Let friends in your social network know what you are reading aboutTwitterGoogle+LinkedInPinterestPosted!A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. Log InSubscribed, but don't have a login?Activate your digital access.Whether you celebrated Valentine’s Day last weekend, this weekend, or not at all, one thing is for sure: V-Day is one of the most loved/hated holidays of the year.Love isn’t easy and in this day and age and long-term, monogamous relationships seem to be on the decline. But for those who are celebrating this year with a special someone, this weekend is full of things to do.One Delaware couple is deciding to forgo the usual Valentine's Day activities and make some money. Delaware nightlife power couple Ashley “Blaquedymine” Peterson and Dedric “Jugg” Darnell has been on the club scene in the tri-state area for years. Before they met and started dating, Jugg and Ashley were both in the business of nightlife.Darnell is the owner and CEO of Juggernaut Security, one of the premier private security companies in the region.
When celebrities or music artists visit Delaware, it’s usually Juggernaut providing the protection. Jugg himself is a bodybuilder and many of the employees in his company have the same frame.Ashley’s business was on a smaller scale when the couple first met. She was new to the promotion game, but her model looks and infectious personality made her a well-known face in the nightlife scene.The two combined his experience and connections with her marketability and social media following to form Juggernaut/BlaqueDymine. This weekend the couple will host its first out-of-state event when they bring hip-hop legend Lil' Kim to Salisbury, Maryland. The Queen of Bad Boy Records will perform live at The Fountains, which may be a hike for some in northern Delaware and right around the corner for those in the southern part of the state.We spoke with Jugg and Ashley about how they built their reputation, what each partner offers and how their relationship has continued to survive in the nightlife industry.
Q: How did you both get into the nightlife scene and when did you combine efforts?Jugg: Well, because I do security I have always had my hand in the nightlife scene. My first event as a promoter was actually Ashley’s birthday party at Lavish with DJ Diamond Kuts, which ended up being a smash hit. It was from there that we really realized what we had as a team.Ashley: I have always been in the club scene and would help promote events, but it was never like how I and Jugg do it now. What we do as a team has been way more successful than what we were doing before we met.Q: What do each of you have to offer in your joint business?Jugg: Well for me it was my experience and connections in the club scene that helped us take it to the next level. Since Juggernaut security has done so many events in the area, I have built up a nice contact list of people to find a venue. Ashley, on the other hand, has the social media presence and influence. She has lots of followers and fans, which helps us pack our events and make money.
So both of our assets together really helped us build what we have today.Q: How do you separate business from personal when you’re in a relationship?Jugg: To be honest it’s really hard. We were really good at it at first but the last year has been rough. One thing we learned is that everybody is not your friend and not everybody is happy to see you succeed. The only way we have survived is by sharing everything with each other. So when you’re talking to her, you’re talking to me and vice versa. But sometimes success can complicate things.Ashley: The main thing that helps when doing business is communication and making sure you both are on the same page. When you’re successful everybody wants a piece of what you got. It hasn’t been easy recently for us but it also means it’s time for us to grow and make some changes.Q: What kind of changes will be made?Jugg: Well, in the past year, Ashley’s social media following has really grown to the point where her career as a solo model is starting to take off.
I’m not saying that our company is going to be non-existent, but we are going to focus on her career more than the nightlife scene right now.Ashley: Actually, we will be moving to Atlanta very soon for that reason exactly. I want to pursue my acting and modeling career and really take advantage of social media following that I have built over the years. I have a lot of celebrity friends in the industry and it’s really important that I move to a major market so we can take this to the next level.Q: What made you bring Lil' Kim to the event?Jugg: Lil' Kim is one of the legends of rap music. She is the original queen and is still loved by people in the new generation. Without Lil' Kim, there is no Nicki Minaj, and she continues to influence and empower female rappers everywhere. We were happy to even book her considering All-Star weekend usually keeps celebrities booked up. Bad Boy Records is one of the most iconic rap labels of all time and she was a major part of that. We knew that she would appeal to both the '80s and '90s babies.
