Making Oscar predictions
One of our most loyal - and most fun - journalists that we've done interviews with is Stephen Holt, the New York-based Oscar pundist. I always try to do an interview or two with Stephen in the midst of the Toronto Film Festival and Stephen has now become a regular at the New York Comic-Con.Stephen has been billed as "The Oscar Messenger" and, as a follower of the Oscar season, I always enjoy chatting with him about his predictions and thoughts on the Oscar race. Here is a video taken during Comic-Con last weekend, and you can also check out an interview that Stephen does with both myself and Conor here.
Conor and Anthony analyzing this summer's comic book films
Conor and I appeared this morning on Global TV's The Morning Show, one of Canada's top AM talk shows.
We were there again in our role of "pop culture vultures" to analyze and discuss the upcoming summer film season and focus on some of the comic book adaptations being released. This is our third time on the show and it's always a treat to joke around and have fun with the hosts.Enjoy the clip below or go directly the show's website for the footage from our by clicking on the photo above...
IFC says "Adapt Kill Shakespeare!"
As Conor and I are deeply immersed in the screenwriting of the film version of Kill Shakespeare, it's always great when independent sources (fans, readers, media) talk to us about adapting our project for the screen. It's great to talk about casting possibilities, changes to the story, the hard process of adapting your own work, etc.
One media source that also is looking forward to an adaptation is Rick Marshall from IFC.com. He runs a weekly column looking at comics that would make great screen adaptations and this week he turns his eye to us (two weeks ago it was KS cover artist Kagan McLeod's Infinite Kung Fu). And this week? It's Kill Shakespeare!An interesting quote from the analysis:"Given the size of the world in Kill Shakespeare and the epic nature of the characters' quest, television seems like the right medium to tell McCreery and Del Col's story - especially since there's little need for complicated special effects. The popularity of current shows like "Grimm" and "Once Upon A Time" make it easy to see the possibilities of a "Kill Shakespeare" television series, and if the project receives the sort of nurturing that one of the cable networks like SyFy can provide, the sky's the limit."What do you think?
We are Sundance Kids forever
Conor and I returned to Toronto just over a week ago after taking part in the first ever Sundance Institute New Frontier Story Lab. In the past week I've been able to reflect upon my time at the lab, go through the notes I've taken, look through the photos, and I still can't believe how great an experience it was for both of us.
The New Frontier Story Lab is one designed by Sundance to help creators of transmedia projects. By transmedia, we are referring to telling stories and creating worlds that can be told through multiple media, whether they are digital, film, television, stage, game, real-life experience, etc. In a follow-up interview with the Sundance website I answered some questions about my thoughts and experiences with transmedia projects - you can read that interview here.
Conor and I were honoured to be invited to the lab for many reasons. One, it served as a certain validation for us and our efforts to take Kill Shakespeare beyond the comic book page. Secondly, we knew that we would meet a number of professional advisors that would give us notes and thoughts and spur us on to further ideas and ways of telling Kill Shakespeare stories. Thirdly, we were interested to find out what other creators were doing in the transmedia space.
On all three fronts were not disappointed at all. The advisors that sat down with us were top-notch. We met with Marti Noxon, the talented film and television writer (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Mad Men, Fright Night), who gave us great notes on our script - and shared with us the ins-and-outs of television writers' rooms and studios. Sue Bonds of 42 Entertainment showed us what can be accomplished with Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) and let us know what the studios and filmmakers today are looking for. Michael Goldenberg (Contact, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Green Lantern) broke down our script for us. Richard
LaGravenese (Oscar-nommed for The Fisher King, Bridges of Madison County, Water for Elephants) served as early inspiration for us in the lab with his honesty and his love of mythology. Wesley Strick (Cape Fear, Wolf, Doom) put everything into perspective for us and challenged us to think big. Transmedia expert Lance Weiler made us really examine Kill Shakespeare as a transmedia franchise and more importantly one that could involve participatory storytelling at its finest. And Nick Fortugno of Playmatics showed us the possibility of games and allowed us to conceive the whole narrative structure within the medium.Just as good as the advisors were the other fellows that attended the lab with us. For the purposes of confidentiality we can't get into describing the projects that each team has been developing but as we move forward we'll aim to do individual spotlights on each
to help out the project. Look out for great projects from Yasmin Elayat and Jigar Mehta (18 Days in Egypt), Brigitte Dale and Robbie Wilkins (Follow Back), Tommy Pallotta and Femke Wolting (The Last Hijack), Chris Johnson, Hank Willis-Thomas and Kamal Sinclair (Question Bridge) and Chris Milk (Rome). Thanks to all of you fantastic storytellers for the inspiration and your thoughts on Kill Shakespeare!
And the staff of Sundance was fantastic to us. They really believe in the project and we're so appreciative of their feedback and direction over the course of the week. The staff included Michelle Satter, Keri Putnam, Cara Mertes, Carrie Beck, Cullen Conly and Kristin Feeley. Special thanks to Carrie Beck who served as our liaison with the lab - making us aware of it and prepping us for it once we were selected.And finally, how could I not mention the surroundings? The Sundance Resort, about 45 minutes outside of Salt Lake City, is absolutely gorgeous. Mountains surrounded us each day (which made my morning runs quite the challenge...) and the weather was pretty good throughout. How could you not be inspired by taking a quick hike and seeing the views?I'll be writing more on transmedia moving forward and I look forward to keeping in touch with everyone from the Lab. It was a great experience and I am charged to climb up further mountains with the knowledge gained last week.
