The Roger Cosmonkey Emporium is now online… T-Shirts, hoodies, even baby clothes! Just in time for Comic Con.

Hello. I’ve missed you.

Many things have been percolating in the last month (see how I’m keeping the coffee thing going?). It’s been exciting to work in so many directions at once, in so many areas of the business. But it gets a bit schizophrenic to multi-task so much.

In addition to writing a new screenplay, I’m taking one of my feature projects to comics and developing it as a graphic novel. It’s sci-fi action and involves big robots. Hopefully I’ll be able to talk more about that soon. I continue to write on my young adult adventure novel, which is just plain fun. Let’s just say any day you get to write the words, “The electroguns ripped into the zepplin’s control deck,” it’s a fun day. And then there is the big fish I’m still trying to reel in: my next movie. I sit down with a studio next week to talk about one. Who knows?

Lately I’ve been talking to lots of different people who are telling stories in lots of different ways. Seriously — I’ve sat down with toy companies that are starting entertainment divisions, and film moguls who are investing in web content. The industry is changing so much and so fast, that features are looking at television and television is looking at the web and the DVD guys are um, investing in frozen yogurt shops. Everyone is either laying low or placing crazy bets. As one producer put it, “It’s the wild west these days. There’s no one way to do something.” I try to take comfort in the fact that I am still the storyteller and good stories will always be needed, no matter what technology or venue they are told in.

While I wait for the mighty, slow, rusty wheels of corporations to turn, I’m still launching another series of TWITTERSODES starring that simian badboy, Roger Cosmonkey. This time the story has some more complexity and I’m lampooning a totally different genre. I think you’ll enjoy. I’ll be tweeting out an encore performance of the original Cosmonkey series on JULY 11, just before the San Diego ComicCon. Then after ComicCon, I’ll be launching the NEW SECOND SERIES on JULY 25th. And if you see me at the Con itself, I’ll be a shameless walking promotion, wearing a space monkey T-Shirt and spreading the love with a bag of postcards. Don’t worry, if you follow me on Twitter (@RealCoryEdwards), you won’t miss anything because I will bug you about all of this incessantly.

My creative juices keep flowing, even when my arch villain “Studio Development” dogs my every move. Sometimes all I need to reboot is a dark room and some popcorn. I’m so glad that J.J. Abrams gave us “Super 8” this summer. Bravo. It was like a nostalgic “movie time machine” for me. That’s the STUFF, man. The multiplex is my main source of inspiration and that film has given me rocket fuel for months.

That and all the lattes.

It’s the final day of my ten-day experiment, the first Twittersode Series known as “Roger Cosmonkey.” If you didn’t catch it all, you can always jump onto my twitter feed and back up to read all 21 chapters. Thank you to the many people who followed along and told others about it. It was fun to see the art on various different phones & personal devices, and I must say that the iPad is the BEST way to enjoy the visuals.

I’d really like to hear what any of you thought of this whole experiment. Feel free to post comments here. I’d love to get feedback on stuff like:
1. Was this a successful new venture in storytelling, or too simplistic for you?
2. Did you enjoy the art? Could you see details on your phone?
3. Memorable moments / lines from Roger’s story. What worked?
4. Any suggestions for the next time I do this.
5. Big question: should there have been MORE episodes per day, or was two-a-day enough?

This has been fun for me, and a learning process of what works as Twitter storytelling and what doesn’t…I’ve already got a sequel in mind, which I’ll announce in about a month. Keep watching my twitter for more. You can also hop onboard Roger’s FACEBOOK page, follow Roger himself on TWITTER and read his BLOG for more of his outlook on life.

Hey folks… as I view the Roger Cosmonkey artwork on my own phone, I realize that the resolution downgrades a bit once it posts through Twitter (something I could only find out once I started this series for real). But you can still see any of the art in much greater detail and at a higher resolution if you are viewing it at your computer. When you click on image’s link, it takes you to YFROG (a popular site for uploading pics to Twitter). Once you are on the YFrog gallery page with the Cosmonkey art, you’ll see a little MAGNIFYING GLASS icon on the art itself. Click that and it will expand to the bigger pic. It’s great for catching a lot of the details in the art, and for reading the dialogue in the speech balloons. There’s more funny in there, and don’t want you to miss it!

The Twittersodes are up this morning, so follow along and enjoy Roger Cosmonkey!

Entertainment Weekly just posted a very nice interview with me about the project, which you can read about HERE. Thanks, Clark Collis and EW! Pass along the monkey love… we’ll be doing this for ten days.

WHOOOOP, WHOOOOP, WHOOOOP!

Just a reminder that you can follow the exploits of space hero and bad monkey ROGER COSMONKEY, starting this Monday (MAY 16) on Twitter. That’s right, the FIRST TWITTER SERIES EVER. It costs you nothing and brings you happiness. That’s a good deal. See you all on your phones next week!

