The bloodiest Valentine

We gotta go back for this one. Before Comicon…before Pittsburgh even. I call this one, “Making Contact with the Mother Ship.” We were outside waiting to be seated at a restaurant.

I struggle to escape this Bloody Valentine state of mind. I’ve seen the movie twice now and it is soooo unbelievably good. And that’s with a temp score, temp sound, temp FX and non-3D. Although I have seen reels 1 and 3 in 3D and WOWOWOW. Seriously. It’s good to be the king.
The movie is so good that it and its actors have seeped into everything I do. I just handed in Monkey’s Paw and during the last couple of passes I could not shake Kerr Smith from my mind. He IS so the lead in my mind. I poured my heart into Monkey’s Paw and took a huge risk in writing. Thus this screenplay CANNOT be phoned in. It is a puzzle of poisoned needles and one misstep and she all comes crashing down. But with an actor like Kerr in the lead…magic.
And then there’s Dean’s Nightmare Academy

Here’s the cover of book one. Book two comes out in 5 days. I have the cover somewhere…I’ll find it and post. But having read all three books I am convinced that the character of Rex, IS Jensen Ackles. In fact, just last week I was showing Dean a cut of MBV and out of the blue Dean says, “Hmm, Jensen would make a great Rex.” To which I said, “I KNOW!”
I know it sounds silly but what you have to understand is that Hollywood has a way of wearing you down. Killing that passion and joy that making movies used to offer. So anytime passion seeps back in…well, you gotta get a little silly and embrace it. I love Nightmare Academy and it’s going to be this huge movie at Universal. I’d like to see it done right. And after seeing the work Jensen did on MBV, well, he’d simply be perfect.

Above Camera Op – Howard, Patrick, Max in the BG and DP Brian. I find myself going back and just browsing these set pics all the time. Hollywood exists on the edge of high highs and low lows. And while MBV had its share of lows, I recall the highs far outweighing them. Least that was my experience. Thus, I can’t wait to do something else with Patrick. In fact, we’re probably going to co-write something. We spent an hour bouncing ideas yesterday. We are so disgustingly twisted, I’m not even sure we can make the ideas we discussed. This is a good thing, no?

I said I had more from Comicon and I do…but now the information feels dated. The RAW booth was overrun with Tom’s Mutant Chronicles (which comes out in 09) and our own Devil’s Commandos. Check out that poster on the left by Tim Bradstreet. Unbelievable.

Bradstreet and I are going to pen the script. In fact, we should start any day now. That may seem odd co-writing something with an artist. No. Not really. Bradstreet is visual and screenplays are a visual medium. His ideas are incredible. He sees the movie in his head and that’s what most screenwriters do. That’s the part that CAN’T be taught. It’s the GUT thing. It’s analagous to Robert Rodriguez directing with Frank Miller on Sin City.

As stated before, the con was fun but far more subdued than last year. This year was more about work. Of course, I did break away to do some shopping. Young Izzie Rain loves R2D2. This does not in any way annoy me. She has the attraction to keychains and her favorite is her R2 keychain. So I got her the R2 backpack. She can have it later. For now it accompanies me every day as I bike to and from the office.

I came home with some artwork this year. But I’m not going to show you the pics yet. I’m having them framed. I bought two prints from Bradstreet and Jim Daly (center) presented me with his original sketch of Coffin from our coming comic series The Lycan. Wait until you see it. It bleeds AWESOME.

Tom also did his fair share of art purchases. Many average movie viewers wouldn’t know this but Thomas Jane is an old soul. Old school doesn’t begin to describe him. He doesn’t just dabble in comic books…he lives for them. And this comes from his adoration for the art form. He got to meet one of his heroes. Al Feldstein. Tom was like a kid on Christmas morning.
Feldstein wrote, drew and edited EC Comics. He helmed Mad Magazine for 28 years. He’s an Eisner Hall of Famer. The man is a legend.

Tom spent hours the next day locating one of Feldstein’s original comics for the man to sign. It’s hard to go anywhere with Tom without his being stopped a thousand times for autographs, questions, comments. I don’t know how they do it. I was exhausted just spending a couple days with him. Anyway this guy comes up and wants an interview for some college news channel I think it was. The guy wants to know all the standard stuff. Punisher, Mist, what movies are next and so forth. Tom spends the entire interview praising Feldstein. Every question Tom skillfully guides back to Feldstein.

He wasn’t there as a celebrity. He was there as a fan. See that Bad Planet poster with the red writing? The one in the center. That is the last cover Dave Stevens did before he passed away. Dave Rocketeer Stevens! I’m a geeked out fan of anyone who refused to phone it in. And neither Tom nor Raw studios phones anything in.

The two final adventures of the week consisted of the screening of Mutant Chronicles followed by a panel with Tom, Ron, Devon and director Simon Hunter.

Sunday night found us at a memorial celebrating the life and birth of Dave Stevens.

Izzie approved of my return.

I rewarded her loyalty with a trip to Home Depot. I know. I spoil her.

I have been back and forth to LA often of late. Spent some time with Patrick, Cynthia, Devin and the crew at editing, had several meetings and a great lunch with JR Young who was the executive in charge of Messengers II. I’ve have made no secret about how amazing the experience on Messengers II was and it continues. JR gave me a gift from the set. I WISH I could show you! But I can’t! Because it’s the coolest, most spoiler filled gift ever! So, once the movie is out…promise.
Director Martin Barnewitz and I were going to share some drinks on Tuesday but my schedule got all wonky. So we shall continue next Tuesday. I’m heading to town to say a few words on a Friday the 13th documentary.

While there I will once again crash Patrick while he’s in editing and hopefully see more of the movie in 3D. I am so very addicted to 3D at this point.
And speaking of editing, Martin showed his first cut of Messengers II to the studio and I am awaiting news. After his next cut, I will get a chance to see it. I can’t wait. In preparation I went back and viewed one of Martin’s movies and his videos. The man is a visual genius. This movie is going to be soooo scary. And there’s no hiding from the blame on this one. I’m the writer. There’s no one else. No one before me and no one after me. Granted I’m sure there were some on-set tweaks as those are unavoidable but love or hate it. I’m the guy you can point the finger at. So cool!

Here it is! Well, this is the new cover for book one. I love it but I’m so freaking fond of the one posted at the top of the entry as well. This one, of course, goes with…

…this one. This is Book Two of Nightmare Academy. Comes out on the 26th. Click the pics to grab a copy from Amazon or drop by the ever noble Barnes and let me know if I’m alone in thinking Jensen Ackles is perfect for Rex.

There’s other stuff in the works. Some great news from Scifi and I may end up doing a polish on one of Tom’s upcoming films. But I’ll detail all of that later. Right now I’m gonna join the girls for an ocean walk. Yeah. It’s a hard knock life.