From Warren Ellis's email newsletter [bad signal] today:
bad signal
ME
Another week fucking vanished into thin air. Off to London in a few hours for dinner with a couple of old friends. Notes on the week:
* My website hosting service has finally driven me up the wall, so I'm moving warrenelliscom over the weekend. Expect some downtime.
* It appears that I'm going to be writing a direct-to-DVD animated film next month. Right now, I thinkI'm still under NDA (Non-DisclosureAgreement), although the design artist leaked it some months back. He does a lot of covers for Vertigo. More than that I will not say until I get the nod. Interestingly, there's also the possibility I'll be brought into do the voice direction, too.
* (Direct-to-DVD has long interested me, since I made the acquaintance of DVD pulp king Bill Cunningham. D2DVD is the common search term. D2DVD still has the stink of straight-to-video on it, mostly because ofthe potboiler crap that fills the field, but it wouldn't be hard to do something that was actually good in the area.)
* (I also like D2i, or webisodes as we used to call them -- I think maybe the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA direct-to-internet pieces call themwebisodes too. I've also been watching tv on my phone, streamed straight to the handset and run with RealPlayer. Will have a note about thatsoon, I think.)
* Finishing the first draft of theDEAD CHANNEL script this weekend.Terrified.
* Today I will also find out if I'm writing another animated film, I think. This one is related to a videogame I consulted on over the summer -- I know for a fact this oneis still under NDA, they don't loosenthat until the game's well intoproduction.
* Did I mention the requested revisions on the novel were minor?I think I have to slightly alter fourlines and add one small scene. Easy. I'm told we're gunning for July 06,to roughly coincide with my beingin the US for a few days that month.
* Have agreed terms on a massive, career-killing new project atMarvel, and also a crazy format stunt at Avatar that William the Avatar boss came up with last year.
* So I'm home alone and working flat out all weekend. Will probably turn up on the Engine on Saturday night to do the Open Mic thing.
-- W
---Sent via mobile device from pub, street or road
(c) 2006 Warren Ellis.
Reposted here without permission, but with the best of intentions.
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Warren Ellis is an excellent example of someone using their "brand" to branch out and create new media. I remember about a year or two ago when Warren and I were trading emails on this subject, and I'm glad to see him join the DVD Premiere fold.
For the 8000+ of you who read Warren's [bad signal] today and wondered who the hell I am, welcome. I hope you stick around as we discuss a lot of things here at DISContent related to screenwriting, movies, DVD (they are two separate entities) television, comics, pulps and the internet -- and how they are all interrelated. I am a writer-producer- DVD marketer and approach everything about this as a business - a fun creatively rewarding business - but a business nonetheless. I tell you what I think - right or wrong - usually in the form of a rant. This has earned me the title "Mad Pulp Bastard." (Thank you, John Rogers)
If you're new here, or have been lurking for awhile and been too shy to speak up - now's the time to do so. Tell us who you are and what you're up to.
4 comments:
Hey Bill,
I get Bad Signal and saw Warren's nod to you, but I've actually been lurking here for a while already.
My producing partners and I are jumping into the pulp-movie world, so I'm eagerly reading your archives. Thanks for the insights and rants.
The only criticism I have of your blog is this - you clearly don't focus enough on the market value of lesbians and exploding helicopters. If you get enough lesbians and exploding helicopters in a movie, you're guaranteed a success!
(This is not to be confused with the market value of exploding lesbians, which caters to a very niche audience, and can get messy on set. I learned that lesson the hard way.)
Cheers.
I feel all romantic comedies should have exploding lesbian helicopters...
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I am working on HG Lewis stuff, a short film written by the "Indie Horror Maven" Jeff O'brien, A short written by myself, and other things that I can't really talk about until they come around. Oh and commercials to pay the bills.
I love how the the marketroids made them come up with an entirely new term for "direct to video". Because, y'know, "direct to video" is crap, no possibility it could be anything good.
The Firefly franchise wrecked itself by going the feature-film route. It's over now, done forever; the public wisdom is that the movie was a flop (even though it made back its production costs and it's still a strong seller in video.)
If people'd had the balls to go direct-to-video with Firefly, we'd be on Season Four by now...
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