June 22, 2012: Projects on Deck!

Spinning ideas with Rob, Lulu, and Ivon.

We handed in our second draft of the scifi miniseries the other day, paring it down from a robust 204 pages to a trim 194.  We went through four different titles (including the cryptic Cogito and, my personal favorite, The Apocalypse Engine) before finally settling on the one they’re going with.  For now anyway.  The script is, of course, already in prep as it goes to camera in July and I believe our work on it is done.  Can’t wait to see the finishing product and hearing where it ends up.  In the meantime…

I’m prepping myself for the next pass on my horror script by immersing myself in the horror realm.  I’ve got a stack of movies to screen that will, hopefully, put me in the right frame of mind.  On deck: Wolf Creek, Vinyan, The Nameless, Them, The Devil’s Backbone, Frontieres, and Cold Prey.  As much as possible, I’m focusing on foreign horror films.  If you’ve got any suggestions, I’d love to hear ‘em.

Paul and I will be switching gears to work on a pilot we’ve been hired to write.  There’s already broadcaster interest in the fantasy premise that could be a lot of fun.  We start spinning the creative next week.

Also next week, we’ll be heading into discussions with another party on Dark Matter, my comic book series (which I’ll be promoting at 4:00 p.m., July 14th at the Dark Horse Comics booth at Comic Con so swing on by and say hi!).  The business plan being proposed is a lot more intriguing and, hopefully, I’ll have some good news on the DM front before summer’s end.

In addition to Dark Matter, we’re also shopping another genre (supernatural…ish) pilot that has generated some interest south of the border.  Our agent is suggesting we make plans to head down to L.A. for a couple of days in late July and take some meetings on the pilot – in addition to some of the fabulous series ideas we have are going to come with between now and then.  Maybe a series about loyal scifi fans campaigning to get their favorite cancelled SF series back on the air. Can their dogged and determined efforts succeed in convincing the obstinate studio to resurrect the show?  What do you think?

Speaking of fabulous series ideas, I got together with some of the old Stargate gang today for a creative discussion on a show we’re developing.  Check out the action:

Ivon pitches to Lulu.

Rob pitches to Lulu.

Fed up with pitching to Lulu, Ivon and Paul take a break to check out some hilarious online videos.

Lunch. Akemi has a surprisingly-good-although-it-looks-nothing-like-any-version-I’ve-seen-before gumbo.