WHAT: BlaqueDymine & Friends Present: Love & Hip-Hop Eastern Shore featuring a live performance by Lil' KimWHEN: Friday, Feb. 17 from 9 p.m.-2 a.m.WHERE: The Fountains, 1800 Sweetbay Drive, Salisbury, MarylandAshley Chanel Peterson, Dedric DarnellAs mentioned in part one, the film industry is a good place for ideas but not all those ideas will ultimately reach the big screen. Many projects are announced each year and most of them will reach the pre-production stage but many will go no further than that. Only about half of the films announced will ever be completed. For various reasons, many intended movies will just fade away. Some may die during the script writing stage, while other will actually begin production or even filming before the whims of fortune cause the demise of the project. Here is the second part of a list of 25 tantalizing unmade films that could have been classics. Kaleidoscope: Legendary director Alfred Hitchcock liked to be innovative. After watching Antonioni’s Blow-Up, Hitchcock felt America was far behind the Italians in film technique.
He asked the novelist Howard Fast to create a treatment about a deformed, gay serial killer. Hitchcock story-boarded a series of shots with over 450 camera positions and shot an hour’s worth of experimental test shots. However, MCA/Universal was disturbed and put-off by the script and the story board images and immediately cancelled the project. The Marx Brothers at the United Nations: In the 1950's, the aging Marx Brothers were set to reunite for another film. Groucho, Chico and Harpo were set to play a gang of thieves who, while fleeing the police, end up in the UN, where they are mistaken for important dignitaries. The joke was that the thieves fit so well in the world of politics that no one realizes they are phonies. The death of elder brother Chico ended the project. Megalopolis: Francis Ford Coppola dreamed up one of the most ambitious and unusual movies ever planned. It was an epic vision of New York City in the near future, where a brilliant city planner has turned New York into a massive metropolis which is the center of global economics and culture.
The planner even displays the power to stop time itself at will. However, he is also threatened by numerous adversaries, including government agencies, organized crime and corrupt businessmen. The movie never happened because the amount of money required to properly create its epic scope would be prohibitive, since Hollywood doesn’t like to take chances on films this unusual. Napoleon: Stanley Kubrick has made many classic films, and his planned Napoleon film was a project that he had wanted to do for years. The movie, which he started production on in 1968, was to be an epic three-and-a half hour extravaganza about the life of Napoleon Bonaparte. United Artist was unwilling to fund the entire project because they didn't think people would sit through a 3-plus hour bio-pic. Kubrick almost got money from some Europeans investors (it was going to be filmed in France and Italy) but he was ruined by competition from the film Waterloo, with Rod Steiger, which was being filmed nearby at the same time and was courting the same investors.
The investors decided to put their money into the cheaper film and so Kubrick couldn't fund his own version. The Navarone Trilogy-Part 3: The classic war film, the Guns of Navarone--starring Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn--was a huge hit in 1961. Director J. Lee Thompson had planned for a trilogy of stories—all based on the Navarone book series—featuring the Peck, Niven and Quinn characters of Malory, Miller and Andrea. He had hoped to start work on the second film by 1964 but it was difficult for huge stars like Peck, Niven and Quinn to coordinate their work schedules with Thompson's own busy schedule. Several years passed and the sequel was delayed. By 1970, both Niven and Peck agreed that they were now too old to portray their characters (the sequel was supposed to take place only a year after the first film) and so the trilogy was abandoned. In 1978, director Guy Hamilton picked up the thread of the franchise and finally filmed the sequel Force 10 from Navarone, with Robert Shaw and Edward Fox as Malory and Miller.
