By Elwood Folse
Director and Producer Kevin Davis is nearly finished with his passion project film starring Jeff Etters, the original voice of Space Ace.
The film industry has lately been criticized for its surplus of Oscar bait movies, films that have taken themselves too seriously in order to seem gripping and speaking truths. However, the satirical film about friendship Agents of Project Bluebook” helps stray away from the usual darkness is truth style film. Shedding a lighter opinion on today’s political infrastructure.
Agents of Project Blue Book is an experimental film/dark comedy. It’s a twisted history lesson that follows the young President Eisenhower and his childhood friend, Frank Skuddler. The theme is about the friendship with an Alien Invasion storyline in the background. A little like “Grumpy Old Men” meets “Men in Black”. Much like Kurt Vonnegut’s, “Slaughterhouse-Five”, it has a nonlinear storyline and he story skips through the 20th century as seen through the eyes of Frank Skuddler.
The filmcovers urban legends such as the reptilian conspiracy of World War II, Eisenhower’s meetings with Aliens in the 1950s, and President Nixon’s alleged tour with Actor/Comedian Jackie Gleason of an Air Force Compound containing dead aliens.
The origin of Project Blue Book, names some historical events and people which are slightly altered and exaggerated for dramatic effect and to protect the people involved.
Leading actor Etters had a booth at the 2022 Pensacon convention. He was there to sign the pictures of his original debut in “space ace” as well as advertise his current projects such as “Dog House calls” and project blue book.
Etters, says “This is definitely a movie about friendship. It’s an idea that Kevin has had for a long time and I think he kind of figured a way to create it at UCLA. I think it’s something he has been inspired by for a long time. Personally I think that this project is driving him. He isn’t coming up with it, it just comes to him.”
When asked why Etters felt right for the role he simply responded with, “Well I don’t. But he convinced me to get out of UCLA. Kevin (Davis) was getting his masters in animation when he created this character ‘Frank Skuddler’ and I think he wanted to continue using this character to keep making fun of history. A lot of what he is doing reminds me of Quinton Tarantino. The way he is able to take history and make it into his own thing. I mean what he is doing is very hard to do. It’s a comedy, satire, adventure about two historical figures put in a weird situation where no one believes them despite the world perception being at stake.” Etter mentioned that he usually had not been interested in live acting, his true passion, as his history of work shows, is in animation and voice acting. The art of movement and capturing the essence of the world is what his focus leans towards.
This is just one of the many passion driven members working on Project Blue Book.
Coincidentally enough, one of Davis’s inspirations for making the film, Mark Singer was attending Pensacon for very similar reasons. The lead man of the 1984 original sci fi “V”. Davis mentioned that this movie about the humans fighting the alien enemy disguised as humans was part of the brain meal that supplemented his idea of “Project Blue Book.”
“The underlying story of the film ‘V’ was that the people had met the enemy, and that they are us,” Singer remarked. “I think there is a lot that can be taken from that and a lot to be done with it. It was a very cvvautionary tale that brings a lot of value to humanity and I am glad there are people willing to expand on that.”