Press Release: International spotlight hits HIGH THERE and director/star Wayne Darwen

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

  

* Big week for nonfiction film in advance of official June 23rd release

* Storm over Darwen's rebuke of Robert Downey Jr.

HOLLYWOOD (MAY 22) -- Two of the world's most influential newspaper and online columnists, in two corners of the world, put the focus this week on High There director and star Wayne Darwen and his influence on today's pop culture.

Weeks before the nonfiction comedy film's official release on Richard Johnson of the New York Post's Page Six, and Mark Day of The Australian, wrote columns that were picked up by dozens of news organizations across the globe.

An international storm erupted Thursday after Johnson quoted Darwen's defense of independent filmmakers and journalists, in response to disparaging remarks by actor Robert Downey Jr.  

As Johnson noted, Darwen was the model for Downey Jr.'s newsman character in the controversial film, Natural Born Killers.

Three days earlier in Sydney, Day wrote a personal reminiscence of Darwen in Australia's only national newspaper.

He noted that his former reporter has been "described as the new Hunter S. Thompson — the new king of gonzo journalism," and that High There, which "reignites a film genre made popular decades ago by the likes of Cheech and Chong... is being hailed as a minor masterpiece."

Both columnists highlighted the triumph by Darwen and his fellow director Henry Goren earlier this month at the Cannabis Film Festival in Humboldt County, California, where High There won the Viewers' Choice Award.

The BRINKvision DVD of High There is available as a pre-order on Amazon.com and other online sales sites.

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CONTACT: Sam Peters

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NYC wakes up to Wayne Darwen aka Dave High of High There!

As the story spreads across the globe, a tip of the High There hat to journalist extraordinaire Richard Johnson of The New York Post's Page Six.

NY Post's PageSix.com: HIGH THERE director says Robert Downey Jr. was 'more interesting' on drugs

by Richard Johnson

May 20, 2015

Robert Downey Jr. has infuriated journalists and independent filmmakers with his recent insults — and one is firing back.

Wayne Darwen, the model for Downey’s newsman character in “Natural Born Killers,” told me, “Junior was a lot more interesting when he was a substance-abusing, suffering artist — brave and silly enough to push the envelope.”

The former “A Current Affair” producer added, “He should remember that it was the untamed spirit of the indie movement and the writings of journalists he now walks out on, that made him a name in the first place.”

Downey abruptly ended a British TV interview in April when a reporter tried to ask him about his politics and his troubled past (drugs and jail).

The “Iron Man” star, promoting “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” called the reporter a “schmuck” and then later said the reporter was “a bottom-feeding muckraker.”

Downey, Hollywood’s highest-paid actor at $75 million per year, then insulted independent filmmakers on Entertainment Weekly Radio.

The actor said he would never make a low-budget movie “because they’re exhausting and sometimes they suck and then you just go, ‘What was I thinking?’ ”

As for the young, idealistic artists who struggle to get their films made without studio support: “Most of you are kind of inexperienced and lame,” said Downey.

“His own father was one of the most influential indie filmmakers in history!” Darwen said. “Junior sold out for a comfortable life in boring Sherlock Holmes reboots and cartoon remakes. At least indie films come up with fresh stories.”

When “Birdman” director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu called superhero movies “cultural genocide,” Downey said, “Look, I respect the heck out of him, and I think for a man whose native tongue is Spanish to be able to put together a phrase like ‘cultural genocide’ just speaks to how bright he is.”

Darwen wrote, co-directed and stars in his own independent feature, “High There,” being released on BRINKvision DVD and on demand on June 23.

The gonzo documentary won the people’s choice award at the recent Cannabis Film Festival in Humboldt County, Calif.

An interview with Dave High