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Thursday, April 28, 2005
WHEW! Having been out of town for a few weeks, it has been hard to keep up with all of the developments in Michael's career...
Anyway, Mike completed the shoot for his Disney promotional project which will supposedly air around the beginning of
June. Just keep your eyes open for a water fight in between Disney channel shows and one of the participants will be Michael...
Mike had an absolute BLAST filming the promo and appreciated working with such an incredible group of professionals. He
learned a lot from everyone at the shoot. In addition, his mom learned a lot about a parent's role on a working set. Basically,
stay out of the way!
Mike really hopes he can do some more work for Disney in the future...
As for other auditions, Mike auditioned for and won yet another callback for a feature film called, "The Contract"
which will star John Cusack and Morgan Freeman. It is a movie about a coach (Cusack) and his son (Mike's role) who go camping
and run into a hit man (Freeman). The movie will be filmed in Bulgaria, of all places, and will begin shooting in June. Mike
is really excited about this role as well as the opportunity to work with John Cusack and Morgan Freeman!
In addition, Mike has recently auditioned for an episode of CSI:Miami, a pilot named "Don't Ask," a Disney pilot
entitled, "Hannah Montana" and starring roles in several feature films from "Hoot," "The Contract,"
"The Secret of the Cave," and "Cheaper by the Dozen, II" with Steve Martin. Michael is also getting ready
to audition for the lead role in "Saving Shiloh," a movie about a boy and his dog and their relationship to a troubled
neighbor man.
Since Mike has returned to Anthem for the next month or so, we are all getting ready for our eventual permanent move to
the LA area in the next month or two.
Now that Mike has recently signed a new 18 month contract with his agent, Cindy Osbrink, he promises to be quite busy
for a lonnnnnggggg time! In fact, The Osbrink Agency has reserved the right to extend his contract for 3 more years after
this next year. In addition, he has signed a new contract with his manager as well...
We all deeply appreciate the faith and belief both his agent and manager have in Mike to make these long term commitments.
Mike is dedicated to making sure his efforts pay off for all involved!
Now that we are all at home, we should be able to keep up a little more often with the updates. Mike really appreciates
the support from his family and friends so do not hesitate to drop him a line... Thanks!
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
WOWZER!!!!!!! HE GOT IT!!!
Mike has won the Disney commercial role!!! His manager called him tonight with the incredible news!!!! He has booked his
first big time paying job! CONGRATULATIONS TO THE MIKESTER!!! WE ARE SOOOOOO PROUD!!!
He is booked for the job on April 22nd and we all cannot wait! Mike and all of us are VERY excited! Heartfelt thanks go
out to his manager and agent as well as his acting coaches and all who believed a kid with a dream could beat the odds! Mike
is now officially a working actor!
And in the midst of all this excitement, Mike got yet ANOTHER callback! This one for the "Tales of the Dark Carnival"
pilot! Great job, Mike!
With all the incredible feedback Mike is now getting from his acting coaches, his manager and agent, you can really sense
his career is ready to take off at any moment! These are what dreams are all about!
Mike, we are so very proud of your incredible work and persistence during this time. And to pull this off while maintaining
straight A's in school is unbelievable! You really deserve it, Mike!
Monday, April 11, 2005
Over the weekend, Michael filmed his role in the student film, "Old Man" up in Ojai, CA. Needless to say, he had
a blast! It took Mike and his mother about an hour and a half to drive up there for what was a relatively brief shoot but
it was worth the time and trouble! As we said before, Mike is continuing to build some real momentum in his career.
In keeping with that momentum, Mike had his callback for the Disney commercial today and received great reviews from the
casting director. Mike feels pretty good about this one! Let's keep hoping!!!
Friday, April 8, 2005
Well, you just can't keep a good man down! Mike got another callback! This time for the Disney commercial. It turns out that
Mike is supposed to "draw" a Mickey Mouse face with a Super Soaker squirt gun in the commercial! Anyway, he evidently
did a great job with both that and his lines and got the callback! As with most commercials, there were a LOT of other kid
actors vying for this project! Great job, Mike! We are very proud of you!
