CC: Looking back - Endorsement by the Creator of the TV Show 'Extras'

Hello everyone! Since this blog got started so late into our preparation for our elven adventures, we figured we'd fill you in on some of the exciting stuff that's been going on before you even knew we existed.
Two weeks ago at TIFF, me and Vosh set out to accomplish a task that no one expected we could pull off, but we thought would be an amazing way to get started: we wanted to get an official blessing for our endeavour by Ricky Gervais (creator of The Office, but more importantly the TV show Extras) while he was in town promoting his new movie Ghost Town at the Toronto International Film Festival. Thinking of the best way to get his attention, I decided we should design shirts of Karl Pilkington (his whinging bald-headed manc twat of a friend from his bestselling podcast), and after a day of meetings, drawings, and photoshop work we had created some pretty excellent shirts, if I say so myself.

One of our shirt designs

After convincing some charitable first year film girls to buy us discounted $20 student tickets to the premiere (hey, it may sound like we're cheap, but we spent more than $100 printing shirts!) and getting into the theatre, things turned out more difficult than expected. First of all, the bit of red carpet where Ricky was talking to the press was completely blocked off and we had to grab a spot right at the end. Then to make matters worse, Ricky was militantly escorted down the carpet by organizers who didn't want him dawdling and throwing the screening off schedule once the press was done with him.
Knowing we might not have another chance we yelled out his name and luckily he turned around not far past us. The instant he saw our shirts he let out the most gleefully childish squeal of joy I have ever heard (it still reverberates off the walls in my brain today) and stopped in his tracks, to the organizers' disapproval, to stop and stare. After several seconds of soaking in our excellent drawings he happily exclaimed "That's fantastic! Karl Pilkington!" before being escorted along without us being able to come over and without us being able to talk to him.

Ricky sees the shirts we made for the first time...

...and stops to happily stare.

Unfortunately he never stayed to watch the movie and was well gone by the time we left the theatre, denying us of the chance we expected to have to talk to him. Afterwards however, we were talking to David Koep, the movie's director (and the writer of Jurassic Park!), who agreed to deliver the shirts to Ricky along with our letter stating our case. Ricky's been complaining on his blog recently of having to do literally hundreds of interviews a day for the release of Ghost Town, and after TIFF he headed straight off for New York for the American premiere followed by a recent appearance at the Emmies. Hopefully though once his life settles down a bit we may hear back from him yet, or at least better positioned to give it another try later on this year in New York City.
All things said and done though, I made the creator of the greatest and most hilarious show in television history giggle like an idiot. I am at peace with myself. And though we may not have got our extra cred, we were still declared "fantasitc" T shirt designers. If only we could have as much luck at catching Peter Jackson's attention sometime in the near future....
Stay tuned for word on Dan's encounter with none other than Aragorn himself.