Bill Willingham's Blog, page 5
August 20, 2013
‘The Wolf Among Us’ Preview Reviews
Just in case any of you were worried about the upcoming Fables game from Telltale, The Wolf Among Us, we wanted to share with you some snippits from various press people who’ve had a chance to check out the game. We’re VERY happy with the buzz thus far but of course, the final test will be to see what all of you think. Regardless, check out what some fantastic web sites are saying about the game:
IGN
“After playing about an hour of the first episode of The Wolf Among Us, I walked away with the utmost confidence in Telltale’s next adventure. Any fears that this game would have to cower in the shadow of The Walking Dead were immediately put to rest, as it became clear that this story stands tall with its own unique voice and style.”
GameInformer.com
“The Wolf Among Us is keeping up with Telltale’s newfound reputation, and it could even bolster it.”
nerdist.com
“In case you couldn’t tell, I am awfully excited to play this game and what I saw in person did not disappoint. …it looks like that at long last we’ll finally have the
Fables
adaptation that we always wanted to see on our screens.”
joystiq
“Here I was, watching a story unfold about mythical creatures hiding out in New York City and
it’s all so ridiculous
and yet I didn’t even question it – not once. The emotional impact and intensity of the storytelling drew me in immediately and I was hooked. Telltale Games has risen to provide a level of character development and narrative other studios would do well to dissect.”
destructoid
“I have to mention how gorgeous the visuals are too. The heavy comic-style just works here, and it all looks like moving concept art. As a big Fables fan, I was super pleased with what I saw of Telltales’ take on the series.”
August 13, 2013
‘The Wolf Among Us’ Trailer
The trailer for the upcoming Fables game from Telltale has finally launched.
Here’s your first “Big” look at The Wolf Among Us:
The Wolf Among Us Trailer
The trailer for the upcoming Fables game from Telltale has finally launched.
Here’s your first “Big” look at The Wolf Among Us:
August 7, 2013
The Harvey Awards
We just wanted to share some news with all of you:
The @HarveyAwards is pleased to announce that the Host of the 2013 award ceremony will be Bill Willingham! @BillWillingham
— The Harvey Awards! (@HarveyAwards) August 7, 2013
So, who’s going to be in Baltimore in a few weeks?
August 6, 2013
Thank You Boston
Thank to everyone who came to visit the booth this weekend at Boston Comic Con. If you’ve been to see Bill at another convention, you may have noticed that this time around, we now have a banner at our table with art by the incredibly talented James Jean.
We also had a donation jar for the Hero Initiative. It was not necessary to donate to get an autograph, but for those of you who did donate, thank you SO much from us and on behalf of the Hero Initiative. If you aren’t familiar with the charity, check out their web site here.
We raised over $500
This is Stephanie, Bill’s assistant, rolling around in the Hero Initiative money.
July 29, 2013
Boston Comic Con Schedule
The rescheduled Boston Comic Con is coming up this weekend (August 3-4) and Bill will be in attendance at the show. It’s been moved to the World Seaport Trade Center and Bill really hopes to see you there.
He will mainly be signing at his booth for the weekend (table number is TBA), but outside of that you can find Bill at the following places:
Saturday August 3
4:00-4:45pm – Fables Panel with Phil Jimenez, Barry Kitson and Chrissie Zullo in the Waterfront Room
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That’s currently it for the weekend, it’s a pretty light one for panels and such, so if you are interested in getting something signed or meeting Bill in person, please make sure to swing by the booth over the weekend. We’ll be posting up exactly which booth once we know.
We hope to see you there!
July 9, 2013
The Blank Page Project
Unfortunately this year, Bill will NOT be in attendance at San Diego Comic Con. And even though Bill will not be in attendance, there still remains a TON of events that he wishes he could be there to support. Hero Initiative always does a ton of fantastic work at conventions and along with ComiXology, they will be working together on a huge charity project called THE BLANK PAGE PROJECT.
