JERRY WASSERMAN

Jerry Wasserman grew up in New York City before making his way to Vancouver to teach at UBC in the Theatre Department, where he teaches theatre history and acting for the camera. As a middle-aged male character actor with an American accent, Jerry was well positioned when Hollywood came north in the mid-1980s, and has managed to maintain a parallel career in film and television, appearing in over 200 movies and TV episodes. Notable roles include Detective Fine in Watchmen, Dr. Yaeger Scanlan in Smallville (TV Series), Irwin in Beggars and Choosers (TV Series) and Baldez in I, Robot.

Davy Crockett was the first super hero.

The almanacs that were published during Davy's life and even after his death told stories of impossible feats he carried out over the course of his life, some of them were even true. Before Superman or Captain America, (both of whom embody some Crockett qualities) children imagined themselves as heroes of the frontier, fighting for their country and standing up for right.

In the 1950's Walt Disney saw the power of Davy and his power over our imaginations. For a while, the stories of Davy Crockett were as big as Star Wars would become a couple decades later. He was also a real man, a pioneer of modern politics and a patriot, who gave his life at the Alamo. He was heartfelt, humorous, stubborn and an expert hunter and tracker. He was a Hell of man, plain and simple.

My long term goal as a filmmaker is to tell the kind of stories Davy Crockett inspired, but even through some modest success like a TV Movie and the success of our Riverdale: The Archie Movie Trailer, the road to making large budget adventure movies is a long one. I wanted to find a new project with potential in a crowded market place. A brand that everybody knew and loved. Something that was public domain, something that had been abandoned by the public consciousness.

Davy Crockett was perfect.

When I was a child, I had an Disney cartoon book of Davy and his more fantastical adventures. I still remember his grin, throwing a bucket of hot oil on the sun to melt the sunrise. Or grabbing the tail of Haley's Comet and swinging it back into space, saving the whole world from destruction. Before I loved Ninja Turtles and Spider-man, I was gonzo for Davy Crockett. And that's saying something, considering I grew up in a post Star Wars and Transformers era. It shows the power of his (and Disney's) legacy.

Our goal is to bring that legacy to a whole new generation. We've updated the character with fondness to reflect a more modern audience. Everything from the famous buckskins to his tools of trade have undergone tweaks, making every detail feel fresh. The same way Westerns evolved from bright fables to dark drama, our Davy is both reflective of the times we live in and our taste for realism. He still has his trademark Coon Skin cap and sense of humour though, some things are just too iconic to lose their meaning.

This isn't a Hollywood Biopic. This is the Davy Crockett of my imagination, of our team's imagination. While still true to the man and what he stood for, our story is purely a work of fiction, derived from the tall tales that inspired my imagination as a child and continue to inspire all of us today. We want to show audiences Davy's journey to become the legendary frontiersman, with some exciting twists along the way. Our goal is not to regurgitate history, our aim is to re-introduce the values and spirit Davy represented and to inspire the imagination and excitement his stories have for generations.

We need your help to make it real. This is not the final movie, it's just the first step of a long journey. We have a dedicated, talented crew and an amazing cast lead by Ty Olsson, and like Crockett, we'll see it through to the end. A production of this size can't be financed on Indie GoGo alone, but we can put our best foot forward with an amazing concept trailer and other support materials from our film. We can show our vision in detail, communicate our dream and with any luck, and your help, Crockett will be real before big ol' Mike Fink hits the ground.

Share this campaign, donate anything you can and be sure to tell anyone you know about how excited you are to see this new take on an American Legend.

-- Andrew de Villiers