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

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…

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.