SIGNS OF LIFE

LegalDispatch 0.80

Well, that’s it.

After 118 days, the actors — SAG/AFTRA — ended their strike with a deal that sounds pretty darn good. Though I have to admit that I haven’t had the bandwidth to do a deep dive on the terms they got. Bottom line, if they’re happy, I’m happy.

Although the WGA strike ended on September 24, things really weren’t all that different, writing-wise, on September 25. Or even September 30. It seemed as though the town (Hollywood) was still holding its collective breath, waiting for both labor actions to be over. That’s the practical, commercial reality. The emotional reality was even more severe. Simply put, it felt — to me, at least, though I suspect I’m not alone — like the whole business was still on strike as we waited for SAG to make their deal with the studios.

Further driving home this point is the fact that you could feel a collective exhale when SAG made their tentative agreement in the early evening of November 8. (On a purely selfish note, I wish they’d made their deal 48 hours earlier. That way, I could say that the WGA strike ended on my birthday and the SAG strike ended on my wedding anniversary — and, yes, generally take credit for the resolution of both. Oh well. Next time, maybe.)

While this is all wonderful news, I think the market will remain — to use the technical term — fucked for the duration of 2023. All the bandwidth seems to be going — properly — to the projects that were about to go into production or development before the strikes. New business, I’m told, will have to wait until the New Year. (Sadly, this doesn’t bode particularly well for PROJECT POULTRY, a spec pilot I wrote over the strike and went out with last week.) Earlier this week, I talked further about the current landscape as I see it with the Los Angeles Times. You can read those comments here.

With that landscape in mind:

WORK UPDATE

It’s been two weeks since my last newsletter, so there’s a reasonable amount to catch up on.

• Colors and letters have come in for the first issue of Beware the Planet of the Apes. It’s all looking really good and it’s exciting to see the whole thing come together.

• I sent back the latest copyedits on the manuscript for PROJECT FROST. We’re looking to lock everything by the end of the year.

• I’ve been noodling with a revised version of PROJECT SPECTRE, a spec feature I’ve been working on for quite a while now. It was originally conceived as a horror movie but has failed to catch on with buyers — perhaps because apart from a graphic novel adaptation of a Stephen King short story, I’ve had zero experience with the horror genre. Accordingly, I’m reconceiving it as a straight up thriller. Interesting exercise at the very least.

• In the midst of that, I’ve also returned to PROJECT SUBWAY, another spec feature. I was co-writing this one with a more junior writer. We’d gotten about half-way through before she flaked on me. A couple of weeks ago it occurred to me that I could just finish the darn thing myself.

STAR WARS: SCOUNDRELS, REBELS AND THE EMPIRE

This week saw the publication of the collection of the one-shots Marvel commissioned to mark the 40th anniversary of Return of the Jedi. I’d written one such story — entitled Jabba’s Palace — about the droid that Threepio and Artoo see being disintegrated at the start of the movie. It’s called “The Four Favors” and is part of this collection and provides the book’s cover.

There are also some other fantastic stories by such wonderful talents as Alex Segura and Alyssa Wong. All told, it’s a truly great package of Star Wars goodness, particularly for fans of Return of the Jedi.

You can buy it on Amazon by clicking here.

DEADPOOL: SEVEN SLAUGHTERS

Speaking of anthologies, next week sees the release of Deadpool: Seven Slaughters a one-shot containing — you guessed it — seven Deadpool stories, one of which I wrote. It’s beautifully illustrated by comic book industry legend Whilce Portacio. Working with Whilce was a delight. Another comic book bucket list item checked off.

Comicbook.com published a preview with one page from each story. Here’s the one from Whilce and me:

This completely bat-shit crazy story features Deadpool fighting and falling in love with a new character named Sanction (isn’t she darling?) in an Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM) lab full of Super-Brood Sleazoids run amok. And yeah, the whole thing is just about as off-the-rails zany as that sentence.

Be good to each other.

Best,

Marc

Encino, California

11.10.23