A reminder to join us this Wednesday, December 6th, at 10/9c for a Dark Matter/Stargate live tweet event in which I’ll be fielding questions and offering insights on my 15 combined years on all four sci-fi productions. Tell your friends!
Well, today was Day #1 of the writer’s room for one of the projects (let’s call it Project A) I’ve been working on. David Ray and I spent the better part of the past month pitching ideas back and forth, rewriting and revising the series overview to the point where we now feel confident moving on to the script stage. He, Alex, Samantha and I will take the next four days to beat out the tease, five acts, and the tag after which I will head off to hammer out an outline – and, eventually, that pilot!
Project B is another something in the works, the adaptation of an upcoming SF novel. I pitched my take via email a couple of weeks back and, last Friday, had a follow-up conversation with the main players. This one looks to start moving quickly in the near year.
Project C is another book to screen adaptation, this one of a pulp classic from the 60’s. I delivered my take last week and anxiously await feedback. I pitched it to my old pal, Alexander Ruemelin, who seemed particularly enamored with the idea. Yep, this one would be all sorts of crazy.
Project D is yet another book to screen adaptation, this one in the horror realm. At this point, just some early conversations with a couple of interested production companies, and some intriguing discussions with the author who I’ve gotten to know over the past two months. I am (and have always been) a big fan.
Speaking of being a big fan of a certain author, there’s this SF heavyweight I’ve admired for years – and now I may finally get the chance to adapt one of this books. I was approached a couple of weeks ago by the head of another production company regarding the possibility. I said yes before I’d even read the book, and was even more emphatic after completing it. This one would be BIG and nothing short of amazing. Let’s call it…Project E.
But wait, there’s more! I’m in early talks to help develop a series based on another sci-fi book. I loved the author’s last novel and the premise to her latest is insanely intriguing. Project F.
Project G would be big to small screen adaptation of a movie (some might call it sci-fi, others horror). I forwarded by vision for the potential series a couple of weeks ago and am still awaiting word. This one is a bit of a long shot as I’m fairly firm on the approach I want to take here.
Of course there’s Masked, the superhero-themed anthology I’ll be pitching in L.A. come January with my producing partner, Vanessa Piazza, along with those other comic book-related prospects, the live-action treatment of that anime series, and a couple of other development gigs. Believe it or not, I even turned down a few projects that I felt weren’t a good fit.
It may seem like a lot but, realistically, in this business, you have to have multiple irons in the fire. Sure things can flounder and fade while long shots have a way of defying the odds. The plan is still to produce one more 5-season show and then retire and live off Suji’s various endorsement deals.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to post their spooky stories. I won’t sleep a wink tonight!
Hey, Melissa O’Neil (Dark Matter’s TWO) is auctioning off a couple of her character’s jackets to raise money for local food banks. If you’d care to own a piece of Dark Matter history, check out the auction here: https://www.32auctions.com/TwoJackets
*crosses fingers that one of the project sources is one she has waited decades for*
Gee, I have a birthday coming up. Would be nice to hear the name of a project on 12/23. 😉😉
Oh, spooky story. Well, I set off to test a feature I’d been coding related to a mapping app. I needed a place where I could name features and navigate my way among them. Wanting the features to be close together so I wouldn’t have to walk far, I naturally chose a graveyard within walking distance of the office.
We wouldn’t be into the second paragraph of such a story if the magnetometer didn’t start malfunctioning only in one part of the graveyard. But, considering the eccentrics likely to be buried in this particular lot, someone being buried with something magnetic or shipping in a weird material for a gravestone seemed the most likely explanation.
But this time, when I resumed work in my office, the magnetometer wasn’t working right in just one corner. Also, though I’d previously just parked a test device there, happily relying on the office’s Wifi, I haven’t been able to get the office’s WiFi to work in that corner ever since. I explored the office layout to find that the programmer working on the other side of the corner was using one of those desks that automatically raise and lower. So, watch out for those standing desks.
