brainer. He completed the process by the October deadline and before long he was thrown into the fires of competition. 1700 scenes were submitted along with 6,000 screenplays. The first 250 finalists were decided upon through a reviewing process not necessarily welcomed with open arms by Reed and other filmmakers like him. If you submitted work, you were then obligated to review other people's work.
"The competition is flawed as hell," Reed jokes. "It really is. You never know who's reviewing your work. It's a totally random thing. You might have an 18-year-old kid who threw together a screenplay in a week and who has no idea what he's doing and now he gets assigned your scene and thinks it sucks because he doesn't like that kind of movie. It's amazing because you hope that you'll get enough objective viewers to check out your work and give it a fair assessment, but you're not that lucky all the time. You can't tell if they're trying to sabotage the contest."
The 26-year-old Reed actually submitted two scenes from MUTUAL ADMIRATION SOCIETY. One has since made the cut and the other was simply cut. Nevertheless, his chances are growing greater with each passing advancement. The 50 current scenes will be chopped down to 10 during the second week of December, but Reed isn't banking on cashing in. While the thought of winning the competition is not one he'd pass off, he recognizes the chance to look at his position as one to promote the film and lend to it's credibility as opposed to placing all of his eggs into one HBO monogrammed basket.
"Primarily it's just for exposure," admits Reed in words suitable for voiceover work. "I certainly don't expect to win. I'm not an arrogant, egotistical person and I'm very much grounded in logic. The odds of winning are still slim."
Reed's logic comes from his background. Graduating a business major from the University of New Hampshire, the one time aspiring auditor traded in his calculator for a director's chair after film courses sparked a hibernating interest in telling a story. MUTUAL ADMIRATION SOCIETY was his first attempt at captivating a crowd through dialogue and action and he did so with $10,000 and a Canon XL-1 in his corner. The end result was a twisted dark comedy combining curiously intriguing characters with compelling fluidity. If the script wasn't a stand out competitor with the original Project Greenlight, perhaps the reviewers lacked the off kilter imagination that only Reed (or Underwood) could bring to the project. Now seen through his eyes, will MUTUAL ADMIRATION SOCIETY bury the competition? Reed still contests he won't be holding his breath.
"I don't anticipate going much further. It's a vote of confidence and to me it's just sort of a reassurance that what I'm doing isn't fruitless."
Ok Adam Reed...if that is your real name...why do you go by Satchel Underwood as well? Bank fraud? Do you have unpaid parking tickets? What's the real story?
"Honestly, the reason why I do the pseudonym is for a couple of different reasons," Reed states. "One is because I don't really believe that your identity matters. It's a name. I really wasn't looking to promote myself. I also used it because I think it's all part of the process. I'm playing a character...who cares who I am. Frankly I don't give a shit if someone sees my name. To me I'd feel like it was shameless self-promotion. It's irrelevant because no one knows me anyway."
So can we expect A Diddy or A-Lo in the future?
"I don't know about that," he says with a laugh. "I may have to shy away from those types of names. I don't know if my name is conducive to that kind of radiation."
MUTUAL ADMIRATION SOCIETY can be seen at the Stage Two Cinema Pub in Amesbury, Massachusetts during the month of January. Check out the film's website at www.counterfeitclown.com for screening times.