May 16, 2012: A Major Mailbag! Includes: The scoop on the Dark Matter trade paperback! T.V. thoughts! And where I would like to see the Stargate: Universe movie go!

Well, last night I received a call from my writing partner, Paul.  It was the call I suspected and expected and altogether dreaded.  He was a couple of days into his pass on the first four acts I’d written and, while things were going well, they were also progressing slowly.  ”I don’ t know what I was thinking saying I’d be able to push ahead,”he admitted.  ”I just finished doing a pass on the first act.”  And then: “It would probably be better if you just went ahead.”  An awkward lull in the conversation, broken by him: “But why don’t you take tomorrow off as well.”

Sigh.  Eye on the prize.  Eye on the prize.  I figure I will press ahead and keep to my act a day pace.  Once I complete the next four acts, I’ll take a day off before picking up again.  This way, I will have a finished a draft by the end of May.  I’ll take a couple of days off, then do a pass on Paul’s pass and, by the time the delivery deadline creeps up on us, we should be all set.  The studio will have their script and I’ll be planning my vacation, stopping only to eat, sleep, update this blog – oh, and, oh yeah, do the rewrite.

I was feeling unusually chatty today, so check out the mucho mailbag.

Today’s entry is dedicated to Deni who said goodbye to her buddy Elway today.  Condolences.

Mailbag:

Lewis writes: “Did you catch the premiere of the new season of NEXT FOOD NETWORK STAR? I think they’re re-airing it tonight. Any early favorites from the new crop of talent? The new format is.. interesting.”

Answer: Akemi enjoys the show but I’m not a fan.  The competitions and character dynamics can be interesting but, at the end of the day, what’s the point?  This is their eighth season.  With the exception of Guy Fieri (admittedly a natural in front of the camera) can you name any of the other winning contestants?  And, no, I won’t accept “Sandwich King” as an answer unless you actually watch his show.  Which you don’t (and don’t tell me you do).

Lewis also writes: “You have so got to review “STEEL” starring Shaq.”

Answer: Yep.  Got that penciled in for July 23rd.  Should be truly terrible.

Tam Dixon writes: “Cookie’s been hitting the booze a little too hard! Meteor Man got 4 cookies but The Rocketeer dipped into the sugarless range?”

Answer: Far be it for me to defend Cookie Monster’s reviews but, relatively speaking, 6 sugarless chocolate chippee cookies beats 4 chocolate chippee cookies.  Monster just felt that Meteor Man did offer some genuinely funny moments (he laughed so hard at the model-off that he almost choked on a snickerdoodle) while Rocketeer was admittedly more accomplished – as beautiful and respectable as an arid landscape.

Maggiemayday writes: “I seem to have missed that particular Marmaduke film.”

Answer: I hear the sequel is coming out this summer = Marmaduke: Number 2

DP writes: “In the very end…The real end, not the other dozen times it seemed like the movie was over…”

Answer: Yeah, I hear that every time Cookie Monster assumed the movie was over, he would start for the bathroom only to have the movie continue.  After about the fourth time, he just said screw it and used the kitchen sink.

luis811 writes: “Joe have you got a Sat. Signal yet?????”

Answer: Yes, thanks to technical wizard Lawren Bancroft-Wilson who not only set up both DVR’s and calibrated the basement satellite, but also created a kill setting for my microwave.

2cats writes: “Hey Joe! I recently viewed a Food Network episode, Diner’s, Drive-ins and Dives and a Vancouver eatery was featured:
http://www.redwagoncafe.com/
The food looked fabulous. Have you ever visited this place?”

Answer: Not yet, but I am a regular at the other place he visited on his Vancouver tour: PEACEFUL RESTAURANT.  Get the beef rolls!

Andre writes: “I would so much love to hear if the SG Universe guys got to the end of the Galaxy. Maybe you as an insider could share some thoughts.”

Answer: That’s a closing chapter for Brad Wright and Robert Cooper to write provided they’re ever given that opportunity,  I, for one, would love some closure as well.

Andrew writes: “Are you still reading Rising Stars? I was just listening to a podcast that talked about it was the greatest series for the first 6 issues then fell off. Hard. Thoughts?”

Answer: I would agree that it certainly started strong.  I heard there was a year-long delay somewhere in the run that may have colored some fan perception of the series.

