THE REMAKE

Ben Murphy and Pete Duel in Alias Smith and Jones.

Geoffrey Deuel.

During the time the show ran or if it was even earlier I can't remember now. I found out that Pete has a younger brother Geoffrey Jacob E. Deuel. Who has been acting with stars such as John Wayne. You could say I was a bit shocked seeing this actor who looks as if though he could be my own twin brother. My idea is that I'm going to try to meet him in the future. I'd like to discuss our relations and my future series with him. As there were many things I didn't like in the original show that I now could change, and since I've always wanted to be an actor this would be my big chance to become one.

The Deuel brothers on DVD

Glen Larson.

The remake of Alias Smith and Jones originally created by Glen Larson got started by me in 2003 merely as a test. I wanted to see how big the interest was. I'm still kinda amazed how smooth things were going, lots of actors, actresses were participating including some really big names, until the day that I was finally going to get the project into production the rejection/ignoring began, and that is why it's been taking sucha long time for me to put the remake together. People in today's society are simply too darn "rejective", as I say when someone is afraid to get involved and don't want to cooperate.

"Alias Smith and Jones is based on the very successful film 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid', starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman."

In 2004 the website was launched. Now it was time to contact the copyright holder Universal only to later find out that the studio executives are assholes, they don't respond, it's their policy. By this time everything was in ruins. Diane an established filmmaker from Minnesota had recently offered help with the remake, still nothing was happening. In the summer of 2006 I discovered a website that was going to change everything for me, MySpace it's called. A place where people hung out before Facebook came into our lives. Suddenly I found myself meeting filmmakers, actors etc. I even re-connected with my relative and good friend Beyoncé whom I had lost contact with one year earlier and like a gift from above a new Kid Curry was found. Brent Thomas Waffle. The role of Kid Curry was originally going to be played by Tom Welling "Smallville", he never replied to me for some reason, big stars such as him usually never does. Just like Universal it seems to be their policy not to LOL. How foolish of him.

The cast and crew of the remake

Brent Waffle.

I have also actually been quite displeased with my choice of casting Mr. Welling in the remake. He is simply too tall, too old and too muscular, and I know the old fans are going to hate that. I just wouldn't like to make them upset. Brent is an unknown young man from Indiana, USA. He do looks both a bit like Ben Murphy and Paul Newman. I am personally going to play Hannibal Heyes. As I don't think anyone else could do the part better than me the choice was easy to make.

James Hall.

Since the same period I began working with James Hall an ex New Yorker and law enforcer from Tucson, Arizona, he has been acting in such films as The Wild Wild West starring Will Smith, he became my new partner after my other co-worker Diane Kelson backed out on me, she was unable to find investors for the project. I found James on MySpace. He promised he would take the project into production and that we were going to film a teaser trailer for the pilot episode in the summer of 2007. It was going to be screened exclusively for Universal. Something happened and he decided he should make an appointment with Universal instead while trying to sell Shattered Heroes a movie that he had been working on, that project was later put on hold to 2008 and nothing proceeded with the remake since that day.

John Ceallach.

Until December 2007 when I scrambled together a pilot script on my own in three weeks provided with a few scenes from the pilot teaser which was written along with James' buddy John Ceallach. We were continuing to promote the remake together. After about six months in February 2008 James and John had been negotiating with some companies. A few of them had showed interest in the remake and were going to pick it up in about six months and probably already would have if it wasn't for the strike in Hollywood who had their projects on hold for an unknown period of time.

Beyoncé Knowles and I are relatives and friends for many years.

At the same time I was promoting a self-written manuscript for a comedy musical called HälsingeJävlar that I wrote in 2006 to early 2007, which is based on my own life and inspired by a number of films that I've seen. On February 27th 2007 I completed the script. It has since been undergoing some changes. As it was originally planned to become a short film, I simply wrote too few pages and also did the mistake to write the whole thing in Swedish. None of the American actors were able to read it. It has therefore been translated to English and extended to the length of a feature film. At first I tried to sell the script to different production companies in Sweden, no one were interested in it, but did eventually find two people who were interested taking the project into production a director and a producer, the latter recently backed out. After that I was able to get a relatively big production company in Finland hooked on it, then a company in Norway, the negotiations cracked there too. Hälsinge Bastards was the script's original English title, it unfortunately got a bit lost in translation, so I renamed it to The Devils of Hälsingland.

Roger Davis.

In 2009 I had given up the project due to lack of interest. HälsingeJävlar is not the only script I have had under development. In the past years I've discovered a most interesting thing called drama. Which is a most popular thing among women in America and other parts of the world. It has inspired me with some ideas for a future manuscript that has been in the plans for quite a long time, a romantic drama musical that will most likely be based on my own life. While I was busy trying to put the musical together a company in Malibu, California found interest in the remake. A company that has actually something to do with "Smith and Jones". Lonetree Entertainment, which is a company that Roger Davis who played Hannibal Heyes in the original TV-series is working for. He is one of their producers.

Everything was now literally to hell. Things weren't working out as planned. Lonetree didn't seem very interested helping me unless I asked Beyoncé some questions about her involvement which is easier said than done.

Beyoncé's manager Mathew Knowles.

I sent a number of e-mails that were never replied to and even made a call to Mathew's management who is Beyoncé's father but without any success at all. Several e-mails and numerous arguements later a cancellation was near. The showbiz can be a hopeless place sometimes even your own closest family let you down at times and for no reason I might add. By the end of 2008 Beyoncé's management came out with the news that she was going out on tour in 2009. So I decided to go there and talk to her. Then on May 13th 2009 it was finally time to meet her and this is where the whole thing got an abrupt end.

I had to start all over re-promoting the pilot script on my own but unfortunately failed doing so. I was at that point forced to send a "letter of intent" to her management as a final cry-out for help. I gave her a deadline which she completely ignored and as of January 29, 2010 the remake got cancelled. More than a year later on October 8h 2011 I guess my nagging has paid off as Beyoncé has finally promised she will be taking over the project and take it into production in 2012 through her newly started production company Parkwood Pictures.