Hi Joe
Sounds good, some ‘smooth sailing’ coming?
Elminster
My night for comments.
I just tuned into SYFY. Despite their recent re-branding, with stronger emphasis on sci-fi /fantasy, tonight’s mid-evening offering?
ICEAN’S THIRTEEN
OCEAN’S THIRTEEN
That’s awesome Joe. Can’t wait to see the finished product. Proud of you!
I can’t wait to hear more about the projects as things progress. Good luck!
And thanks for the link to the auction!
Good thing you are a good multi-tasker! That’s a lot to keep going all at once. Can’t wait to see which project(s) will get the green light!
putting it on my to do list/calendar. I didn’t like the electronic trickery, but I have a therapy session tomorrow so have to show her results of my ability to (pre)plan. So, why should we still read “Macbeth?”
…. and Project Z is were you get some R&R and maybe a little shut eye?
Loving the sound of all these alphabetically-listed-not-necessarily-in-that-order-to-completion projects 👍
That’s a lot of teasers! Glad you’re taking it easy. 😉 When can you fill in the details?
My friend flew in for a visit Saturday. If I had the Mula, l’d buy a plane and take lessons. Looks like a fun lifestyle.
Melissa’s jackets are beyond cool! I love DM’s costumes, they wear gorgeous and runway ready. So many projects, all sounding very cool. My fave will be Masked, I’m ready to cast those amazing characters.
Loved all the stories from yesterday. I have a couple really good, true, ones to share from my childhood that would definitely creep everyone out and leave ya wondering. One, happened to me. The others to a couple school mates. Unfortunately it’s a bit long and life has been crazier than usual here, so no time to type it all out, Also, its not a memory I find easy to talk about so it would take a bit more courage than I can muster at the moment to share it in detail. No one, including our own parents, believed any of us.
Albeit, -The basic gist of it:
We all had a short series of nightmares in the autumn of 1977 about an upcoming event involving the non homicide death of someone we never met before. Each of us dreamed about a different person and seemingly non related events and some parts of each our dreams came true within a couple weeks there after. It was horrible and disturbing enough that we each elected to discuss our bad dreams and the events there after with a school counselor or teacher. Needless to say, once the teacher and counselor involved got to talking much later down the line and relayed the same basic incident of 3 separate students coming to them to discuss unnerving prophetic death dreams happening all around the same limited time period, we were all dragged in to the main school office for questioning and lecturing about lying, (because they figured we had gotten together before hand and concocted the stories), where we got to know one another a bit for the first time and discovered a small extremely weird connection that, to this very day, defies human reasoning/understanding. What makes the whole thing even more of a disturbing mystery is it did not seem to lead to any apparent bigger picture and those other students and I did not elect to keep in touch and become closer friends, despite this most unusual shared experience. Though, in retrospect, it was probably because no one believed us, so its likely none of us felt compelled to stick close to anyone that reminded us of the occurrence.
Wonderful to hear you have so many exciting prospects in the works Joe,
but hope you are not getting so swept up in business related stuff, you push out enough free time to take that romantic get away weekend with Akemi before heading to your moms for christmas.
Its often all too easy for most of us on this pale blue dot to get caught up in personal routines, work, friends, parents, kids, etc and justify blowing off making time to focus on the intimacy of our closest relationships which also need ongoing nurturing and maintenance to remain strong and healthy.
Even I have had the unfortunate experience and later regret of taking some close relationships for granted.
Wow, that is a lot on the potential plate. Can’t wait to see what emerges from the multi-tasking!
Wow, my head is spinning reading this.
I’m excited for you too. But seriously hope you can take a bit of an extended break (ok, maybe a slightly long one) sometime in the very near future. Best of luck on your projects and your break perhaps. In the meantime for myself, I’m taking the rest of the year off. Will keep reading your blog while vacationing in the far east.
No, no, no, there is only one Project D – finishing the Dark Matter story 🙂