Orion Comes Alive
I first heard about Joe Pitone shortly after The Montauk Project was first published. Preston had given a lecture at the Long Island Psychotronics chapter on the subject of the Surface Barrier Transistor. He also talked about Joe and the E.T. Company.
Shortly after the lecture, Preston called and informed me that someone was interested in doing a movie. My first reaction was that this was all extremely premature. I definitely expected to see this story taken to the screen but this was too quick. The book was hardly in the book stores at that point. I asked him who the interest was coming from, and he told me that it was from Joe Pitone and a certain Dr. O. This sounded almost comical to me as they are far from being professional movie makers. Preston also told me that a major director had read the book and the projected cost to make them movie right might be $50,000,000. Preston also explained hat Joe is worth about $50,000,000 on paper. He owns many different companies and is juggling things all the time. This was paper worth though and certain deals would have to come through before he could cash out. This also seemed very odd. If someone had fifty million, why would they want to invest it all in a risky adventure like a motion picture?
I was already suspicious of Joe because of Preston’s story about the transistor. My main concern was that someone might try to buy the rights to the picture and never release it. This is a common axiom in Hollywood: buy up and suppress movies that express the truth or expand consciousness and put out schlock.
By this time, I had also become friends with Dr. O. He showed up at a Psychotronics meeting one night but wouldn’t give me his name or tell me where he lived, only that he came from Florida. I would later find out that he was security conscious about the ozone machines he sells. As mentioned earlier, ozone is purported to be extremely effective in the treatment of AIDS and Dr. O is always looking over his shoulder for the FDA or AMA. The machines are sold only as water or air purifiers and they are expressly forbidden to be used for the treatment of any disease. For some strange reason (probably because it works!), people use them to treat diseases. Dr. O doesn’t do anything illegal by selling the ozone machines as purifiers, but he is ever cautious. His friend, a valid medical doctor, has a clinic in a foreign country that administers ozone treatments. This friend was shot at and his house was burned to the ground. Consequently, you can understand Dr. O’s hesitancy to reveal personal information about himself.
I got to know Dr. O by advising him on how to publish a manuscript he had written. I also found him to be the most knowledgeable person I’d ever met as far as knowing effective treatments against bodily infections. His information resulted in medical miracles for me and my family which I would not elaborate on. Consequently, he became a good friend.
It seemed very odd to me that Dr. O suddenly showed up at Psychotronics and introduced Preston to Joe Pitone, the man who just happens to have all these surface barrier transistors. I told Dr. O that this was too much of a coincidence when you put all the other circumstances together. Dr. O just laughed and said that Joe is just a regular guy and doesn’t have any “strange” connections. He said that Joe was a boarders in his mother’s house when they were much younger.
Preston set up an appointment for me to meet with him and Joe in order to discuss the movie rights for The Montauk Project. Upon meeting Joe, the first spontaneous thought that ran through my head was that this man was an alien. That was a totally subjective thought – it just came out in my mind. I didn’t vocalize it to him.
Joe is in his 70’s and looks very good for his age. He can be quite a gentleman and is also an excellent story teller. As he spoke about his interest in the move, it came across totally differently than what had been told to me previously. He was interested in acquiring the rights to the movie and showing it on his balance sheet as an asset for reasons that are too complex to go into. A quick payout could probably have been arranged, but neither Preston nor myself were eager to make a deal. Joe made it clear that he is not a movie maker, but that he has connections to Orion Pictures. I pointed out that Orion Pictures was under Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. He acknowledged this was true and told an interesting story. Joe said that Orion Diversified emerged out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy after court proceedings on April 29, 1992. The next court docket that day was Orion Pictures entering into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. He claimed there was no connection between the two companies. The synchronicity in these matters is certainly odd. He just happens to know executives at Orion Pictures!
Joe went into the possibilities and options in detail and he definitely seemed knowledgeable about such matters. He said that if he couldn’t get involved in it directly, he would at least help us make the best possible deal. Supposedly, Orion’s bankruptcy (which they have since emerged from) wouldn’t hurt the deal. Things could be structured so that there would be no liability of the movie not being made. We all agreed to keep talking and while interest in a movie has been generated from Japan and in other quarters, nothing has happened with Orion or Joe Pitone. But something of a far more intriguing nature was beginning to develop.
- pages 147-150
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