The Poop Moose prepares for
big-screen debut
Fenton
Woods owner Darryl Fenton shows off the pocket-sized Poop
Moose he is making for a comedy film called "Bachelorman,"
which will be shot in Los Angeles next month. At left is
shop foreman Stephan Wilson, who supervises a half-dozen
people when orders for the wooden novelty candy dispensers
peak. The pair expect a spike in Poop Moose sales when the
film is released next year. Photo by SCOTT CHRISTIANSEN/Frontiersman.
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By SCOTT
CHRISTIANSEN-Frontiersman reporter
"There's not
a whole lot of room for candy in there. So it's cute but it's not
very practical…” -- Darryl Fenton maker of the
“Mini-Pooper”
The “Poop
Moose” is a wooden candy dispenser shaped like a moose. Candy is
dispensed out its backside when the moose's head is lifted.
The moose is
being made as a prop for the film version of “Bachelorman,”
which makes it’s premiere in Los Angeles in
January.
Darryl Fenton
knows demand for the miniature will likely take off, even if they're
not practical for dispensing candy.
"They'll want
them anyway," Fenton says. Terry Martin, who markets the moose for
Fenton expects wild reaction with "Bachelorman,” and also thinks
sales will skyrocket.
"Bachelorman"
producer Rodney Lee Conover said he's working on distribution for
the big screen and prospects look good for a release next summer.
Conover is a Los Angeles-based comedy writer who fell under the Poop
Moose's candy-dispensing spell when Martin placed ads in Conover's
Internet newsletter, "Comedy On Tap."
"Bachelorman," written
along with Jeffrey Hause & Daivd Hines (‘Once Bitten’; Father
Figure’) tells the story of a bachelor everyone loves, and who
is known for his bachelor savvy. "One of the ways that he introduces
himself to women is that he offers them a poop," Conover said, "He
pulls the Poop Moose out of his pocket, and he's very charming and
he gets a laugh."
And he gets
the girl. Until, of course, "Bachelorman" meets his match, and the
plot develops around the one girl he wants but can't have.
Conover's
bachelor originally relied on a more famous candy dispenser to break
the ice with women, but using it for the film proved
impossible.
"It's a brand
name and we can't use a brand name because it's an independent
film," Conover said.
So the
Frontiersman is left with that?
After some
urging, Conover spilled.
"For the same
reason I can't use Beatles music in my film, I can't use Pez -- just
put that," he said.
According to
Conover, the actresses in "Bachelorman" react to Poop Moose as if it
were something they've known all their lives. They have lines like
"Oh, I loved the Poop Moose when I was a kid." The girls happily
accept the candy and the charming bachelor is on his way. This is
more than just a one-shot product placement, Conover said -- the gag
runs throughout the script. Conover needed a pocket-sized pooper for
the gag, so Fenton made him a miniature “hero” moose for
filming.
The Pocket
Pooper -- as Conover called it -- takes a long time to make. Fenton
said he isn't sure if it will ever go into full production, even
though Poop Moose seems to be saving the day for a big-screen
production, and helping the hero get the girl, to boot.
For his part,
Conover assured the Frontiersman that his film is funny, and that
Poop Moose's cult popularity will skyrocket when people see the
Pocket Pooper in theaters.
"Fenton won't
be carving them out by hand anymore, let me put it that way,"
Conover said.
“Bachelorman” screens
at The Arclight Theater in Hollywood, January 9, 2003
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