Two weeks today and yesterday

There's way too many Global Premiere happenings happening - can't believe it's in only two weeks yesterday (USA) and today (rest of the world) - so I'm gonna resort to a list. Normal prose will resume next time, probably.

- Our friends in the Maldives also going strong with a 585 seat cinema booked for the night - with the President as special guest (surely these two will set the record for ratio of available seats: population) 
- Thailand is broadcasting the film + live event on TV to 4.5 million people...

- ... as are Papua New Guinea (not sure of the viewing figures, but it's on the main channel at primetime, so should be good). These two are bizarrely the first ever TV broadcasts of the film.  Trailer in Thai here if you don't believe us.

- Attached a pic of the "edible decor" growing in Brooklyn for the guests at the New York premiere to graze on. Ever seen anything cooler? 

- The Nepal Tourism Board have set up a  screening for 350 people

- The USA cinemas - all 444 of them - have started shifting a few tickets now that our (hilarious) trailer has kicked off its (wait for it) 1.2 million screenings in mainstream US cinemas. A friend saw it play before Inglorious Bastards the other day and said it was suitably incongruous suddenly launching into "Will people in the future call our time The Age of Stupid?" (the voiceover has to be heard to be believed). It's also been watched 45,000 times online. 

- Attached is a pic of the outdoor cinema specially made in Vanuatu (pacific island already losing fertile land to rising seas). The screen was made by a sailmaker. There's seats for 160 people + more lying on the grass

- 13 cinemas in Brazil just confirmed. As have a few cinemas in Argentina, Chile and Hong Kong. (Mega kudos to the tireless team at Arts Alliance for calling round and round till each country eventually agrees just to make them go away.)

- Micronesia, Khazahkstan, Lebanon, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Swaziland are all organising small screenings as they don't have satellite cinemas to take part in the main event. And it's looking likely that they will soon be joined by: Cyprus, El Salvador, Ghana, Iraq, Lima, Philipines, Saudi Arabia, Taijakstan, Tanzania, China (Beijing), Sri Lanka, The Canary Islands, Kwa Zulu Natal, Nicaragua, Iceland, Malawi, Tajikistan, Philippines, Palestine, Egypt, Ukraine, Lithuania. Any questions about any of this, please ask ben@ageofstupid.net

- Germany literally confirmed 5 seconds ago that it is joining the event with at least four screens. Details in next couple of days. 

- Our web stats are leaping up more than 100% most days. Mainly cos Lizzie has a crippling Twitter addiction

- We are now an official part of UN Climate Week, which is being launched by Tony Blair on the day of our premiere

- If anyone was at the 10:10 launch last week, how funny was the "let's call Ed Miliband" live phone call on stage? No prizes for guessing who we now have our hearts set on for a similar thing at the New York premiere.... in fact I'm looking at a pic of him on the office wall this very second.... 

- Lizzie's managed to find a sailing boat for celebs in New York to arrive in. Our new location (Central Park was way too expensive) is on the river, so people are sailing, rowing and swimming (maybe not) up to the green carpet
- Moby just confirmed that he will definitely make it to the premiere (interesting fact: Moby provided free music for the first video I ever made, Truth or Dairy, way back in 1994). He has a gig in New York that night, but we're hoping he'll have time to sing a quick song on the green carpet - we've got the pedal-powered PA standing by in case. (I'm actually thinking of nipping off to the Moby gig rather than watching that goddamn film for the ten squillionth time)

- The satellite team went to Thom Yorke's studio to check that all's well for his live song and have given the thumbs up
- Ditto the Greenpeace ship near the Indonesian rainforest. Apparently they film the scientists speaking in the rainforest, a mini satellite transmitter bounces it to the ship which is moored nearby, ship bounces it to a great big satellite somewhere up in the sky, great big satellite bounces it down to our giant truck in Manhattan, then scientist guy speaks to me in the tent and the whole lot bounces back up again into the sky to bounce down again to cinemas all over the world. Boggles the mind.

So that's all the good news.... And the other news is that we are seriously in need of cash. It's not that the budget has gone up or that we're spending faster than we should be - it's that all these amazing offers keep coming in which we desperately don't want to say no to - eg 4.5 million people watching in Thailand - but which drive the costs up. 

So if anybody out there was considering buying a share - or if any of you who have already bought shares fancy another - please speak now. There are seven shares left from the last round, which are 10,000 pounds for one of 5,000 for half. All the info is here, but   the gist is that you invest 10,000 pounds (or 5,000 for half a share) and you get a slice of the profits paid once a year for ten years (first payment: October 2009). We've already raised more than £600,000 from this "crowd-funding" scheme, so you'd be in very good company. Contact Andrew Douglas on andrew@ageofstupid.net or +447912 150154 if you'd like more info or to have a chat. 

If you don't have 5,000 quid lying around, could you maybe make a donation? You can either sponsor a particular item for the premiere (though the yak is long gone) here or give a straight donation here.  Everyone who donates 50 pounds or more to the kitty will be added to a prize draw to win two tickets to their choice of any screening in any cinema taking part in the Global Premiere anywhere in the world  (including the New York solar cinema tent - but only if they can get there without flying). 

Hope you can help out on the cash-front. Would be such a shame if some of the screenings had to be cancelled for a lack of readies. 

Better get on with that Huffington Blog blog then... 

Over and out from New York, 

Franny & Team Stupid USA