I allowed a month slip by. Been a while since that happened. Guess I’ve been busy.

SLINGERS update:

We’re still all systems go. The sizzle is about to come back to use from Framestore and from the cuts I’ve seen they’ve done some brilliant work for us. Next stop is MIPCOM. Then we have a little post-sizzle work to do, but we’re already looking ahead. Quite a bit further ahead.

My main job last month (hence the lack of updates here) was to have another pass at the pilot script before starting work on the first batch of episodes. I just broke ground on the first of six episodes I’ll be writing over the next month or so.

Elsewhere I pitched something very British in tone and just started on pilot number two. Busy busy.

I’ll try and keep the blog a little more up to date from here on in.

Lots of crap to talk about…

@sleepydog and I were chatting about the unique kind of marketing that @danlight gets up to with some very cool movies as a cue to how we handle SLINGERS as we move closer to shooting the pilot. We had lunch with Dan and he gave us some very good advice. I believe I still owe him some beers.

A few days later and I saw this brief video by The Mummers that I think Dan will get a kick out of:

I wish I could tell you more about it, but aside from a chat on the set of the sizzle I have no idea what the band are up to…

There’s some new info regarding SLINGERS up on the Sleepydog website. The thing to remember is that all this is pre-pilot. Details will change and all the material we’ve blogged so far should not be considered truly representative of what the final sizzle reel will look like. The sizzle will in turn inform what needs tweaking for the pilot. But all this stuff so far is purely promotional or rough cut quality. We’re taking a few risks putting so much material out so early, but I push for this kind of thing working on other people’s projects so it would be a tad hypocritical not to give it a go on my own show.

The title above for example is simply a placeholder at the end of the rough cut. That said, I like the feel of it already. I’m lucky to be surrounded by people who are used to knocking the ball the fuck out of the park on the first swing.

So for those that didn’t know and want a little more background:

Slingers is set in the year 2960 A.D., following mankind’s first interplanetary war. Humanity is now clustered into a finite, but still vast section of the universe known as Enclosed Space. Humanity won the war with an aggressive alien enemy, but at a cost. The way back to Earth is now cut off by an impassable barrier – a side effect of the blast that finally pushed the enemy back.

The show takes its name from a group of people thrown together on board an experimental spacecraft that is capable of Slinging itself to any point in space. In theory it’s the only craft capable of getting home. In reality the crew are using it to carry out a series of high tech heists and get even with those who are now exploiting their positions in the post war hierarchy.

Dominic ‘DM’ Monroe, a special ops war veteran becomes the de facto leader of this small team of thieves who rail against the decision by military command to just ‘stay where they are and make the best of it’. They’re determined to get home and if that means breaking a few rules and picking up a lot of enemies along the way then so be it.

A few more pics. The last for now. But I’ll probably have a little video at some point….

Steve Barron

Adrian Bower

Tom Mison

Haruka Abe

GUN (and Tom)

She will KICK YOUR ASS

Junior – MECH FIVE

Aside from the ones in this post I think this is almost all the Slingers pics that have surfaced so far. Just rounding ‘em up to be tidy before I dig through to find a few more…

Sean Pertwee and Dalip Tahil as Colonel Thomas Hall and The Mark

Margo Stilley as Jeannie

Adrian Bower as DM with director Steve Barron

First day of shooting

Jeannie ready to pilot the ship

GUN in the safe hands of Tom Mison as Frank

DM and Frank

Haruka Abe as Marti

I was in conversation the other day following completion of the Slingers sizzle shoot about why it was we care about the small details of geekery as much as we do. It seemed best summed up with this line:

“Some people visit, but we live in this world. You have Judge Dredd tattooed onto your arm for fuck’s sake…”

Which is a nice way of looking at it. I can’t oversell how big an influence 2000AD has been on me.

Talking to Sean Pertwee over lunch about our mutual love of the British sci fi comic back in the day was something to cherish. That he read the script and immediately recognised the character of GUN as a homage to Rogue Trooper is as key to me as his ‘getting’ the character of Colonel Hall. This stuff is important to me.

Subsequently I opened my iPhone in a bar the other night to find I’d been sent an exclusive peek at some new Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper art work by current 2000AD artist Paul J Holden (thanks Paul!). This week I’ll be talking to Paul about having a bash at some Slingers artwork. It seems apt as back when the thing was called ‘Ratpackers’ it was very much a 2000AD inspired comic book project. And then on Saturday morning I heard this package crash into the hallway:

I’ve been aware of Termight Replicas for a couple of years at least (if memory serves I managed to talk about them on Londonist back in the day) so it was great to see @Termight in my twitter stream. Wakefield got in touch with me a little while ago and the conversation lead to Saturday’s package. The contents?

That’s a Judge Dredd replica belt buckle based I believe on the artwork of Cliff Robinson. Along side it was this:

Now I’ve had a Judge Dredd badge before. They gave one away with Prog 300 back in 1983 and I kept it in fairly good condition up until about five years ago. Not bad for a free gift made out of plastic and gold paint. But this… well this is a serious piece of comics merchandise.

Full disclaimer. I’m not a big collector of this stuff – half the time I’m just simply baffled by the array of comics related collectibles and the price tags attached to them. And nine times out of ten I’m amazed at how poor the attention to detail is. I’m happy for other people to be happy collecting that stuff, but I’m happier knowing that particular bug passed me by.

These two items though are in a different league. First thing you notice is the weight. These guys are not messing around. They even manage to kick the ass of non comic fans. The detail is brilliant and they’ve immediately both become prize possessions.

But if you have even a passing interest in 2000AD you are going to want something from Wakefield. Turns out he doesn’t do this for a living – he’s just a fan like you and me. I guess the easiest way to say it is that he lives in our world.

