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 Brett Miller was born May 4, 1981, in Memphis, Tennessee. His parents, Robert and Margaret
Miller, are both pharmacists and work for a major company based
in Memphis. Brett is their oldest child; he also has a younger sister,
M. C. (short for Martha Catherine) who is a freshman accounting major
at The University of Memphis.
Shortly after arriving in Oxford in the summer of 2000, Miller
changed his surname to Flamé. The reasons for this change are not clear,
but friends of Flam� say that he believed the catchy name would help
him land more jobs in film and entertainment. Flam� worked at the Holiday Inn in Oxford and was planning on financing
and directing his own feature film when he amassed the required financing.
Friends of Flam� say the film was to be called Psyched. It was to
revolve around what Flam� described one night in a drunken rant at a
local tavern as an updated, college version of The Lost Weekend, the
classic Ray Milland film, in which Milland plays a down-and-out
alcoholic
writer barely surviving in a hotel room, lost in the drunken tremors.
The major difference in the two films, apparently, was that Flam�'s
version was to include lots of soft pornography -- hence the title -- and
a major monologue from the main character on the benefits of promiscuous,
continuous sexual activity. Witnesses have since said that Flam�'s
film had nothing to do with The Lost Weekend, and he never mentioned
the connection again.
Friends of Flam� say that when he approached the University's theatre
department with the film idea, he was turned down out of hand, and soon afterwards,
began talking of how he was to star soon in a major production being
put together by Corwin Fitz. Apparently, Fitz
put out a public call for actors and actresses and chose Flam� at audition
to play the lead. Although Flam� has stated that he offered Fitz
the chance to direct his film, Psyched,
Fitz also turned him down,
and pressed Flam� to concentrate on his part in his film,
Bacchanals' Destruction.
Flam� has since confessed to the murder of Fitz, and witnesses
who were present during rehearsals for the film say that the two men
fluctuated between animosity and respect for each other. A definite
tension existed between the two. Witnesses say that Fitz was
authoritarian,
dictatorial, and non-pliant in his demands, and that he accused Flam� on
more than one occasion of trying to "sabotage" his film with his too-cool,
James Dean-like acting style.
Flam� appears to be a passionate, strange young man with
few ties to actual reality. He seems to live in a netherworld in which
he is the ultimate object of all attention and affection. Friends describe
him as overly vain, proud, and pompous, and believe that he will do
or say anything -- good or bad -- to keep himself in the continual spotlight.
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