Thursday, April 7, 2005
Due to scheduling conflicts, Mike's audition for "The Confession" has been postponed until further notice. Why,
we are not really sure. The actors and their families never seem to find out much directly...
However, according to AnnaSophia Robb's fan site, Mike is still evidently one of about "five or six boys still in
the running for her 'husband'"... Perhaps the delays for the narration callbacks are to accomodate the remaining actors
that were also given callbacks along with Mike. Keep your fingers crossed on this one! We will let you know as soon as we
hear something more...
Mike also has another audition... this time for a nationwide Disney promo commercial. While commercials are not major
film roles, they do provide a couple of great advantages... 1) they give an actor fantastic nationwide exposure and 2) actors
can often make between $50,000 and $100,000 for just one national commercial! The money is made not so much for filming the
commercial but in the residuals which are payments that are made to the actor EVERY TIME the commercial airs on TV anywhere
in the world. Good luck, Mike!!!
Finally, without missing a beat, Mike has yet another audition for tomorrow. This time for a television pilot for the
Sci-Fi cable channel called, "Tales from the Dark Carnival". In a way, it is supposed to be a cross between "Tales
from the Crypt" and the legendary "Twilight Zone". Break a leg, Mike!!!
Tuesday, April 5, 2005
BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!!! After getting the long awaited but somewhat unexpected callback for "A West Texas Children's Story"
last Friday, Michael has another audition for the lead role in another major upcoming film. This time, it is for the role
of Arthur in the movie, "Arthur and the Minimoys" which is the first of 3 books written by French author/director
Luc Besson. The movie is going to be a blockbuster with a budget reported to be in excess of $75 million - even more than
for the movie Shrek. In fact, this movie will combine both live actors as well as 3D animation. Reportedly, Morgan Freeman
will costar in this movie and some of the reported voiceover parts will include rock legends Madonna and David Bowie as well
as Snoop Dog.
The plot line from IMDB.com reads... "Ten-year-old Arthur, in a bid to save his grandfather's house from being demolished,
goes looking for some much-fabled hidden treasure in the land of the Minimoys, a tiny people living in harmony with nature."
If Michael lands this role, he would have to decide between "A West Texas Children's Story" and this movie as
both are reported to be going into filming in June. And while "A West Texas Children's Story" will be filmed in
Austin, Texas, "Arthur and the Minimoys" will be filmed in Paris, France! Wouldn't it be nice if we all had such
problems!
If that were not all, Mike has also been invited to audition for a role in the upcoming short film, "The Confession"
this Thursday! How Mike prepares for these auditions while keeping up with his homework and doing so well in school is beyond
me...
Saturday, April 2, 2005
We are still awaiting further word but there has been a development in the ongoing situation with "A West Texas Children's
Story" that Mike auditioned for some time ago. This had been a great opportunity for Mike as the movie is supposedly
scheduled to be shown at next year's Sundance Film Festival (one of, if not THE premier film festival in the U.S.) When we
last left off, Mike had auditioned for the lead role and had been promised a callback by none other than the famous casting
director, Don Phillips. But since the movie was not going to begin shooting until June, the callback was not immediately scheduled.
Sometime later, we found out through Mike's agent that the director and producer had decided that they wanted a "name"
actor to play the lead part and that Mike would not get his promised callback. In fact, we found out that the teenage star
of "Finding Neverland", Freddie Highmore, was going to fly in from England to take the role. Needless to say, we
were very disappointed but Michael moved on...
Then, just a week ago, Mike was called by his agent and was told that the part was still open and Mike was going to get
his callback opportunity after all! And on Friday, he went in to audition for the director and producer in person. In addition,
Mike read his part with none other than AnnaSophia Robb, the star of "Because of Winn Dixie"! It turns out that
AnnaSophia has evidently landed the other lead role in this movie...
Well, the director told Mike he did extremely well and they wanted him to come back for yet another callback but this
time for the narration part of the script. It turns out that Mike's character in this movie is not only one of the two lead
roles but is also the character who serves as the narrator. So, of course, we wait and wait and wait! Let's keep our fingers
crossed!!!
AnnaSophia Robb Official Website
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