By CHRISTY LEMIRE
AP Movie Writer
SAN FRANCISCO – It’s late Friday night outside the arthouse Roxie Theater, and a line is forming down the block. Twentysomethings – mostly men – stand around joking and waiting to file in. The smell of pot permeates the cold, damp air.
Underneath the theater’s marquee, a fast-talking Vietnamese man in a suit and tie dashes around with a camera crew in tow, hastily laying a makeshift red carpet on the sidewalk and directing people to stand, pose, smile.
He is James Nguyen, a writer and director, and his movie, “Birdemic: Shock and Terror,” is about to make its San Francisco premiere. A former Silicon Valley software salesman with no film-school education, Nguyen made this homage to his idol, Alfred Hitchcock, for about $10,000.