What is this project, you ask? Well let us tell you a bit about it so that if you happen to be at SDCC, you can support it…
The Hero Initiative and comiXology are sponsoring an event at Comic-Con International this year we’re calling THE BLANK PAGE PROJECT. This will be a charity event that Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner will also be co-hosting. Creators are invited to come and enjoy drinks while drawing or signing on to a gigantic 12×8 foot comic book page that will be auctioned off later for charity. Fans are invited to come by and watch the event take place.
Where: Hilton Bayfront Vela Restaurant (in the back of the hotel at the ground level walking distance from convention center. east side of Convention center.)
When: Thursday July 18th 5pm – 7pm
This will be a fully catered event, with free food and non-alcoholic drinks for all!
All of the proceeds from THE BLANK PAGE PROJECT will go to Hero Initiative, so please check it out and support the event. If you are a creator and want to learn more about how to participate in the project, contact Chip Mosher from ComiXology for more details.
June 27, 2013
Funerals to Begin a New Novel
This should become a real thing. The more I think about this, the more it makes sense.
Hold a funeral for a writer on the evening before he sits down to begin a new novel. Treat him as the departed, for he is indeed about to depart from you for a long time.
Just like the purpose of a real funeral isn’t really to do anything for the departed, it’s to comfort those he’s leaving behind. In this case, the pre-novel funeral can be a comfort for those about to be abandoned for two to four months.
More to the point, it’s an official way for the departed to remind each and every friend and family member that they won’t be seeing him and shouldn’t try to contact him, and shouldn’t expect to hear from him, but not to take that as a slight. After all, who can take umbrage at no longer receiving calls and visits from the departed after his funeral?
I’ve never been comfortable holding wrap parties and publication parties, because it smacks too much of, “Why don’t all of you get together and celebrate me?” which seems more than a bit too egotistical. Instead hold the party at the beginning of the ordeal, when its focus is not on honoring the writer, but on exalting all of the friends and family who are going to pitch in, sacrifice, and generally be such a wonderful help to the departed – by leaving him alone for as long as he needs to be left alone.
Just a thought.
June 20, 2013
The Never Ending Interview: Day Eleven
One question a day will be addressed, for as long as it remains interesting to me, and the questions keep coming.
Today’s question was asked by Matthew Wilson aka @COLORnMATT.
Matthew: How come you hate it (Zombie stories)?
Bill: For two reasons. First, zombies aren’t interesting villains. They’re mindless. They have no agenda, no plans, no hopes and dreams. They are bacteria, bent on world domination for no other reason than that’s the extent of their limited programming. A sprig of ivy is also programmed to mindlessly cover the entire Earth, only failing because of all of the competing forces arrayed against it. While that might be a mildly interesting fact, I’ve no desire to see any film, or read any book about ivy’s quest for world domination. It’s boring. Just like zombies.
Second, and this is the big reason, then, if the threat is mindless and boring, one would think the interesting story is to be found in those survivors fighting against the threat. To which my answer is: Yes, that would be nice, to see a story about clever and resourceful survivors determined to live, to defeat the zombie menace, and triumph.
The problem is, after any number of zombie films, TV shows and stories, I’ve yet to see one about clever and resourceful people. Every one so far has been about
idiots who don’t deserve to live, because they always do the stupidest possible things in the face of what should be, or could be, a manageable threat. Even in stories that posit there are groups of more clever and resourceful groups out there, fighting the good fight, we seem to be stuck in a genre in which we aren’t allowed to see those groups. We, for reasons beyond my understanding (other than it seems to be locked in as a staple of the genre), have to follow the exploits of morons. I quickly get tired of watching dramatic conflict generated by idiots doing suicidal things. Please, for once, tell me the stories of the better, smarter ones.
I’m not saying every zombie story has to be about stupid people. I’m only saying, so far, every one I’ve tried has been. After a while, one begins to trust the pattern.
