Jun
29
2009
Pushing The Boulder Up The Hill
Thanks for all of your encouragement and your patience. Here is a little more that I can tell you from “The Fraggle Frontier.”
I’ve got a better understanding of what’s happening right now in the development process. All parties are circling up to keep this ball moving down the field (although it’s always more like pushing a boulder up a hill). For those of you who are frustrated and impatient about how long this is taking, Welcome To The Movie Business! This is nothing new. Each project of this size involves huge amounts of money and lots of people (and multiple companies) agreeing on the same creative, financial and strategic plans. And then some of those plans take a lot of time to execute. Yes, I am speaking in code again, but this is what I can tell you.
The good news is that the material that I’ve handed in is solid. Everyone loves the story, the script, the comedy, and my approach to making the movie. All the main characters have fun arcs and their own adventures within the big story. And we’ve never wavered from the main story and the approach — to say a lot of important things about our society and what’s really important in life. That’s always been important to me, and it’s always been important to Henson and the Weinstein Company. Because frankly, it was always important to Jim.
More good news to report: while awaiting production greenlight, I have continued to have very productive meetings as if I’m already making the movie. I’m meeting with my top casting choices, I’m meeting with some really cool music talents, and I am continuing to visually develop the movie. I’ve storyboarded two new sequences and am in the middle of contracting some concept artists to create some very big full-color scenes from the film.
And I will say again that we are striving to bring on any and every ORIGINAL PUPPETEERING CAST MEMBER that we can. Some may not work out, but that is what we are shooting for.
I was also encouraged to hear that Henson is going to publish a series of Fraggle Rock Comic Books. I think it would be cool to tie some of those comics stories to the mythology of the feature, maybe even cook up a direct prequel or B-story. I’m just throwing that out there, Henson Publishing. Call me!
But the news that you really want to hear — the news that the movie is moving into production — just hasn’t happened yet. There are some major chess pieces that need to be in place to make sure this film has the best possible budget, distribution and promotion when it comes out. And I’m sure that’s what we all want! The time we take now insures that this is a major release that brings a lot of hype and excitement and creates a new generation of Fraggle Fans. So as I wait, I’m proceeding with all that I can do on my side. I just wanted to feed you all something, anything, as you check the blog. At least this lets you know that I’m not dead or sleeping and that I’m working my tail off.
Yes, I’ve had a tail added. That’s how far I’ve gone to keep a Fraggle perspective.
In other Cory News, I am cooking on some new pitches to take out. These are wildly different movies, so it has been fun. One involves a lot of crazy music, another involves storyboarding a 150-panel action sequence, and another one has got me designing robotic technology and weapons. So with the uncertain future this job carries with it, it’s still a pretty cool job.
Peace from the Trash Heap,
Cory
FOLLOW ME, SOLDIER! And yes, that’s a Churro I’m smoking.
