I’m currently throwing a bag together for an early morning flight as I’ll be spending a few days in Ireland to work on a new (sorta secret) project. While SLINGERS sits with the network (can’t spill any beans yet, but we’re getting there) I’m taking the opportunity to get stuck into something… criminal.

This offer came in a roundabout way via SLINGERS (suddenly being taken seriously by people who have been doing this for a long time is very cool) and breaks down into myself and an industry pro squirreled away putting this new concept together. Already had a preliminary meeting that went really well and this week we begin working on the framework. When we’re happy with that we’ll start throwing some meat on the bones.

We just started work on the other shows on the Sleepydog slate and there are some really well received concepts now starting to maneuver into position behind SLINGERS. Can’t talk about any of them yet, but I’ll be using the blog as a research dump for some of them as we start to bulk them up. The work I’m doing now goes quite a bit beyond writer, but that’s something I’ll get around talking about once I have the time.

Hoping to be back in LA in February – some really interesting meetings already lined up and I hope I can talk about some of that stuff as it unfolds. Then as a sort-of break I’ll be heading to Portland in March to catch some of Con-Con before driving down to San Francisco for a little road-trip (and research).

Couple of meet-ups too I expect…

Lots of time to fill in hotel rooms between now and April which is generally good news for sizemore.co.uk. Also starting to pile up a few posts in draft form and have an ever growing list of blog fodder to get through.

You have been warned.

Fuck Mad Men.

A show about the only guys in the 60s who weren’t pulling guns on each other.

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…

Short hop to Ireland to talk to one of the guys behind The Tudors.

Seems the little buzz we created at Cannes and LA has spread to Dublin. Slingers, although made for American TV initially, will be a Canadian/Irish co-production so this is really good news that we get to go out there early and learn a few things.

A lot of things probably.

Pretty pictures and more news when I get back. In the meantime, go watch Star Trek.

The main reason I was busier than expected while out in San Francisco was that I had the great news that my TV show concept had been very well received by the powers that be. There is now every chance well be shooting a pilot in Canada as early as next year. This took a little time to digest. A good single malt helped.

I had to go back and look at exactly when it was I first put the pin into the board on this particular idea and it turned out to be July. So in just over 4 months we went from what was going to be a comic book to an almost fully realised science fiction TV show. I feel another drink coming on just thinking about that.

In that time I sold the concept (my first TV sale) and was taken on board as creative lead – not only for Slingers but several shows for the same company. Speaking to friends who work out in L.A. this isn’t the kind of thing that happens everyday and at least one of them has probably stopped speaking to me.

I’ve been lucky to be working with people who also embrace the JFDI philosophy which is why I think we’re so far ahead in such a small space of time. It’s similar to the way I’ve been working for that last year or so in social media and once again the learning curve has been a lot of fun to navigate. What’s also been interesting is spotting the problems that traditional television production hits and routing around them in the same way I advise old media to do when embracing new media. The results so far speak for themselves. Right now we’ve not only fleshed out the show through 3 projected seasons, but also have two spin off shows conceptualised – I feel we bring a lot to the table and that’s the main reason we’ve got so far. I’ve been complaining about TV and film for so long now that it feels good to finally get a chance to push some of my ideas in the right direction and have them taken seriously.

It also seemed very natural to spend an afternoon sitting in the sunny garden of our apartment in San Francisco working out the details on another show and then working on the pilot script while drinking vodka at 35,000 feet.

So I guess for the next 18 months or so I’m a TV writer.

I’ll keep you posted.

Damn. Time flies. Thankfully my job is now to manipulate the fuck out of it. Sort of.

I’ve been asked to help put together some sci-fi TV shows from scratch.

American distribution was all settled before I came on board, so now the tricky bit is creating something that hasn’t been done 2001 times before. Early days of course and I’m still working in the froth of social media, but please excuse me if I get distracted both here and on Twitter from time to time and drop in some reference to Metal Mickey having sex with Irene Handl (slight pause while America nips off to Google that).

Not a lot more I can say at this stage. Feels good to be writing in an area that I’ve been complaining about for so long. Let’s see what happens next.