Well, it's time I opine on 2005. While everyone else will talk and rant on about the war, politics, the right vs the left, religion vs secularism, and so on. I choose to cover my favorite subject...me. Really, I just want to focus on Twenty One and many of the friends and partners we've worked with over the years.

Biggest highs this year - Finishing 12 Steps Nowhere, Star Wars: The Unknown Discovery, Star Wars: Episode III, my birthday, Bone China, and landing our first name actress in a lead role.

Let me expound. Finishing up 12 Steps has been a long time coming and probably the biggest accomplishment all year. We began filming of the movie back in 2003 and got final prints done in May of 2005. Not what we had planned but it turned out better than I had every dreamed! We had a great premiere and a great after party! Nothing quite felt as good this year as seeing that movie finally play in a theatre.

Star Wars: The Unknown Discovery was a HUGE marketing coupe for us. We went out and shot the entire thing in one day. Everyone at Twenty One, Filmburn and Dynamix and Post Time busted their collective asses to get a FULL DVD finished for the Star Wars convention in Indianapolis just weeks prior to the release of Episode III. After releasing the movie and passing out 300+ DVD's, our web traffic went from an average of 2,000 hits a month to 100,000+ hits a month and to this day still holding. In one day we jumped 30,000 hits and had to add more space and find mirror sites to help host before viewer traffic crashed the site. iFilm picked the movie up, so did ManiaTV! and Film Threat reviewed it. The fan film was and is our biggest hit to date and for me personally a dream come true to see my name as director at the end of anything Star Wars!

Star Wars: Episode III - What can I say? It was the completion of a journey I have been on since I saw the original Episode IV in 1977 at age nine!

My birthday - I can't give details, to protect the innocent. It's a story for a time drowned in several rounds of bourbon and a lack of morals and ethics. All I can say the best birthday of my life! I don't see how I can ever top it, but I can always try!

Bone China - This is THE MOVIE! I am so excited about it I can hardly contain my enthusiasm! I'll probably be listing this one on my year end for 2006 as well. But this year is when the seed was planted. It also coincides with landing our first "name" actress. I about pissed myself when Dave called and said we had a commitment. It took a while for me to even believe it. My conversation with Dave. Dave - "She said she loves it and wants to do it." RJ - "No fucking way!" Dave - "Seriously, that's what she said." RJ - "You're lying. Really?" Dave - "I'm not kidding." RJ - "Shut up. She didn't. Are you fucking with me?" Dave - I saved the voicemail, you can hear it yourself." RJ - "No way. Are you serious. Come on." And so it went for several more minutes. I finally heard the message and I still didn't believe it.

There were other really good things that happened this year, not to just me, but people I have known for some time now.

Mat Raney was brought on board, "officially," as a member of the Twenty One team. Hell, he's been hanging around since Closure back in 2000. We couldn't shake him so we hired him. Seriously, Mat is a good guy, hardworking, smart, talented and he's a great addition!

Jared Smith, my A.D. on The Midnight, and a producer/director for many other Twenty One projects, as well as his own, Good Ninja Pictures, finished film school in New York and moved out to L.A. earlier this year. Now he works for MTV doing what seems to be a little bit of everything, schoomzing with celebs, and working on his own movie projects. I envy this shit out of him, but I couldn't be happier for the guy. The man is going places and he deserves it.

Justin R. Durban, our music man. He also made the leap out to L.A. to do his thing! From the time I met Durb I knew he'd be successful in whatever he chose to do. The guy has so much fucking talent it's scary. And I envy him too. I just hope he doesn't forget who I am when he's accepting his Oscar for Best musical score!

David Cottingham. What can I say about him that I haven't said before? Without him I would never be where I am today. Any success I may achieve will only be because he's stuck by me all these years. 5 years in Feb. 06. That's a lifetime for many entertainment partnerships. But for me and Dave it still is only the beginning!

Every year on the website I do a "thank you" news section for all those who have helped us through the years. The list has gotten so long that I fear I will forget someone by trying to thank everyone individually. So, "thank you" to everyone who has helped make my year a particularly good one. Sure I had bad moments in 05, but I like to focus on the positive and there was much more of that than anything this year. We made new friends and partners, saw many long time friends move on to growing successes and achievements in their careers and within the industry. We got plenty of press and a ton of new exposure. We keep moving onward and upward and we wish continued success and good fortune to all our friends and partners in the new year!

THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR A GREAT 2005!