I won’t go into detail about what I Googled (the results that come back to me in .74 seconds has nothing to do with what I put into the search bar) but sandwiched between links to Tribeworld and a random Amazon listing for a book that really had nothing to do with anything, was a link 6 listings down that caught my eye – 5 Reasons Why The Tribe Movie Is Gonna Be Awesome on Hypable written by Selina Wilken back in June 2012.

I had to click it. I knew this was going to be something that needed reading.

Now we can all do the math, and I’m pretty sure Raymond Thompson used the term, “Development Hell,” when talking about what has been going on with this movie that was supposed to be out in 2014. Selina pointed out a very solid 5 reasons why this movie was going to be awesome, but what I need to get off my chest is something that I think has been largely overlooked by trying to repackage something that was already the best thing to a whole generation.

Cloud 9 has the fan base, and before I get carted off with a black hood over my head never to be seen again. I am not trying to point the finger at anyone about WHY this movie hasn’t been made. I know how production goes. I’m a filmmaker. I totally know what it’s like to work so hard for something and then have to wait to see its fate. It’s exhausting! But what I didn’t have with my own film is a rabid fan base.

During the height of Tribemania I was still a minor sitting in class upset that 791.8 miles away Dragon Con was happening in Atlanta without me. I’m at an age now where The Virus would have killed me but that also means I have a credit card. Cloud 9 could basically say, “jump” and I will at this point. I’m loyal in my causes and will bite at any little nibble I can get. Now imagine that passion from 62,244 people? That is the current number of likes The Tribe Official has on Facebook. I have no idea how many of those accounts are active, and I know for a fact at least one is connected to a role-playing account.

THE TRIBE was my first fandom, but during what I call the Dark Ages – the time from when it went off the air to the time the revival started – I fell in love with another show, FIREFLY. If you don’t know, FIREFLY was a Space Western that aired in 2002. I’ll save you the heartache and tell you it was cancelled in the first season after just 11 of the 14 episodes were aired. So I know a thing or two about shows ending before their time leaving the fans stranded on a boat. The thing is, I’m not bitter about FIREFLY. I should be, and sometimes I do wonder about what a second season would have looked like, but unlike THE TRIBE, Mutant Enemy (the production company behind FIREFLY) knew what type of people they had in the fans. Much of that same passion I have used for THE TRIBE writing to TV networks, I put to FIREFLY alongside other fans.

Together we got our movie in 2005.

I’ll hand it to anyone who says I’m in the wrong market. I’m not a German fan, or in Europe, or New Zealand; I think all of these places had more exposure to THE TRIBE than myself in the USA. But to quote a little movie that was made from the ashes of a cancelled TV show, “You can’t stop the signal.” I truly believe that if Cloud 9 wanted to give us a movie by now it would have happened. The whole series is on Youtube, independent filmmakers are making amazing things and putting them out by themselves. I’ve backed projects on Kickstarter for films by passionate people that need to be seen.

If anyone at Cloud 9 is reading this, I suggest you look up The Browncoats, that cute term for FIREFLY fans. Or “Can’t Stop the Serenity” even, a global event that since 2006 has raised $1,095,000+ for Equality Now.

This fandom has hit a dead end, we have been holding out on a promise of a movie that could see the light of day if only someone would take a chance on rabid fans that want this more than anything. We are fighters waiting to take down The Chosen or The Technos, we alone have kept the dream alive.

For me there is no, “Why” THE TRIBE movie will be awesome, the fans will make it so … we just need to be given the opportunity to show the rest of the world how awesome THE TRIBE can be.