Movie/TV buffs: Anyone heard of Director Casey Kasper?

Cafe Society
1

So here in wonderful Marietta, OH we’ve got a guy running around named ‘Casey Kasper’. He claims to be a producer/director from Hollywood and he wants to turn our town into the setting for a new show he’s producing for the Science Fiction Channel called Tales from Deep Within.

But I have my doubts. In fact I’m downright suspicious.

The facts as I see them:

  1. He claims to be a medium shot from Hollywood.
  2. He’s picked up a local girl, who moved to LA to take a shot, a few years ago and has been living with her for two+ years while he’s tried to do this.
  3. He claims he’ll have Will Smith, Ashlee Simpson and other A-listers involved.
  4. He says he’s starting a production studio that will employ 100 people in town once he gets off the ground.
  5. He says he’s shooting a pilot for the SF Channel, as mentioned above, but they acknowledge no relationship or even knowledge of him.
  6. He’s had, over the last few years, a few ‘shooting days’ which consist of the city loaning him time on the roads and a helicopter. He brings in one camera and cameraman with one or no soundmen to shoot some driving scenes.
  7. He’s consistently attacked those who doubt him

I run the local newspaper. I smell a rat. IMDB has NO listing for him that I could find. A google search on his name turns up some local news stories and his website.

We’re a small town. And, due to a need for jobs, somewhat vulnerable to guys who offer to employ people. I find myself irritated at the guy peddling blue sky ideas and demanding things from the city when he is, to my mind, just trying to get free stuff and services.

Do any of you more plugged in to the entertainment industry have any knowledge or sources on this guy that could confirm that anyone in Hollywood knows him at all? Because I’m seriously tempted to burn him in print. I could use either some ammunition or some data that confirms his story.

2

I say burn him.

Claiming that A-listers are involved in a project when they’re not is not that out of the ordinary (you know, ‘Ron Howard expressed interest…’ that sort of thing, meaning you sent him a script and he didn’t call the cops). But the fact that the Sci-Fi channel doesn’t know who he is and that he has no Imdb listing at all (is that the correct sp. of his name? Has he worked under another name? Has he mentioned what other productions he’s worked on?) are pretty good tip-offs.

If he were presenting this as an experiment, a way for a budding young filmmaker to travel across the country making a TV show with help from locals (including, say, film students. Not desperate people thinking they’re securing paying jobs with him later on), that would be one thing. But if he’s getting defensive, he should be investigated.

Edited to add that this site claims he’s written for Roswell and Stargate SG-1. You should be able to check up on that, unless he was uncredited. Still, far from a big shot.

3

If he’s offering to employ people for a film or TV shoot, shouldn’t there be some sort of insurance or bond attached to the project? I seem to recall hearing tell of projects that were heavily invested in but didn’t end up produced, but the investors were satisfied because the insurance paid off. i’m not a Hollywood bigwig though, so I could be wrong.

4

I saw that site myself but have never been able to verify it.

The city is requiring him to post insurance but I haven’t been able to confirm where the money is coming from.

It’s a weird situation. No one trusts him but none of the powers-that-be are willing to go against him because he MIGHT be true. I want to get to the bottom of it.

5

I’m a nobody in the industry and even I’ve got an IMDB listing. If he doesn’t (and he certainly sounds like the type who’d be sure to have even the most obscure connection listed), then I’d say he’s a big fat faker/liar.

6

Is this anything like that prank reality show Willaim Shatner did a few years ago, when they got an entire small town to believe he was going to shoot some big sci-fi show there?

7

I’ve thought about that but he’s been working the angles here for three years. I’d have thought there’d be something there by now if that was the deal.

8

It does seem very fishy. I suspect that anyone who wrote for shows like Stargate and Roswell would have to be in the WGA – can you contact them to verify membership? I also think references to this work would turn up in Google searches since those shows have the kind of cult followings that lead to extremely thorough websites about their creation.

If you do an expose on him, make sure to post a link here!

9

Not a movie maker, but just because the SciFi channel doesn’t know of this project doesn’t mean he isn’t trying to get a pilot shot so he can show them it on the hope that they will eventually buy it.

But he sounds like a real weasel. It’s your civic duty to investgate (and expose, if necessary) this guy.

10

It gets a little better.

Here’s the sample he just uploaded of his ‘In pre-production by Kaya Redford’s shop’ Casey and the Kasperians.

Also, he got a lot of pub today for staging a ‘rehearsal’ for a car chase. It featured a truck driving through town at 25 mph while a helicopter filmed it. Is it customary to do it this way?

11

If he is legit, then that little promo should end his career.

12

And allow me to point out that not only does he have no record but he’s got to be at least 50. How can he be any sort of wheeler with no footprint at that age?

And neither WGA West nor WGA East has record of him.

13

No kidding! Yikes. Even if he was 20 and trying to get something on Adult Swim, I’d say he had a long way to go.

It sounds like all this adds up to a giant pile of BS, but my biggest question is what he hopes to gain from this. What is he trying to get from the town? Is he just attempting to feed his own ego? Is he just completely out of touch with reality?

14

Well, that’s an interesting question, isn’t it? I can’t for the life of me see what his angle is. He’s got a little from the city but nothing more than roads shut down for some rehearsals. He’s gotten a LOT of media love from the local media (except mine).

