Amph General JMS discussion

Script review of World War Z

If this review is any indication, things are looking mighty good.

"World War Z, as a screenplay, is the greatest handling of the living dead since Romero?s quadrilogy. And the first zombie script to have me wondering ?Can a zombie film win an Oscar??

This script is done, there, at the level of perfection. The final greatness of this project is no longer in Straczynski?s hands: he?s done his job. He?s delivered a piece of screenwriting that, if translated correctly, will have affected a genre classic."

Interesting praise, especially considering the reviewer was not familiar with JMS's past work.

 

On the public appearance front, I'm slated to appear as Guest of Honor
at the New York Comic Con in February, and I've been invited to speak
at MIT on May 22nd as part of the Julie Schwartz Lecture Series.

To correct one piece of misinformation out there...I'm not involved
with the Thor movie in any way. There seems to be this notion that I
rewrote the previous scripts for Marvel. Totally not true.

Finally, later this month, in addition to continuing to turn in
screenplay assignmentgs, I'll be turning in the pilot script for Last
Words, an hour dramatic series with a paranormal thrust, being written
for TNT and Dreamworks.

(It's a new crowd at TNT these days.)


A new crowd? Does that mean we can now track down the old one?

 

JMS teams with Bruckheimer to adapt the video game Shattered Union.

In the game, states secede from the U.S. and form their own governments that wage a civil war against each other after Washington, D.C., is wiped out in a nuclear blast and chaos ravages the nation. Players control one of the warring group of states -- the California Commonwealth, Republic of Texas and New England Alliance are three of the six -- or a European peacekeeping unit sent to reunify America.

 

It'll definitely manage to get me to pick up some DC comics on a regular basis for a change (at present I can only really tolerate the occasional Bat issue and GL trade). I'm obviously a huge fan of his work (even if his Marvel legacy is tainted by Brand New Day and somewhat derailed by Siege) though other writers I've been fans of didn't, IMO, really translate well to the style of the DC universe (like Ostrander with Suicide Squad the other year), but I supose that if anyone can make the Dc universe work for me on the page, it'll be JMS (the issue or two of Brave and the Bold that I read was promising at least).

 

Kate Beckinsale signed for Underworld 4

The article goes on to state that JMS will be polishing the script.

 

A few things beyond his recent story credit & cameo on Thor:

World War Z Begins Shooting Next Month

It's almost hard to believe but it's true - the long-awaited film adaptation of Max Brooks' thoroughly fun, politically-themed, zombie war satire novel "World War Z" is about to begin filming.

Screen Daily reports that the Paramount/Plan B production is set to begin shooting in Malta in late June. The production will then do some filming in the UK before heading to Hungary in early October.

Brad Pitt stars as a UN researcher who interviews the survivors of the worldwide conflict that ensued after a pandemic swept the globe that turned many into zombies.

Anthony Mackie, Mireille Enos and Alicia Vikander also star. Marc Forster directs from a screenplay by J. Michael Straczynski and Matthew Michael Carnahan.

Also, a few weeks ago I posted this about something happening in regards to Captain Power, which I'll just repost here for reference:

An Official Facebook Page & Teaser Website has gone up announcing that Captain Power will be returning in 2012.

Not much in the way of details, but an introductory/restrospective video has gone up on youtube with Gary Goddard and JMS talking about the show.

Since then, it's been revealed that "DVDs of the entire series are on the way as part of the show's 25th anniversary celebration in 2012", including a new making of documentary (presumably where that teaser clip comes from).

Additionally, on his FB page, he's revealed he's working on a spec animated project (non-B5) he funding that he's written the script for. He mentions it'll be somewhat comic material in a noir environment, in either 2D or 3D animation.

He also mentions, in regards to Tintin's recent trailer, that he was invited to the Tintin set while writing some (undisclosed) project for Dreamworks: I was sitting with Spielberg on my left, with Peter Jackson live from down under on the monitor in front of me, and Kathleen Kennedy seated behind me and I thought, y'know, it just doesn't get any better than this. Best day ever.

Lastly, he's been hinting at something B5-related in the works, but doesn't want to give any details until the deal is done and the contracts are inked. WB recently took control over the largest B5 FB page, which suggests they intend to use it for some kind of forthcoming promotion.

 

So, JMS announced his new Studio JMS production company that will be run by Patricia Tallman back around Comic-Con. Projects he's working on include the film The Flickering Light (about Nazi concentration camp propaganda), webseries The Adventures of Apocalypse Al (with MTV) & Living Dead: The Musical, TV shows Epidemic (working with Will Smith), Vlad Dracula (working with Sam Raimi) & an untitled thriller on ABC, as well as revitalizing the Joe's Comics imprint under Image with 4 new titles in 2013: Fallen Angel, Ten Grand, Guardians & Sidekick.

Just announced today, JMS will be the showrunner for the Wachowski's Sense8 series (the Wachowskis will direct at least a few episodes).

 

I haven't read his Superman: Earth One stuff yet, but that's apparently done very well for DC.

His own work does tend to be better (Midnight Nation being my favorite) but I don't think it's fair to say he's not a team player- though he may have been soured by some of his experiences. I mean, after what One More Day did to Spider-Man and Siege to Thor (I actually liked Siege, but I can completely understand his frustration at Marvel interrupting his story on a title that no one cared about until JMS made it a hit again), one can make some allowances.

 

JMS: "Expect a nice little announcement to come out of New York Comic Con later today or first thing tomorrow...."

Patricia Tallman then added "Watch the Studio JMS page!"

 

JMS will be scripting a movie adaptation of Shadowman, the first film in Valiant Comics's developing film slate.

 

So, the Ten Grand comic series started the other month (and apparently sold very well). It's first issue also included a free audio drama version of the issue, which was a neat touch.

Joe's Comics' next title, Sidekick, hits this year as well.

Now, with comic-con upon us, JMS apparently has two announcements. The first just hit: he'll be writing a 12-issue Terminator series for Dark Horse- awesome!

Particularly since he did work with Cameron in the past, so he at least gas some knight to apply towards Terminator.

EDIT- the second announcement: JMS returning to The Twilight Zone in comic form.

 

With the right episode order, Crusade is a much better series- even moreso once you factor in the unfilmed stories that give you a better idea of what the first season would have been like and where the series as a whole was going.

Rangers... might have been salvageable, but the pilot was rushed and it shows. Despite a few moments here or there, it is pretty bad.

 

Andreas could do little wrong.

 

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