Joshua Bailey (Writer/Director, 31) and Brandon Pickering (Producer/Cinematographer) brought their film about Black Market Disney merchandise profiteering to The Last Picture House in Davenport, Iowa, on June 2, 2026. Both Florida natives dropped out of film school at Valencia College in Tampa and worked at Disney or Universal theme parks as youths—invaluable background experience for this 5-year documentary project.
Made on a shoestring budget under $150,000 using cameras from their day jobs in Austin (Tx.) television, the film opens with Bailey in his feature directorial debut explaining how the duo first met Patrick Spikes, the central figure. in August 2018. The “Stolen Kingdom” team included Joshua Bailey (Writer/Director), Producer/Cinematographer Brandon Pickering, Sam Fraser, and Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty (who wrote the score). The team has created a well-paced, visually-interesting, absorbing documentary about obsessive behavior that caused one film subject to say of himself, “You look like a psychopath!”
FLORIDA ROOTS
Both Bailey and Pickering are originally from Florida (Tampa). Both worked at Disney (or Universal) theme parks as youths, Pickering at Halloween Horror Night at Universal. He volunteered the information that he was fired. This in-depth knowledge of the Disney World was obviously invaluable to the project and caused me to hope it is not the only subject the two filmmakers are this dedicated to, because the film demonstrated real creativity with good pacing, great photography and comedic verve. They are now on a 13-city tour to cities they have probably never visited before, like Davenport, Iowa.
CINEMATOGRAPHY/PLOT
Brandon Pickering, Connie Wilson, and Joshua Bailey at the screening of “Stolen Kingdom” documentary at The Last Picture House (Davenport, Iowa).
Some photography of shadowy figures was impressive, artistically, and finding Richard McGuire (AKA Southern Pirate), who throws out the batshit theory that Disney is running a “torture prison” on its abandoned island attraction, was Cinematic Gold. As Bailey told interviewer Simon Thompson in a February 14, 2025 Forbes magazine interview:”I had grown up consuming this content, made by people like Adam The Woo and Leonard Kinsey, some of the previous generation of creators, so when it started up again, we were really intrigued by it.”
As Bailey said, “If we don’t have Patrick (Spikes), we don’t have a movie.We were determined to break this barrier of anonymity with Patrick. We met with him one night and gave him fake names.” (The meeting took place at a 7-Eleven behind the Customer Member Parking at the Magic Kingdom in August of 2018.) “We had thought about trying to do this ourselves as urban explorers at Disney against our better judgment, so we created all of these social accounts, and I think that gave him some kind of trust in us. I think we were the first people to meet up with him, figure out who he was, and be boots on the ground with him.
“Patrick told us, ‘I have this and that celebrity’s phone number on speed dial. I call them and say, ‘Hey, I have this prop if you want to buy it.’ So we got in his car and drove around the property. There are a bunch of public roads behind Magic Kingdom, office buildings, and other things, and we found the redhead animatronic that had recently been removed from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. He’s making calls, frantically texting people, and trying to make a deal. We don’t really know what was going on in his head. We left at about four in the morning, went home, and we were like, ‘This needs to be a documentary.'”
Patrick, himself, said, “I was the heart of the Black Market for a while.” He rattled on about being offered $75,000 for the Redhead from Pirates of the Caribbean and mentioned being offered $70,000 to steal Buzzy (which, later, he changed to $50,000, claiming he did not steal the animatronic figure). The off-the-wall scenes with the police interviewing Patrick and confiscating his phone and Patrick subsequently faking illness so he might be able to use a hospital phone: priceless black humor.
ED “CHIEF” BARLOW
Brandon Pickering, Shane Simmons of Chicago, and Writer/Director Joshua Bailey on June 2, 2026, at a screening of “Stolen Kingdom.”
The humorous-versus-somber scenes are inter- woven skillfully, with a tonal change from black humor to true tragedy as we learn of the death of Ed “Chief” Barlow, who died from malignant melanoma.Hoot (real name – Dave Ensign) Gibson met Ed in 1986 and the two loved Disney’s parks, thinking that their jobs there would be a relief from high school bullies and teen age unhappiness. After signing on as Disney employees, however, they realized,”It’s basically high school in a different place.” Still, the two went adventuring in the abandoned attractions many times, becoming best friends. Dave’s grief at Ed’s passing is palpable. Hoot described himself as grief-stricken after Ed’s death. “I think I’m done being Hoot Gibson for a while. I just don’t care any more.”
We see Hoot scattering the Chief’s ashes at a Disney park. That is not a completely easy task for Dave. He was banned from Disney. Dave/Hoot’s take on stealing from the park is totally different from Patrick’s. As one of the filmmakers noted, “Patrick steals, so that’s the problem.” Dave spoke of stealing costumes and other expensive items as wrong; he seemed to consider it almost sacrilegious. He was genuinely touched and touching when he teared up while remembering his old friend Ed.
The film about a bizarre sub-set of people who obsess about visiting Disney and owning Disney memorabilia reminded me of another great documentary, “Secret Mall Apartment,” which was a hit at SXSW in 2024. These bizarre stories about obsessive “explorers” also summoned memories of David Morrell’s 2005 novel “Creepers.”
TRENDS TODAY
(L to R) Brandon Pickering, Shane Simmons,and Joshua Bailey at The Last Picture House on June 2, 2026.
According to Pickering, they used cameras from their day jobs in Austin (Tx) television to keep cost(s) down. The film was made on a shoestring, less than $150,000. Currently, two films that are leading the box office on June 2, 2026, were also low-budget movies. “Obsession” rackedup $5.3 million, while the Big Budget film “Star Wars: The Mandalorian” took in only $2.2 million. Working your way up via YouTube is becoming one way for a filmmaker to make it in the industry. Another is to win big on the film festival circuit (Slamdance, Big Sky,et. al. qualify “Stolen Kingdom”). As ABC reported today, Generation Z may just save cinema; going to the movies is becoming fashionable again (along with buying at thrift stores.)
Jake Williams got a shout-out from the duo tonight and assisted some with the making of the film. He runs a YouTube channel (since age 17) that covers bankrupt and abandoned businesses. The two Florida natives, who said “we just found each other” (in Austin), began their documentary about obsessive Disney fans (known as Pixie Dusters) in 2018, before the theft of Buzzy. Before that, Buzzy had been sitting inside the shuttered attraction Cranium Command for eleven years before the 600-pound theme park remnant disappeared.
What happened to Buzzy?
That is a question that has other YouTube videos debating it. One of the filmmakers this night said, “It’s like the O.J. Simpson thing. There is literally no other suspect” (besides Patrick Spikes). Of course, any number of famous celebrity buyers could have purchased Buzzy via BackDoorDisney.We see Neil Patrick Harris describing a bit of Disney memorabilia that he bid on. Indirectly, Harris called out Jeff Bezos as another top bidder for a piece of Disney history. John Stamos admitted his own desire to own a piece of Disney history (his wife looked less thrilled with Stamos’ passion.)
DENOUEMENT
One famous purchaser who bought a bit of Buzzy’s clothing from Patrick was NBA basketball star Robin Lopez. Lopez was actually to be repaid $10,700 according to the 2020 court sentencing for Patrick Spike and his cousin. The duo was arrested in 2019 and the sentencing in 2020 (a plea of no contest) dictated $25,308 in restitution, including the Lopez refund and $6,703 to Disney. Patrick was also sentenced to 10 years of probation and 250 hours of community service.
The film will be rentable by August 1st and is available through Waterbox Video Store and have a theatrical release in 2027.