Kill Shakespeare Heads to Sundance
We can now officially announce this bit of news... Conor and I have been selected to take part in the prestigious Sundance Institute's New Frontiers Storytelling Lab! The lab, taking place later this month (Oct 23 - 28th), in Park City, UT, will allow us to develop Kill Shakespeare into other mediums, namely film, video games and other digital technology.
The official press release can be found here and see who some of the advisors and fellow participants are. It states this about the program:"The New Frontier Story Lab will focus on supporting projects that have original stories and engage audiences in innovative ways, across multiple platforms. Organized as an immersive lab experience, activities will include individualized story sessions, conversations about key artistic, design and technology issues, and case study presentations. Drawing talent and expertise from all of Sundance Institute’s creative programs, including Feature Film, Documentary Film, and the Sundance Film Festival, the Lab has been planned under the supervision of Michelle Satter, Director of the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program."We're really excited about the opportunity to work with some great creative advisers (including Oscar nominees, writers of blockbuster films, documentarians and game designers) as well as meet some other progressive storytellers.We'll include more about this as we get closer but wanted to share the news with you immediately!
Ryan Gosling learns about Kill Shakespeare
A couple of weeks ago our friend Stephen Holt, journalist and blogger (check out his excellent Oscar season analysis, Oscar Messenger) called us up and let us know about an interview that he he just finished with Ryan Gosling. Gosling was promoting his Golden Globe-nominated film Blue Valentine and Stephen, halfway through the interview, decided to talk about Kill Shakespeare with the thespian. You can see the complete interview here:Thanks to Stephen for being such a big fan of the comic series and for continuing the spread the word!
Our newest fan: Stephen Holt!
Two weeks ago at the Pitch This! event at the Toronto Film Festival we met Stephen Holt, a New York journalist and television host who saw our pitch and ran up to us afterwards, raving about the idea and insisting that we would win. Well, Stephen was right and we did indeed win! And we sat down for an interview with him the next day (after bumping into him again at a screening of Black Swan) and chatting about our project, the Oscars, film, and life in general.(On a side note, Stephen is a writer on AwardsDaily.com, which is a site that I frequent a number of times a day between Sept 1st - Oscar night, giving me the inside goods on the Oscar campaigns and races. When I found out that Stephen worked on the site I was blown away!)Stephen has just posted a great article about us on his blog (you can access it by clicking on the photo of us below) and will shortly be posting a video interview with us as well.
The Shakespearean Social Network
I was reading another rave review of The Social Network, this time on HollywoodReporter.com. The film is garnering fantastic reviews and I'd like to state that it's one of the best film marketing campaigns I've seen. Everything - from the haunting trailer to the posters.. Great work.The Hollywood Reporter uses this expression: "The Social Network has as its protagonist a character drawn in a Shakespearean mode, a high-achieving individual who carries within him the seeds of his own destruction." A great description and so I sat down last night for a couple minutes and put together this mock-up poster, using our own Shakespearean character (Hamlet) as a subject...
I hope you like it...
How does one cash a novelty cheque?...
A number of people have been asking us about the novelty cheque that we received at the Pitch This! contest two days ago... Were we able to keep it?... How does one bring it home?... Can we cash it?... The answers are:1. Yes, we were able to keep the novelty cheque. When I won back in '06 for Outsourced, I turned around and the cheque was gone. So I made a point this year to ensure that the cheque remained right by us the entire time.2. Conor and I fought over who could bring it home (see photo below) and Conor, being Irish, fought dirty and was able to beat me in a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors... So he took it home on his bike. Yes, his bike. See photo further below. He apparently was almost killed (he forgot to account for the wind resistance) and also passed some people on the street that were, at that exact moment, declaring that they had seen a lot of crazy things in the city (but this topped them all)...
"Shakespearean action flick wins Pitch This!"
Today was a HUGE day for Kill Shakespeare. Conor and I competed in the Telefilm Canada Pitch This! contest, taking place as part of the Toronto International Film Festival. We were one of six finalists selected to pitch a film project... and WE WON!!!
You can read a great article about us in CBC by clicking on the above photo.
This is a huge vote of confidence in our project and means that we are on the right track in looking to expand the project beyond the comic book medium.We'd like to commend the other team pitching their projects. Though we did not have an opportunity to see their full pitches we've heard good things about them.We'd like to thank Telefilm Canada for supporting this contest - it's a great one. The contest has been running for eleven years now and I've watched about seven of them (including four as a contestant - winner in '06!) and it's a great event. We'd also like to thank Erin Rypstra and Shant Srabian from the TIFF Industry Centre, who oversaw the competition. It was a first-class event and they should be commended. And thanks to the jury, who saw this as a project to be supported. We are doing our most to make this happen and become a very successful alumni of the competition.