Freakin Bulgaria. Where do I start?.... It was fun! Good people. It's got the BEST yogurt and feta cheese you'll ever have. Unbelievable! It's a very interesting country. It was under communist rule for about 40 years and has been a democracy for a little over a decade. However, out of this new free market society, the mafia formed and basically ran the country for a while. That's rapidly changing though and Bulgaria is finally in it's beginning stages of transition into a true democracy. It's a very exciting time.

I love the lack of concern about safety over there. There are HUGE holes in the ground with absolutely no warning, people drive like they're being chased by a title wave, and not all cars necessarily have seat belts. One night, I was getting a ride back to the hotel in a taxi and we were on a mountain road. The taxi was about to go a around a bend, completely blind. There was a car in front of us that was only going 10 MPH too fast, and that was WAY too slow for this driver. So, he went on the wrong side of the road to pass this guy around a blind bend. As soon as we came around and could see down the road again, a bus was headed right for us, no more than 100 yards away. The driver didn't even flinch, dramatically swerved out of the way, and continued as if nothing happened. I thought it was funny and laughed with the driver, but the ladies in the car weren't quite as entertained.

The cast was GREAT. Mena, Anna Lynne, Stark, Nick, Ving... all amazing. Don't listen to those IMDB message board snobs. If you like modern day zombie movies (Dawn of the Dead remake, 28 Days Later..), you will be entertained from start to finish, I promise you. It'll be out by next spring.

I also have fantastic news about All the Boys Love Mandy Lane. First of all, I saw it. And I'm not gonna say a thing. Well, I will say this... if you are a fan of horror, on ANY level, check it out and let me know what you think. Or if you had any kind of high school experience, see the movie. Some people have written the following things about the film: "A raw, grizzly look at a young, hedonistic America,""Closer to Larry Clark than The O.C." "Could do to the horror genre what 'Brick' did to film Noir," "The characters are obnoxious and pathetic. The director must have a lot of charm or friends to get this film made because it's a true stinker." The last one is from IMDB. :) I have nothing against IMDB btw, but some of those people are just ruthless.

Anyway, the really good news is that it was bought by the Weinstein company and will have a wide release in theaters next year! I can't wait!

For some reason my computer is being a jerk and not letting me send pictures to my wonderful webmaster. However, I'm getting a MacBook Pro on Thursday and should be able to send them shortly after that. (Apple is the way of the future. I'm telling you people, PCs are dead. The world will run on Macs in 20 years or less. Not that I know anything about technology, but that's just my uninformed opinion). I have a few pics from An American Crime and some great stuff from Day of the Dead.

That's all for now. Don't forget to register to vote, and remember to laugh!

-Mike :)

Great News! The Toronto Film Festival (Sept. 7-16) announced that All the Boys Love Mandy Lane will be included in their "Midnight Madness" screening.More news... Season 2 of Joan of Arcadia will be released for sale on November 28th.

Update from Bulgaria: Michael is working his rear end (ass) off in the old world there are zombies everywhere! I can't remember him being any more excited about a project, he says "the cast and director are the absolute best". Michael is flying home from Bulgaria on September 5th, then heading straight away to attend the Toronto Film Festival (All the Boys Love Mandy Lane)

Well true to form Michael left the country without updating, "The Latest." On his behalf, I must say he was finishing up "My Suicide" and "Choose Conner." He also had to say goodbye to friends and family. And couldn't cancel the concerts. Several Pearl Jams, and some other great band I can't remember.... Oh well..... So Mike's off to Bulgaria.... He got a lead in the re-make of George Romero's "Night of The Dead" He will play the brother to Mena Suvari (lucky guy) and Ving Rhames and Nick Cannon also star in it..... He is really excited about being chased and chasing Zombies. His girlfriend in the movie is AnnaLynne McCord (wow). The good news is he is really excited about all the work he is doing. His birthday is July 25th and he will be filming in Bulgaria. He will return sometime in September. Happy Birthday Michael Take lots of pictures for your wonderful fans....

Hey Everyone.

Welcome to "The Latest," my most recent attempt at keeping all of you up to date on what's going on in my life. Previous failures to do this include my blog, Q
and A, and a very short life on MySpace. By the way, I don't know who that person is, but that is NOT me on MySpace. I repeat- ANYONE WHO CLAIMS TO BE ME ON MYSPACE.COM IS AN IMPOSTER. Spread the word people.
He/she is stealing pictures from other sites and pretending to be me. I'm not a violent man, but you all have my permission to poke this with person with a
very large, very annoying stick if you run into them on the cyber street.

All of these unsuccessful attempts have made me realize something about myself. I am just not very good at the internet. I'm good at a very small number
of things, or at least have potential to be.. Some music, some sports, some games, the acting thing seems to be working out pretty well.. But these are totally overwhelmed by the things I'm not good at in life, and using the internet happens to be one of them. Others include fixing things, doing stuff, and arts and
crafts. So please forgive me, I'm giving it another shot.

The idea of "The Latest" is to basically let you know, on a monthly basis, what I'm up to in my career, life, and anything else I feel like talking about. So I will
do that now..

Since October of last year, I've worked on "All the Boys Love Mandy Lane," a low budget horror-ish flick,"My Suicide," a mockumentary/dramedy on the subject of
teen suicide, and "The Beautiful Ordinary," a film about the wonder and mystery of the high school years. Right now, I'm filming "An American Crime," based on
the tragic true story of Sylvia Likens, and "Choose Conner," which I'm not sure how to describe. I'll just call it a "political thriller," but that's a
terrible description.

I can tell you nice people in all honesty that I am absolutely thrilled out of my mind about EVERY single one of these projects. I really think that ALL of
them have potential to be great films and that makes me a happy sail boat. We'll see what happens, but I'm very optimistic at this point.

That takes care of the work... personally, things are crazy but great. I have a beautiful, lovely girlfriend now. Her name is Marissa, which means "of
the sea," (look it up), and she is an amazing person. I'm not sure what you all know about my love life, but up until this point, I would say I was batting a
pretty consistent .0050. Traditionally, not a successful area for me. So I'm very happy to have a winner, and she's about as much of a winner as I've
ever seen. : ) Yay! Sorry ladies, Luke Girardi has found his Grace. But she's nothing like Grace..

This is also a big concert year for me. Over the next few months, I'm seeing Radiohead, Pearl Jam (three times) with Sonic Youth, Red Hot Chili Peppers with
The Mars Volta, and Tool. Good times, I'll let you know how these turn out. I'm gonna go ahead and guess FREAKIN AWESOME!! But we shall see..

Anyway, that's it for this first addition of "The Latest." Let's hope I don't flake out on this one! Take care everybody.

-Mike:)