John Sayles. P.T. Anderson. Walter Salles. These are the kind of filmmakers that Andrew Mudge admires and would like to become. “Even Woody Allen,” admits Mudge, over lunch at the Brickhouse restaurant in Venice, CA. They are “people who do it themselves,” he says, excited about the possibility of making a film his way. “I enjoy having full creative control.”



TOP: Andrew Mudge takes time for reflection in the Venice Beach sun.
LEFT: That's his work space. Andrew Mudge writes and rewrites THE P.T. JOHANSEN FIELD GUIDE TO NORTH AMERICAN MONSTERS.
RIGHT: Andrew Mudge's housemates canines drag him to Venice Beach every morning. It's his time to organize his mind for his writing.
Photos by Carl Hansen

Mudge has lived within walking distance of this restaurant for almost exactly a year. He moved to the west coast after winning the Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival over 800 other applicants. His pitch, THE P.T. JOHANSEN FIELD GUIDE TO NORTH AMERICAN MONSTERS, centered around a man who stages a Bigfoot sighting for his father, P.T. Johansen, and a precocious cub scout hell bent on discovering the truth.

Mired in re-writes, Mudge is still adjusting the script to his liking. “I can’t see the forest for the trees anymore,” he laments, obviously tired of reworking the same story over and over for the past year and a half. The life of a writer is not an easy one, even after winning a million dollar competition, but he remains hopeful and refuses to get discouraged.

Maintaining a regimented schedule, Mudge gets up at 7am every morning and brings his housemate’s three dogs to Venice Beach. This is as much for him as it is the canines. “I like walking to the beach everyday,” he says, smiling. It gets his blood pumping and brain thinking about the writing that must be done. “I have a lot of writing to do,” he confesses.

In the meantime, until MONSTERS is finished, he has been thinking about more ideas to develop into feature-length screenplays and hopefully independent features. In addition to his writing, Mudge worked on the Kerry/Edwards campaign as a county coordinator, in southern Arizona, by organizing volunteers and promoting “get out the vote” messages. Andrew has also helped with a camp for severely handicapped people that he hosted with his housemates.

It is these experiences that make Mudge more than just another John Sayles, P.T. Anderson, or Woody Allen. Being an auteur isn’t easy, especially in Hollywood these days, but there is no doubt that Andrew Mudge is on his way.

Carl Hansen is a writer and frequent contributor to IMAGINE based in Los Angeles. You can reach him at fhansen1@netzero.net