Go throw money at him – what you get in return is something you can’t buy anywhere else.

The Slingers sizzle reel is now in the hands of the digital effects guys following a tremendous shoot last week.

We had a marvelous crew who gave their all to get this just right. Steve went for every single shot and it was quite an experience seeing him in action on set. We’re very lucky to have him on board. Next week I’ll begin working on the pilot script with him to really kick it into shape.

A lot of people were tuning into what was happening via Twitter and I tried to give a feel of the shoot along with the occasional Twitpic where appropriate. We amassed a considerable amount of behind the scenes material that we’re still going through and should eventually compliment the sizzle. In the meantime I’ll tease the odd bit here and of course I have a bunch of stuff on my iPhone that I’m easily bribed into opening up if you bump into me near a bar…

I’d like to take the opportunity to thank the entire cast and crew for going the extra mile last week. We’re now working on the pilot to get it ready to shoot before the end of the year and we’re going to try our very best to use as many of the same people as possible as we take Slingers forward.

I’ll be blogging a lot more about all of this but for now I guess most people just wanna see what exactly we were up to…

Arran introducing Hakura Abe to one of the props. She plays Marti.

Sean Pertwee as Colonel Hall

Tom Mison as Frank gets to grips with GUN (more about her later)

Marti and Junior, our Mech Five

More of this to come. Just a taste to show that we mean business both with casting and design – we did use green screen where necessary, but our robot is an actual build. The plan is to have the sizzle completed in October after which we’ll arrange a couple of screenings in London, New York and L.A.

Oh, and remind me to blog about how much Sean Pertwee loves 2000AD and why he was drawn to Slingers…

Friday we start filming the Slingers sizzle. It’s mostly a day of green screen (a little violence) and the chance to work with one of my favourite actors. Sunday is pretty much the full cast and we have a lot to squeeze in. Some gun fights, a space walk, a robot kicking ass and a love story…

I’m hoping to to be able to interview some of the cast and crew from Friday onwards as I would with any social media gig or set visit. I’m hoping having that extra job to do will take my mind off the fact that this is all my fault.

It’s a weird feeling knowing that an actress I’ve been watching for the last six years on another show is now learning the lines I wrote while sitting at the ICA or BFI drinking beer and listening to Black Flag.

I’ve been lucky enough to stay involved in the writing process right from the initial pitch in LA last year to the last redraft sent to Steve this morning. The universe we’ve created (because now more than ever this is a team effort) hasn’t changed a lot from the broad idea I got down on paper last November. But it has been improved upon and honed an awful lot. I’m very happy with it.

What’s been fun – and something I wasn’t at all prepared for – is for actors to get the characters as much I do. I knew Arran and Corran would love messing around in the Slingers universe because I’ve known them for years and we share a lot of the same interests and influences. Working with Sleepydog on Slingers (and much more) has felt natural since day one so its no surprise that we’re all on the same page at this stage. But a few days ago I heard that one of cast was eager to get this week’s shooting out of the way so she could start work on the pilot and then the series proper (we have the show plotted out as far as the third season) – she believes in the character. And that’s the biggest compliment I’ve had so far.

So this is the plan: we shoot the sizzle (an industry-only, not for broadcast, teaser) this week. The one for Slingers is designed as a mini episode to give a taste of what’s to come. Post production on it should be completed by September and then before the end of the year we’ll start filming the pilot.

The pilot as written right now is a two-episode ‘tv movie’. It should run around 90 minutes and we’re hoping that it will hit your TV screens sometime in 2010.

Between now and then we’ll also be doing a sizzle for De-Tech and working on the third show.

That’s the plan.

Let’s see what happens next…

Home.

First day back in the saddle. New York was a lot of fun – finally got to met some folk I’ve known only online for a couple of years. Lots of photos to throw at Flickr and some stuff to blog about, but for now it’s enough to be back in my office and writing again.

Lots to catch up on – we’re almost ready to start shooting the Slingers sizzle, the pilot has a new second act and the other shows are starting to take shape… I mentioned we have Steve Barron on board as director now, right? But more about all that later.

I’m moving this blog to another hosting service and will amp up my output here once I’m settled in again. Also moving to my new iPhone 3GS and ditching my old mobile number. If you need the new number drop me an email or DM me on Twitter.

Right… back to it.

Mad. Busy.

Working on an extensive redraft of the pilot script for Slingers. Could be seen as an odd move as the current version has been so well received, but I think we can give it a little more oomph. Been knee deep in great movies and TV shows recently  (none of them particularly new which is sort of telling) and quite a few meetings. Felt we were treading water for a while there, but things continue to head in the right direction and have picked up speed again.

Also getting my New York head on for the trip in a week or so. Staying here, but not sure where we’ll be shelved yet.

Speaking of New York and great (older) movies…

Hell. Yes.

Now back to crossing the streams in Final Draft.

The new Sleepydog website and blog launched today. I’ve been working with Sleepydog for maybe a year now. First with the social media stuff and more recently with the TV stuff. I consider myself lucky to be part of a team who has had so much success in creating so much cool content. Best of all, whether its working on Amplified, joining in at CreativeCoffeeClub or figuring out the perfect crime for our new show there’s never been a day I haven’t enjoyed.

I only work on a couple of the projects that come out of the office – in lots of ways it reminds me of the Googleplex setup, just without the creepy Stepford Wives atmosphere – but there’s always a lot more going on than I know about. Well worth adding the new site to your RSS reader to keep up – these guys tend to move fast.

Oh and I’ll be blogging over there too.

Also a good place to see some Slingers concept art:

Our heroic Mech Five, Junior, does his best to protect Marti
from a next generation Mech in episode 1.10 “Six“