THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM?

LegalDispatch .95

Apr 16, 2024

Howdy.

I’m putting out the newsletter a few days early so I can share with you a preview of Beware the Planet of the Apes #4 before it drops on Wednesday. But before we get to that…

HOLLYWOOD IS BURNING

It’s only Tuesday, but it’s already been a big week for “Hollywood is burning” articles about the recent “contraction” of, at least, the television marketplace. Most every writer I know is out of work or working for much less than their quote. Nothing seems to be selling. Pitches keep getting postponed, waiting for calmer waters. And Deadline, Harpers, and The Hollywood Reporter have all published pieces about how dire the current straits are. (You can click on the links above or on the headline graphics below to read the articles.)

I have no words of optimism, much less wisdom, to impart. No question, things are as bad as I’ve ever seen after more than two decades in the business. While I don’t believe that the current “no one is buying anything” situation can sustain, I don’t know when this period will end or whether the next cycle be all that much better. All I can do — all anyone can do — is just hold on as best they can and ride out the storm…

BEWARE THE PLANET OF THE APES #4

As I mentioned last week and at the top of this edition, the final issue of Beware the Planet of the Apes drops on Wednesday. I remain shocked at the amount of story and moments we were able to pack into 20 pages. Everything comes together in this climax, including a payoff for our use of “vintage” panels from Marvel’s Adventures on the Planet of the Apes series and a pretty cool homage to Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. All in all, I’m quite proud of this one.

Here’s a preview courtesy of AIPT:

Marvel Preview: Beware the Planet of the Apes #4

(Art by Álvaro López, Colors by Mattia Iacono, Letters by Joe Caramanga)

You can pre-order Beware the Planet of the Apes #4 digitally here or find a copy at your local comic shop.

RETROSPECS

As I mentioned in a previous Dispatch, writer Ben Blacker is holding one of his “Retrospecs” shows where real actors table read spec scripts written by professional writers before they broke into the business. This Sunday, they’ll be reading the West Wing script that got me my first job in television. I’m grateful that Katie Cassidy (Arrow) and Jason George (Eli Stone) will be among the actors lending their talents.

You can purchase tickets here.

RETURNING TO THE SCENE OF THE CRIME — AGAIN

In 1982, legendary artist José Garcia-López was hired by DC Comics to create a “style guide” to provide a consistent look for DC’s Super Heroes across comics, animated series, action figures, etc. It’s a beautiful, seminal work that defined the look of the DC Universe for decades.

Earlier this month, DC announced that it was going to publish a special series of “Artist Spotlight” variant covers based on several of the “character turnarounds” José drew for the style guide.

Green Lantern is one of the books getting this treatment. Here’s a look of the cover from DC’s announcement:

Yeah, that’s my name there.

I can’t really talk about it because it hasn’t been properly announced yet, but I wrote an 8-page story that will see print in this issue. Thus, depending on how you count, this is either my third (or fifth) return to the Green Lantern franchise.

I’m excited to talk more about this when it’s made official. In the meantime, I’m thrilled to have my name on a Garcia-López cover.

Q&A

David J. Burke writes:

Some months back I upgraded to paid and yet I'm still being invited to upgrade to get the full experience. Am I missing something?

Nope. Although I turned on “accept payments” — and THANK YOU very much for being a paid subscriber — I haven’t placed any content behind the paywall. If I ever do, it will be for something truly special (whatever that might be).

I don’t know why Substack is still asking you to “go paid” — I suspect it’s similar to the way it invites me to subscribe to newsletters I’m already a subscriber to.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Harvey Hamer asks:

In your Star Wars story “501st Plus One,” we open on the Battle of Arantara. It’s mentioned in The Star Wars Book in Rex’s biography. I just wondered if you had any more info on the battle, what it was in your mind beyond the page of comic, as it is one of the first in the Clone Wars, quite a bonding moment for Rex and Anakin.

I have to confess that I’m not one of those writers who works out deep backstories for characters and moments. I can’t say that I’ve never done that but it’s pretty rare for me. In general, my stories don’t have much going on below the waterline. Such was the case with the Battle of Arantara, I’m afraid. Although I’m glad to see that it made it out of the pages of that short story and into Rex’s bio!

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FROM THE ARROW VAULT

I was working on clearing out my iCloud drive the other day and came upon an interesting artifact. The second Arrowverse crossover introduced Vandal Savage, Hawkman and Hawkwoman — all of whom would go on to play major roles in the first season of Legends of Tomorrow.

There’s a key sequence in Arrow Ep. 408 (the second part of the crossover) where Savage fights our heroes and, well, it didn’t turn out particularly well. We’d ran out of time on the day we originally shot it and had to make some compromises on the fly. Once we got into the editing room, however, we realized that the sequence, as shot, didn’t make a lick of narrative sense. Accordingly, I did a rewrite on the sequence and returned to Vancouver for a day’s worth of reshoots.

Reshoots are expensive by virtue of the fact that they’re not initially budgeted for and you certainly don’t want to be in a spot where you have to do reshoots on the reshoots, so the stakes are high. You really have to get it right.

To that end, we painstakingly shot-listed and storyboarded exactly what we needed to get in order to make the revised sequence work.

I think what makes these storyboards particularly interesting is that you can see how the footage from the reshoots is designed to work with the scene as originally shot.

I’ve uploaded those storyboards to Google Drive for your enjoyment. You can check them out by clicking here.