But I see nothing else. If he’s angling for money or something I haven’t heard of it. And I would have.

I spoke to the production company behind Roswell today. According to senior execs there who worked on Roswell they’d never heard of him.

I’ve also got calls in to MGM (who produced Stargate SG-1), Kaya Redford’s production company, the SciFi channel, and the agents for Will Smith, Jessica Simpson, and Ashlee Simpson.

Curiouser and curiouser.

15

I’m REALLY a nobody and I’ve got an IMDB listing.

16

Good fucking grief. This is worse than Mac and Me. And yet not quite stupid enough to be part of an elaborate prank (plus, as you mentioned, he’s been at it for years). Have the townspeople seen this dreck yet? Can your paper link to it online? Alsol, tell the people how much they’re spending on this guy for helicopters, road blocks, etc.

But I do get it now. A nobody with an overinflated sense of ego bilks a town so he can feel like a star for a little while, and get some tang on the side. This is exactly the sort of jerk who’d list an uncredited extra role as Angry Man in Grocery Store on his Imdb page. The fact that he has nothing, as others have mentioned, is a major, major red flag.

17

One of the guys from LA I spoke with yesterday about it said the same thing. He was a junior spokesman and he’s got a listing.

It’s a conundrum. Why is he pushing for all the good coverage and happy thoughts? He’s appeared at the Lions Club, at Rotary, Chamber of Commerce functions, the last three City Council meetings, the Mayors office, and every media outlet in town.

What’s the angle. What is he expecting to gain?

18

Alright, here’s a little randomness about Casey Kasper…

Back in the day (2000), when I was a teenager, I used to chat on AOL quite a bit. Kasper sought me out via AOL and tried his hardest to recruit me. I was a musician and he wanted me to write for his crappy animated series about Aliens. Thankfully, I caught on to the creep-vibe fairly quickly. He was clearly full of shit from the get-go.

It was somewhat like a bad train wreck; I couldn’t turn away from his laughable mess. I corresponded with him for roughly a year. I found myself constantly asserting myself with him. It almost became a game to try and bump his ridiculous ego down. He eventually gave up, because he knew I had figured him out. In one of our last conversations, when questioning his credentials, he broke down and told me he was a limo driver…and started his life in LA as a car washer.

Things that stick out in my memory: He name dropped continuously. He was older, obese, and tried to present his life as this amazing showcase. I recall him sending a picture to me of him & Alicia Silverstone. He claimed they were good friends & were celebrating her birthday. He also claimed to be a vegetarian…which was not believable. He would send pictures of him & a red corvette often as well. It almost looked as though he was just posing in a parking lot next to a random person’s car. I also recall him bragging about writing for Roswell & Stargate. He would try to impress me with it, but I liked neither show, so that kinda stopped right there.

Lastly, the saddest part, was the girl he lived with and who he tried desperately for me to befriend. She was a Greek girl, who appeared barely out of her teens but was actually in her late 20s. She had horrible self-esteem, and when I spoke with her, something wasn’t right. She seemed stunted growth-wise. She spoke like a child. Casey was her God, and he liked it that way. She was a song writer (a terrible one) and he promised her the world. And then he abruptly left her. Penny-less. I never did find out where she ended up. He treated her like a slave.

The whole situation was very dark & fishy. Every which way. All these years later, I found myself wondering what happened to the both of them. I googled his name last night, and as it appears, he has not changed in the least. Same ol’ song and dance. He built up this huge lie of a life.

Lastly, I am nobody. I have worked as an assistant in a few movies, and even I have an IMDB. I always thought that was so so fishy that he had nothing credential-wise.

P.S. I believe his real name was either Casey Jasper, or Jasper Casey. He was from Kentucky, or Oklahoma originally.

19

Oy, that takes me back.

For those still interested, last I saw Casey (in late 2010) he was still living in Marietta and had knocked up that girl he was running with and living with her mother.

20

This freak is MOST DEFINITELY a FRAUD. How do I know this for certain? I know because he lived with me for over a year.
I first met him in an AOL chat room and his claims to “fame” were the same as those discussed here. He eventually invited himself to visit me (in Colorado) and showed up with nothing. The warning bells went off in my head immediately upon seeing him for the first time.
I was a single mother at the time and I had no intention of him staying at MY house… so he stayed in a hotel for a few days, then suddenly there was a problem with his flight home and his" funds" were tied up in a project (Casey and the Kasperians) but would be in his bank any day…
So I allowed him to stay on my couch for a few days… and he NEVER left!
He had people that would mysteriously send him some money from time to time…an EX-FBI agent…a Charlie Chaplin impersonator…
I tried tirelessly to get rid of him and I’m still amazed that he conned me and others for so long.
After So Many lies and deceptions…I kicked him out and then found him shacking up in my shed…huddled and crying. And it got Even More Bizarre…I let him stay… again.
And then he crossed the line… took my son 200 miles (in my car) to meet a woman he’d meet online! I threatened police action and he packed up his measly belongings in the beater car I’d bought (and he was supposed to make payments on)… and headed back to LA. He’d taken me financially And emotionally. He NEEDS TO BE STOPPED AND EXPOSED!
I couldn’t believe it when I ran across your posting about him! There’s a story there and I was curious if you followed up on it.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk