BACK AGAIN

LegalDispatch 108

Sep 13, 2024

Howdy.

Jeez, it feels like I skipped so many weeks of this newsletter recently that it might be cause to wonder if I’d stopped altogether. That was certainly not my attention. I’ve just been doing a lot of traveling — most notably back-to-back comic conventions in San Jose and Toronto — and a not insignificant amount of work. In addition to pitching my little heart out on various TV projects and writing the still-being-teased Star Wars comic (I delivered the script for Issue 4 last weekend), I’m also neck-deep in scripts for two pilots (PROJECT ATLANTIC and PROJECT CYCLONE) and continued revisions on the PROJECT MARBLE movie.

These projects were “set up” (to use the industry phrase) prior to last year’s strikes and this year’s “industry contraction,” but I’m immensely grateful to have the work. Most everyone I know in the entertainment industry is still struggling mightily. There’s a temptation to blame the current employment drought on last year’s WGA and SAG strikes and while I rarely turn down an opportunity to criticize WGA leadership, what we’re experiencing right now is a perfect storm combining a historical contraction of the market following the collapse of the streaming business model and the fact that at least a third of the major studios are facing additional financial challenges as the result of past and future mergers. All of which has conspired to mean that there are fewer studios buying fewer projects, none of which is related to last year’s strikes.

In the midst of all this, I find that the advice I usually give to younger writers is evolving. In the past, I’d recommend that writers develop their voice and proficiency in one medium before embarking on projects in others.

These days, however, I am giving the opposite advice, encouraging writers (and directors) to, instead, let a thousand flowers bloom and look for as many different types of work as possible. The reason for this change of position is simple: With so few opportunities out there, we have to create more opportunities for ourselves. We have to do whatever we can to expand the surface area that luck can eventually stick to.

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I do think things will eventually get better. The merger-mania will eventually settle down. The companies will eventually figure out a business model to replace streaming. The audience will eventually wake up to the fact that after drinking from a firehose for the past five years, new content has slowed to barely a trickle.

I also think the country will stop holding its collective breath — for good or ill — once we’re on the other side of November 5th.

At least, this is me trying to be positive.

Speaking of positive…

IN ANY LIFETIME

We’re more than a month out from the publication of my novel In Any Lifetime. Sales have been strong and we’ve had buyers from countries like Germany, Brazil, France, India, and Mexico.

Probably the best news is about the reviews. To date, the book has received 4,433 ratings all with an average of 4 out of 5 stars which, people tell me, is pretty darn incredible. Thank you to all of you who have taken the time to write and post a review.

If you’ve read the book, please consider posting a review by clicking here. Amazon reviews are really important for the life of a book and every single one helps.

Oh, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t offer you the chance to buy the book if you haven’t already. You can do so by clicking here.

FROM THE VAULT

In rummaging through my hard drive in search of something for this newsletter’s “From the Vault” section, my eye caught the “Saga Sell” folder in my Arrow directory.

For the uninitiated, a “Saga Sell” is the brief (and now almost extinct) narration at the start of an episode of television that tells new viewers what they need to know about the show. For example, Star Trek’s saga sell informed viewers that they were about to watch “the voyages of the starship Enterprise [whose] five-year mission [is] to explore strange new worlds.” Another example, The A-Team. I can do this one from memory: “In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit. They promptly escaped to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire… the A-Team.”

Anyways, here’s the very first draft of the saga sell that I wrote for Arrow.

WARNING: It’s horrible.

My name is Oliver Queen. To the world I am a billionaire playboy, but I’m not what I seem.
5 years ago, everything change. Most of all, I changed.
Now I’ve returned with a clear mission. To save a failed city.
To protect those closest to me, I must be someone else. I must be something else.
Some will try and destroy me. Some will help me bring justice, to a world gone wrong.

I mean, the unintentional rhyme in the first line is disqualifying all by itself.

Here’s the second draft. Slightly better:

My name is Oliver Queen.
In an instant…my life changed forever.
For the next 5 years…I had to survive.
I had to get home.
I had to honor my Father’s dying wish.
Now I have returned.
Not the boy who was shipwrecked…
But the man…who will save a failed city.
But to do that without endangering those closest to me…
I must become someone else.
I must become someTHING else.
And I won’t stop…until Justice is Done.

That last line makes me cringe.

Here’s the finished product courtesy of YouTube:

SPEAKING OF ARROW…

Someone took a photo of the entire cast we’d assembled for Oliver Queen’s funeral in the Arrow series finale. As it turns out, the one I’m not in (grrr) became a pretty widely-circulated meme. You may have seen it.

Anyways, someone on the interwebs (@pleightX?) created the one below in the aftermath of the recent presidential debate.

AND SPEAKING OF PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES…

While we’re on the topic of presidential debates, back in 2016, I was stuck on a plane for the second Clinton/Trump debate. (As I recall, I was flying back from New York ComicCon.)

Everyone on the flight seemed to be watching the debate, naturally. Except, that is, for one gentleman…

SOMETHING FUN

16 years ago, Marvel Comics relaunched their Spider-Man line as a single book — Amazing Spider-Man — which was published thrice-monthly (instead of the traditional once-a-month). The increased release tempo was achieved by employing a writing staff not unlike a typical TV show. I was privileged to be a member of that staff. The initiative was titled “Brand New Day” and Marvel recently published the first omnibus in a series which will collect the entire run. Some of my favorite comic book stories that I’ve written are contained in this volume.