@RealCoryEdwards) on Twitter

Hey folks, I’m about to launch something in a new media format — something that I don’t think has ever been done before: THE FIRST EPISODIC TWITTER SERIES.

That’s right — Starting MAY 16, I’ll be telling a story in single TWEETS, or “TWITTERSODES,” and each will have a SINGLE IMAGE attached. This series will unfold over ten days, two tweets a day, only on my twitter feed @RealCoryEdwards. It stars a new character named ROGER COSMONKEY.

I’ve had fun with Twitter, posting my goofy comments like everyone else. But I started to wonder if a complete story could be told with this new medium — a beginning, a middle and an end, with cliffhangers and everything. The premise for “ROGER COSMONKEY” begins in 1968 with NASA’s animal testing program… and it ends with a hyper-intelligent ape saving the world in 2011. I’d tell you the rest, but where’s the fun in that? You’ll just have to tune in… or “tweet in.” Hmm. Lots of new terms to make up.

The restrictions of tweeting is what actually made this interesting to me. I wondered how much story I could get across in a single tweet, and how many tweets would it take to carry an audience through an entire narrative.  To me, the brevity of this new art form isn’t a hinderance — it’s the challenge that intrigues me. Anyway, the art is done and the chapters are ready and I can’t wait to roll it out on May 16. We’ll see if it’s fun, if it works, and if it’s worth doing again. And hey, it won’t cost you a thing to join the ride.

Spread the word! ROGER COSMONKEY: launching MAY 16th. Exclusive to Twitter, found only @RealCoryEdwards. Look for the hashtag #cosmonkey.

DOWNLOADABLE PRESS RELEASE

Just a reminder: Red Riding Hood and her friends hit the big screen again in “HOODWINKED TOO: HOOD VS. EVIL” this weekend, April 29.

I had to post this because it’s so cool. Remember those super-detailed Muppet figurines from Palisades Toy Company? Well one guy got so obsessed that he created a miniature working Muppet Theater for them to all hang out in. Lance Cardinal is a design student who has gone to great lengths to recreate the classic set from the classic show. It’s really quite impressive. Check out the working floor lamps, the velvet curtain, the fly-away sets and the best part of all, the back brick wall with props galore. It’s the Muppet Theater you remember from the series, plus more that you only imagined.

Check out Lance’s whole blog for more pics and commentary on how he built it.If you like miniatures or if you like Muppets, you will OOO and AHH at these pics. And if you’re a fan of both, you’ll probably make some “OOOAAAHGGAGA!” sound.

You can also catch this recent report on the  Discovery Channel. Nice work, my Muppet-crazed fan.

Okay, so I actually saw this movie on a movie screen at a real theater so apparently it’s really done. I still find that hard to believe. After many years of poking, prodding and tweaking (and converting the whole thing to 3D), “Hoodwinked Too: Hood Vs. Evil” premiered at The Grove in Los Angeles. I was there along with many of the cast and some of the original creators (missed you, Tony!!). Shout out to Patrick Warburton (The Wolf) for always hyping “Team Hoodwinked” and for being a stand-up guy. Shout out to a bewildered Martin Short (the Woodsman) and David Alan Grier (the Troll) who gave me the time of day for 30 seconds as they went to get popcorn. And a big shout out to Heidi Klum (a “Happy Yodeler”) — for not only being hot, but for also helping sponsor the premiere event and bringing a lot of kids from Children’s Hospital, all with little red hoods & capes, to see the screening. Awwww.

(Here with Todd Edwards, Co-director, co-writer, co-creator and master of all-original songs on “Hoodwinked.” And like me, a co-writer on the sequel. You can see that our expressions say, “We are being supportive, and we are not entirely tortured by watching a bunch of other people raise our baby.”)

So now that I’ve seen it, what is my review? It’s fun, but it’s very different than “Hoodwinked 1.” As for the story, there are lots of good twists in it and I’m happy that it is basically intact… although major edits said goodbye to some great moments and reveals that I really miss from our original script. Great action scenes, but also a lot more slapstick and a lot less of the mundane banter that we worked so hard to bring to the first one. My 4 year-old son was my “plus one” for this, and his review was that he loved it and — spoiler alert — “the giant spider is the best part.”

The 3D conversion actually looks very good. It was never invasive or gimmicky or odd to my eyes. There are a few subtle moments that were very nice — suddenly being aware of a pane of dirty glass in front of a character, hovering over a living room by the foreground chandelier, flying in and out of a field of windmills.

If you are a family with kids, you will like this. If you are older than ten, you might have to hang on a while until Cheech and Chong show up as angry pigs. As I’ve said in past entries, this has a different tone than the original, but I salute director Mike Disa for getting it done and making it his own. I’ll admit, I’ve had an odd mix of feelings as this film hits theaters. On one hand, it’s deflating to give this thing away and watch others run with it in ways I would not. On the other hand, I am so happy to see Red, Wolf, Twitchy, and Granny all have another big adventure. I hope you’ll enjoy it too.