To every rule, the occasional exception, which is why I haven’t abandoned all hope. In the opening scene of the very first of the Game of Thrones books, we’re introduced to the zombie threat, which will be hanging over our heads for (what looks like) the entirety of the series. My immediate reaction was to put the book down and forget it, for all of the reasons mentioned above. However, it was George RR Martin, who had a proven track record of delivering good stories, so I hung on long enough to see the first hints that the zombie menace wasn’t alone – that they were, and would be, under the direction of a group of really bad fellows called The White Walkers, who weren’t mindless, who did have a specific agenda and a plan to bring said agenda about.
Now that’s a fine new take on a tired old premise. Yes, there are mindless zombies, but they happen to be a weapon in the hands of intelligent villains. Good for you, George.
That took care of my first of the two objections to the genre.
There’s also some promise that, after a few terrible blunders in the face of an enemy the still living people couldn’t and quite bring themselves to credit (which is fine – since I don’t mind heroes that make terrible mistakes, but I can’t forgive those who are incapable of learning and adjusting to the early blunders), the doughty men and women of Westeros will be able to step up and deal with the threat in reasoned ways.
I’m also looking forward to the movie World War Z, which promises (or at least the trailers hint at the possibility) that this will be a story of smart people in the face of a nearly overwhelming calamity, which is a fine sort of story to tell.
We’ll see.
Now that I’ve told you what I don’t like and why, let me point you towards something I do like. For one of the best stories ever about an isolated group of men and women facing a seemingly overwhelming monstrous force read the book Legacy of Heorot, by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle and Steven Barnes. Before picking up this book I would have sworn that a story with three authors couldn’t possibly be worth reading (according to the always reliable “too many cooks and the resulting soup” rule), but it turns out I was not only wrong, but horribly so.
Heorot is about a group of us colonizing a new world and what happens when they encounter a monster. (Spoilers now.) They make a lot of mistakes at first.
As a result the first encounter with the monster nearly destroys the colony. But these characters aren’t zombie-story idiots. The survivors adapt, learn and overcome, because that’s what we do. And when their solutions create even bigger problems… well, that’s where the tale gets really exciting.
Niven, Pournelle and Barnes have written a template for monster stories that, if it magically became the template to replace the one currently dominating zombie stories, I’d be a much happier reader.
June 5, 2013
DC Comic ‘Fables’ Targeted for Film Adaptation With ‘Royal Affair’ Director (Exclusive)
Fables, DC/Vertigo’s long-running and acclaimed comic book series, is being targeted for the big screen.
Nikolaj Arcel, who directed the well-received Danish film A Royal Affair, is attached to direct the fantasy adaptation, which will be written by Jeremy Slater. David Heyman and Jeffrey Clifford of Heyday Films, the shingle behind the Harry Potter movies, are on board to produce.
Fables, created in 2002 by Bill Willingham, centers on fairy- and folktale characters ranging from Snow White and Cinderella to the Big Bad Wolf and Little Boy Blue, who are kicked out of their world and now live in a secret pocket of New York City. The series has won 14 Eisner awards for its storytelling and art.
In 2004, Warner Bros. tried to develop a movie with the Jim Henson Company but didn’t get to the writing stage.
In late 2008, the comic was getting the TV treatment via ABC and was going be written by Six Degrees scribes Stu Zicherman and Raven Metzner and directed by David Semel (American Horror Story). That too didn’t take, although ABC went on to air the viewer favorite Once Upon a Time, also about fairy tale characters in the real world.
Slater worked on a draft of the Fox Fantastic Four reboot and is repped by UTA and Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment.
Arcel’s Affair was a period drama which starred Alicia Vikander and Mads Mikkelsen and was nominated for an Oscar in the best foreign film category. The filmmaker, who also co-wrote the screenplay to the Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, is repped by WME and U.K.’s United Agents.
Article posted from The Hollywood Reporter