Debra writes: “Have you ever tried Kope Luwak Coffee? I can’t imagine any coffee worth $420 a pound. (much less pooped beans)

How about the Dragon Dog from dougieDog in Vancouver? “A cognac-infused foot long hotdog” for $100 bucks. Just drink a lot of cognac and give me a cheap hotdog.. but who knows, maybe it is worth $100. Nah.

And The Fleur Burger, from Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.. $5,000. “A Wagyu burger topped with duck foie gras, smothered with truffles, and resting on a brioche truffle bun. It comes with a bottle of Chateau Petrus.” (Thanks to reader’s digest for the above list of foods I won’t be buying.)”

Answer: No on all counts.  I’m not a fan of champagne, cognac, coffee, or poop.

Brent writes: “For example I have 13 years of security experience with alarm systems, video systems, and access control systems. I’d hate for you to get burned out.”

Answer: I might take you (and your fellow expert/blog readers) up on this.

baterista writes: “Reminding you of a question for Cookie. Does he think, as I do, that some comic franchises lose something in translation to live action?”

Answer: Cookie Monster agrees that the written word is always better whether its film, television, or hotel porn.

JeffW writes: “I don’t know if this is the kind of info you’ve been researching, but as a young engineer in the late ’80′s, I had to visit NSA to fix a driver issue on a Parallel Processing box they had bought from a company I worked for.”

Answer: Great story.  I can’t use it for the miniseries but will file it away for a future project.  If I do make use of it, I’ll be sure to name one of the characters Jeff W.

Lewis writes: “Now that all 4 issues of DARK MATTER have been released are there any plans for a collected graphic novel release (hardcover or tpb)?  And if so are you going to add any extras to it (ie- character bios, background info, etc.)?”

Answer: Funny you should mention this.  I recently approved Garry Brown’s terrific cover for the Dark Matter trade paperback which will include all sorts of goodies like sketches and early design work.  It will hit the shelves sometime in October – but will let you know once I hear a firm date.

archersangel writes: “speaking of doughnuts; any opinion on cake vs. yeast-raised doughnuts? or did i miss that?”

Answer: I prefer yeast-raised because you can cram more into your mouth.

shaneac1 writes: “if hypothetically speaking MGM and rob cooper came to you to write a script for a big summer blockbuster release of a stargate universe movie how would you write that story.”

Answer: This would be most unlikely since, in the event an SGU movie ever did get a green light, Brad Wright and Robert Cooper would be the ones to write it.  If, hypothetically speaking, they wanted to hear my thoughts on where to go: Eli is able to reroute power from the shuttle to a pod and go into stasis, awakening one hundred years later. They find themselves in the clutches of an off-shoot of their descendants, a military civilization with designs on Destiny.  Earth, meanwhile, has undergone major changes.  Everyone they once knew has passed on but the standing world organization has been able to create a power source that, with the help of the Destiny, will create a stable, limited time wormhole to the ship.  Some return, some remain, while some familiar faces (the A Team whose members allowed themselves to be placed in stasis should the opportunity to finally reach Destiny present itself) join the crew (I’m thinking maybe Daniel, McKay).  The time in stasis has allowed Park to heal and she can see again while the crew’s interactions with their advanced descendants offer T.J. a cure for her condition.  With the help of advanced Earth technology and know-how in addition to a few of the descendants themselves who turn against their own, Destiny is transformed into a lean, highly efficient powerhouse that kicks major ass and makes good its escape.  That’s all I got.

DP writes: “Is your mini-series about Dark Matter?”

Answer: Alas, no.  Any potential developments on the Dark Matter front are still months away at least.

Travis B. writes: “What’s up with House? Did you watch this week’s episode?”

Answer: Probably the strangest episode of its eight season, 175 episode so far.  At times, I wondered if it was all some extended dream sequence.  I didn’t understand why finding a photo of a young boy in a patient’s drawer would be construed as bizarre.  I simply assumed it was either of childhood picture of him or a younger brother (the latter turned out to be the case).  I didn’t understand why a mother, ten years after the death of a son, refused to even talk about him at the request of a sick but very much alive son.  I don’t know why Wilson went off on House at the restaurant and why he couldn’t plainly see that all of House’s machinations were orchestrated because he cared. Wilson is smarter than that.  I didn’t get why the fire department would forward the tickets which were clogging the pipes to the police department (the insurance sure, but the cops?) nor can I understand how the police could have lifted House’s fingerprints off them.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but when they dust for prints, aren’t they  essentially matching the oil deposits left by the fingers.  How do those survive being flushed down a toilet?