Bill Bordy's Dream - Edgar Allan Poe's ANNABEL LEE

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Bill Bordy's Dream

A very successful movie producer once said, "Movies aren't made.  They're forced into existence."

Behind every motion picture is always one person who has the initial idea...

In truth, the person who deserves the real credit for the actual idea of taking "Annabel Lee," the last poem ever composed by the great literary figure Edgar Allan Poe, and turning it into a feature length motion picture belongs to Executive Producer Bill Bordy, who also co-stars as Vincent VanDamme.

To understand how it all happened requires turning the clock back a few decades...

When Bill Bordy first started acting in Community Theater in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he had no idea where the arc of his career would lead. Nor could he have seen a journey that would take him deep into the world of casting talent and lead him out into the world of independent filmmaking.

After moving to Los Angeles in the 1960s to seek his fortune in acting, he came face to face with the reality of finding work in the tough business that is Hollywood. A serendipitous encounter with entrepreneur Lee Ross in 1969 put him into the niche role as host of a daily casting hotline for hopeful actors. Within a few years, his daily hotline had morphed into the Drama-Logue Casting News, a weekly newsletter where actors could go to find who was casting for both theater and film.

Bill’s Drama-Logue (as it was later shortened) earned its reputation as the paper of record and valued cheerleader for L.A.'s oft-ignored theatre scene, as well as the only resource for thousands of actors and aspirants. It was modeled after New York’s successful casting sheet Back Stage, so it’s not that surprising when Back Stage came knocking as a suitor to purchase Drama-Logue in 1998.

But it didn’t take long for the passion for acting to come back to Bill, who lives in Sarasota, Florida and is involved with the local arts scene there. After all, he says, Drama-Logue was an unplanned detour from his acting ambitions. Bill had worked with fellow film enthusiast Barbara James (Associate Producer) on an idea to develop a feature film adaptation of “Annabel Lee,” one of his favorite poems from gothic horror writer Edgar Allan Poe. 

Years later as fate would have it, Bill sparked up a friendship with fellow travelers Maria Lydia and Michael Rissi while on vacation in Eastern Europe, and the rest, so goes the cliché, is history...

Bill is also a graduate and supporter of Emerson College in Boston, where he received the Alumni Achievement Award in 1985.  Bill's philanthropic generosity towards his alma mater is legendary.  In fact, in recent years Bill made the largest private donation to Emerson's Los Angeles Campus in the school's illustrious history.


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