IT'S ALL DAMNED
LegalDispatch 0.35
Ooof. That’s a bummer of a title, huh? Well, before we get to the endtimes, I’ll chat a little bit about this past week.
STAR WARS: REVELATIONS
This week, we got Star Wars: Revelations off to the printer. As with anything I’ve ever written, there are some things I wish we could have dialed in a bit more/better before it was pencils down, but such is the reality of deadlines. Overall, I’m extremely pleased with the finished product.
Although I can’t speak for the writing, I can assure you that the art is GORGEOUS. A brief glimpse follows below.
There are more pages to be seen in the press release Marvel Comics put out earlier this week. You can check it all out here.
Star Wars: Revelations will be available at comic book stores and on Comixology on November 23.
TOO DEAD TO DIE
Another focus this week was finally getting to the bonus features for the Too Dead To Die graphic novel. This included an introduction detailing how the book came together as well as a short story featuring the protagonist, Simon Cross, meeting a rival spy — a charismatic British man.
It’s been a while since I’ve written prose and the exercise served to remind me just how much I enjoy — and, therefore, miss — writing it. We had allocated space for only a thousand words and I was having so much fun that I overshot the mark by a factor of four. Fortunately, Thomas Kitner, our remarkable editor, did some juggling that created the space we needed to publish the whole thing unmolested.
Too Dead To Die will be available at comic book stores and on Comixology on December 14.
SO WHAT THE HELL IS SO BAD?
Well, nothing really. I did find my mood swinging wildly over the course of this past week, and much of the downward slopes (and drops) had to do with the state of the entertainment business — specifically, that of writers. Short version: It ain’t good.
I won’t get too into the weeds on Writers Guild of America (WGA) issues here, but a variety of economic and market factors have conspired to make it difficult — nay, nigh impossible — for non-creator/non-showrunner writers to make a living working in television these days.
Into that hellscape (and, perhaps, because of it) comes the looming likelihood (if not inevitability) of a writers strike when the WGA’s agreement with the studios comes up for negotiation and renewal in May 2023.
I’ve long been critical of the WGA’s battle plan of going to war with a single nuke (and not even a tactical one, at that) as its only weapon. But that concern has only grown in proportion to the growth of the libraries of the streaming services. The effectiveness of a strike is premised on the audience’s demand for not just content, but new content. In a world where all my daughters’ friends are binging old episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and Friends, I have to wonder if a strike just means that people finally start watching The Americans.
Add while streaming libraries have grown, so have the number of quality foreign productions, thus providing another viable source of content during a strike. A group of writers I converse with regularly recently started a newsletter about writing and the entertainment industry and their sophomore edition contained a discussion of this very issue/threat. If you have a mind to drill down on this issue, I think it’s more than worth your time. You can read it also on Substack below:
But is it all — as the title of this edition of LegalDispatch suggested — damned? No. Not necessarily. (Though it does make for a good title.) Although there are many existential issues that apply to only writers, arguably the biggest one — payment of residuals — applies just as much to the Directors Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild. Their contracts also come up for negotiation and renewal circa May 2023. If the three major Hollywood unions can join forces on the residual issue, some great things could be accomplished.
I’ll leave it to others to debate whether or not it can or will happen.
It’s funny, but between writing the above and writing this sentence, I had a lunch with a couple of studio execs who were lamenting much of what I was talking about here. I’m not sure if misery loves company, but it certainly likes knowing it’s not alone in its thinking.
Next week, I have to finish up the script for Yoda #9 and start to lobby retailers to support Too Dead To Die. Now, I’m off to respond to some questions regarding the outline for PROJECT RAMBLE.
Be good to each other.
Best,
Marc
Encino, California