GREATEST HITS
LegalDispatch 0.36
Yesterday got away from me, so this is coming out a day late…
It occurs to me that in the entertainment business, you have to take a lot of hits in order to have any hits.
Case in point: This week.
PROPHET
This news is actually a few months old, but it broke last Friday shortly after I put out last week’s edition of LegalDispatch:
The short version is that Jake Gyllenhaal, who’s attached to Prophet as the lead, decided that he wanted to bring in “a fresh pair of eyes” and Kurt’s were the ones he wanted.
It’s not spin to acknowledge that this sort of thing happens all the time. Screenwriters are as interchangeable, unfortunately, as lightbulbs. It’s never fun, but the fact that the studio is willing to invest further funds is, nevertheless, a good sign for the project’s prospects.
You can read the whole article here.
GREEN LANTERN
In other news — also, as it turns out, care of The Hollywood Reporter — the Green Lantern series I had been working on suffered this little setback:
As the article (which you can read here) notes, apart from co-writing what would have been the season finale, I haven’t had much to do with the series for the past year or so. Nevertheless, my feelings about this development (or, I suppose, redevelopment) are… complex. However, my feelings about the writing staff — Elizabeth Hunter, Sara Saedi, Pornsak Pichetshote, Juan Carlos Fernandez, Geoff Johns, Lamont Magee, Kirsten Pierre, and Jabari McDonald — are anything but.
Showrunner Seth Grahame-Smith and I assembled a group of incredible writers and terrific human beings whose voices were as layered and diverse as the show we originally set out to make. Although this version of Green Lantern won’t be breaking out of orbit, I’ll always be grateful that these wonderful folks ended up in mine.
TOO DEAD TO DIE
The reason yesterday got away from me is that I spent much of it cold calling retailers, doing my best to spread the word about Too Dead To Die, which comes out December 14. (If you’re a retailer, you can order the book here.)
One thing that hasn’t been adequately trumpeted is the fact that, in addition to the main story, we have two shorts illustrated by comic book industry legends José Garcia Lopez and Michael Golden — the latter doing his first interior work in over a decade. Below is a preview — previously unreleased anywhere else — of their gorgeous artwork:
HOW I BROKE IN
Last week, I mentioned the From The Trenches Substack newsletter. This week, I actually participated in the discussion given that the topic is about how we broke into the business (and, in some cases, how we stayed in). You can check out my story below:
I didn’t include anything about “how I stayed in” because I’m still trying to figure out how that happened I didn’t know that was part of the exercise when I wrote my segment.
THIS PAST WEEK
When I wasn’t reading discouraging articles about my projects in The Hollywood Reporter (I kid, I kid…), I was busy working up some television pitches and finishing up issue nine of Star Wars: Yoda (as well as a bunch of lettering notes and minor revisions for Star Wars: Han Solo & Chewbacca).
Next week, I’m writing another Star Wars-related comic (heretofore unannounced) as well as moving the ball forward on the Too Dead To Die screenplay and probably starting the script for PROJECT RAMBLE.
Be good to each other.
Best,
Marc
Encino, California
10.29.22