The Buccaneer

Maybe it's my theatrical background, or a creative flare, but Halloween has always been my favorite holiday...
I competed in a Halloween Costume Contest back in 2002. And while I clearly had the better costume , I tied. I vowed that I would win the next year. That August, Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl hit the theatres. The character of Captain Jack Sparrow struck a cord with me. I said " Jack is my alter -ego" and I knew that this was the costume that I would win with. The only problem was that nobody was making the costume pieces for Jack Sparrow back then. I needed Jack's tricorn hat and I decided to make one myself out of wool felt, as they were back in the day.I went to the Halloween Costume Contest in 2003 and won with his Jack Sparrow pirate gear. I also met my wife at that costume party, We ended up getting married and now have a three-year-old son named, Wilde. I sent a few photos of myself in costume to Joey at Champion Attitude Boots (maker of the footwear for the POTC films) and he asked where I got the tricorn hat. When I told him that I had made the hat he suggested that I start making and selling them. And that’s how Captain Jack’s Pirate Hats was born.

I started putting a few of his handmade hats on eBay in 2003 and let the demand on ebay set my price. made them out of my apartment and dried them in my oven at the time.. Then, I began creating hat designs of my own such as the MacKay, Captain Morgan, The Skallywagg, The Buccaneer, The Stede Bonnet, The Filibuster, the Singapore Pirata, and The Pirata.

Soon I had eight different designs based on the hat styles from the Golden Age of pirates, which has grown to 15 styles. I made 70 hats in 2003 and now it is up to 1,000 hats per year, with over 4,000 total hats made to date.
In 2004 I Became the first Captain Jack Sparrow Impersonator in the USA to take part in  The Pirates Of The Caribbean Interactive. It was Interactive special event screenings of Pirates of The Caribbean: Curse of The Black Pearl. Imagine, if you will, Rocky Horror Picture Show Turned PIRATE! It was a blast, and the only case where Disney has allowed one of their films to be rented and shown outside of a very strictly controlled Disney Screening Schedule. We played it again in 2006 at the first PirateCon in New Orleans. I then went to Disneyland in LA dressed as Jack Sparrow only to be denied admittance. ( see the related article in my other "Notes").

I have played Captain Jack Sparrow for the openings of POTC2 and 3, as well as participated in the much acclaimed FAO Schwarz/ Zizzle Captain Jack Look Alike Contest, ( where I then got arrested at JFK International Airport- yet another story), and also on occasion for the Make A Wish Foundation and at the first Portland Pirate Festival." At their request, I made a few hats for Disney for Pirates 2 and 3.

In 2006, I became involved with a Independent Film Project called Pirates Of The Great Salt Lake, and I was the Official Hatter of the film. Through an odd series of events I would actually be added into the film in live action in 2008 playing myself ( see video clip)....and yet another story.

I still hand make every one of my hats and each is a custom order and a work of art. Take a look through my website www.captainjackspiratehats.com , visit the photo galleries..you'll see over two thousand options offered to create a one-of-a-kind pirate hat. No I am not trying to sell you all Pirate Hats. lol

It is our goal in create such a buzz through the Hollywood community via the social media platforms of facebook and twitter that within 8 months we will have "A list"  Hollywood Producers  contacting us expressing interest in The Buccaneer screenplay. We believe that we will create a bidding war to not only option but to lock the rights on our Script, and green light the project for production.It is our goal to pioneer and package a new methodology  to pitch scripts to production companies, producers, and studios, by creating a overwhelming demand for the movie, before the script has even been placed in the hands of the Production companies.

There are many, many worthy scripts out in the world that will never be made into films, because the process of the Pitch. Or because there are simply too many being pitched and too few executives and associates to read them all.

The Film Industry has gotten so overworked that they rely on scripts being turned in with incorrect format, margins, spacing, font etc... too much direction, too many camera shot notes, actor notes, director notes,etc... On one hand it looks like they do this just so that they can send them to the circular file and use these as a weeding tool. Laurie Scheer Media Consultant and Development Executive even stated that if the script is bound by the wrong size brass (#5) brads and that there are only two, not three.. This seams extreme but you can understand, that  if you are the person reading scripts it would be a big hassle not to have them standardized.

There are now Pitch Festivals where screenwriters pay to stand in line for two or three days to take turns pitching their scripts, during each couple minute turn, to  20 or so Production companies