LegalDispatch

Howdy. This week has been all about moving our youngest into college (sniff) and doing my editor’s notes on PROJECT SPECTRE (my next novel, coming next year). Well, that’s not entirely true. I also revised the treatment for PROJECT MAPMAKER (an animated feature for Warner Bros. Animation). Exciting times.

Greetings from Encino. I just hit ‘send’ on the latest draft of the screenplay for Last Flight Out. Let’s get into it… FEEDBACK Mickey Fischer writes: RIP FLASHFORWARD! Gone too soon. Thanks, buddy. That one was a real labor of love — before it wasn’t. I ended up getting fired about halfway through the season. My first time getting canned! Rick Ellis writes: I really enjoyed FlashForward.

Howdy. It’s been a development-heavy week this week as I continue to work on my fourth novel, PROJECT DECADE. On Monday, we did a mini-room for PROJECT MAPMAKER, an animated feature I’m writing and I brought in some of my old partners in crime from Trollhunters. That was great fun and it reminded me how much I miss being in a writers room.

Howdy. Well, I’m back and mostly recovered from San Diego ComicCon. This was an unusual SDCC for me as I didn’t have any new comics to announce, but I did a bunch of signings, a bunch of panels, and spent time with friends and co-workers. Overall, a win. This week, I finished the first draft of a new prose short story. Call it PROJECT MOTEL. I continue enjoy writing prose and I’m finding that it’s a more gratifying way of getting ideas out into the world rather than going the spec script route.

Greetings from the wilds of Encino. Yesterday, I broke the seal on a new Star War. Call this one PROJECT KITBASH. I have to say, I thought February’s Jar Jar one-shot would be my last for a while. There was something full-circle about finishing with the character I’d started my Star Wars writing with — but Marvel and LucasFilm, god bless ‘em, had other plans. This one’s particularly exciting because I’ll be writing in an era I’ve never touched before.

I was five years old when America turned 200. The time was known — and widely celebrated — as the Bicentennial. Like most kids my age, I hunted down special edition quarters with a colonial drum player on the back. There was a run on red-white-and-blue bunting. Even comics — already beloved by me — got in on the act. Well, here we are on the precipice of America’s 250th birthday. “Semiquincentennial” doesn’t quite roll off the tongue the way “Bicentennial” does, does it?

Greetings from 36,000 feet, where I’m flying back from the table read for PROJECT DEFIANT. More on that project below, but first: FEEDBACK There was a lot of great feedback on the last newsletter where I posed the question of whether Trump is making us all a bit like him in subtle ways: Don’t Bother Reading makes a fair point: If your readers were like Trump, then we wouldn't be so happy for you! That’s true. And thank you.

LegalDispatch 158 Yesterday, I had a meeting with an executive who had blown up a show that, at the time of said blowing up, was employing dozens of artists. To my ear, he was pretty casual about the decision, very “Yeah, it’s not the outcome we wanted but what can you do?” about it. (That’s not a direct quote but it’s close.) I told the exec that perhaps he shouldn’t be so casual about making a decision that put dozens of people out of work in an industry where work is particularly scarce.

Howdy. Short one this week because I’m juggling a few work chainsaws… THE WHISPER WAR #4 The penultimate issue of The Whisper War drops on Tuesday (5/12). Cinema Sentries has a preview which I’ve, um, stolen below: You can order (or pre-order) by clicking here. FEEDBACK Norman Anderson writes: It feels like, in my opinion, that you are spot on about the television industry. Independent producers and production companies could revive the industry.

Greetings from a very surreal week. In the space of seven days, I’ve gone from being fired from a Netflix animated show (PROJECT VISTA rip) to the set of a Netflix live action film (An Innocent Girl) which is currently in production. Even if PROJECT VISTA hadn’t been “reset” (to use Netflix’s term), returning to a set after four years (LA Law rip) was surreal and, if I’m being honest (which I always try to be in these virtual pages) bittersweet.