(Quinn’s character was omitted from the script.) The film ended on a cliff-hanger, which was to set up the finale of the Navarone trilogy. However, Force 10 from Navarone was a box-office flop and plans for the third Navarone film were dropped. The Road to the Fountain of Youth: Comedian Bob Hope and singer/actor Bing Crosby had made their successful "Road" series, consisting of seven films between 1940 and 1962. The Road comedies were very popular. The two remained close friends afterward, and in the late 1970s, the duo decided to make a reunion "Road" film. This one was to be called “The Road to the Fountain of Youth.” The story would begin with the aged Hope and Crosby as the main characters, until they find the fountain of youth and become young again (after which, younger actors would play the same characters as young men.) The death of Bing Crosby in 1977 ended the project. Roger Rabbit 2: The Toon Platoon: The success of Who Framed Roger Rabbit led to a series of short animated films and, of course, talk of a sequel.
Or rather, a prequel. The story was to take place several years before the original film, focusing on Roger's early years, how he met his voluptuous wife Jessica and how he became a Toon star. The movie was to be a tribute to the Service comedies of the 1940s (Most of the popular comedians of the time made comedies where they joined the armed forced.) In the film, Roger would be a USO performer who foils a Nazi plot. Unfortunately, there was a problem regarding the rights to the characters. Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, Disney Studios, and Roger Rabbit's creator Gary K. Wolfe all fought over their piece of the profit pie and the franchise fell apart. Strawberry Fields Forever: 25 years after the surreal animated film Yellow Submarine debuted, plans were made to film an animated follow-up to the Beatles’ cult favorite. The film was supposed to be done in the new medium of CGI animation. (Impressionists were going to voice the Beatles, but the songs would be done by Beatle recording.)
The surviving Beatles didn't approve of the screenplay and it never went past the script stage. Superman Meets Batman: In 2002, Director Wolfgang Peterson wanted to resurrect the ailing franchises of the Man of Steel and the Caped Crusader (after Superman 4: the Quest for Peace and Batman & Robin both flopped) and planned to unite the two characters in one film. A script was written where Superman and Batman would join forces, but the idea was dropped in favor of the Justice League film, which itself was delayed for years but is now in the works again and scheduled for 2015. Warhead: In the late 1970s, several years after Sean Connery had quit the popular James Bond Franchise, he was contacted by Kevin McClory, who had produced the James Bond film Thunderball. McClory, who had also left the franchise, didn't like the turn the Bond series had taken and wanted to make a new Bond film starring the original and best Bond, Sean Connery. The film was to be a semi-sequel to Thunderball, but produced by a different production company.
Orson Welles had agreed to play the villain. However, the financial power of United Artists (who produced the "proper" Bond series) managed to squash the project. Connery and McClory finally got to do another Bond film in 1983, when they made Never Say Never Again, which was basically a remake of Thunderball. Wonder Woman: Warner Brothers owns DC comics. The three most popular comic heroes of the DC Comics universe are Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Superman and Batman have both had successful film franchises made about them, so therefore it was natural that Wonder Woman was next. There had been a successful Wonder Woman TV series in the 1970s, starring Linda Carter. A script was written in the 1990s for a WW film and Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess) was approached to play the lead role. However, Lawless refused the project because the script was too Xena-like for her and she feared type-casting. Other big names were tossed about for the role and the script was re-worked.
After long delays, the studio ultimately got cold feet because superhero films featuring women had traditionally not gone over well (Supergirl, Catwoman, Electra.) They decided to make a new Wonder Woman TV series instead, since the character had already been successful on TV. It starred Adrianne Palicki as the eponymous heroine. The pilot was filmed but this version of the character was deemed too un-heroic. The pilot never sold and any future plans for Wonder Woman have faded into limbo, except for her expected appearance in the Justice League film. Won't Fade Out: In the 1980s, director Andrew Lederer decided to make a film that would be a homage to the aging stars of Hollywood's golden years. The plot concerned a group of elderly actors who are reunited for a reunion tour and suddenly find fame late in life, which they have trouble dealing with. The legendary cast would have included Frank Sinatra, Burt Lancaster, Bette Davis, James Stewart, Ralph Bellamy, Roy Rogers, Ginger Rogers, Lillian Gish and some of the Little Rascals.