What if Clark Kent was Chicken?

That's the question. That's the pitch for what I am developing at the moment.

Powerless has been with me for around four years now and has developed from depressed superhero suicide note to a pontificating scaredycat's dreams of hope and fullfilment. Currently in the treatment stage, a stage that I have now only just started to enjoy, to make sure the story is sound and the structure is bulletproof. This is hopefully gonna be a specscript that I can submit as a pilot or as a script that demonstrates my stengths.

Ella is done. Ella has had a screening at Bafta. It sat, alongside the other shorts that SW Screen invested in, in front of press, scouts and talent. Was screened last and well received, think it was on most people's lips when the lights came back on. May be wishful thinking. But Dan and I are not done yet with Ella. Oh no. More information when it becomes available, but suffice to say, I am excited.

Violent Crimes made the list of second rounders at the Red Planet Prize.A full script was required after the initial pitch and ten pages were well received. Unfortunately the script didn't make the final round. Red Planet has said the competition was very tough this year, which may be true, but ultimately I feel in hindsight Violent Crimes wasn't focused enough and failed because I hadn't developed it fully. Ah well.

NO LIFE!

When God Was a Rabbit -- Beautiful first novel from Sarah Winham, set to be one of Waterstone's 11 books and authors to keep your eye on this year. Personally, i think this is the first must read of the year. Stunning in every respect.

Black Swan -- Should win more awards than it actually will. Aronofsky returns with an awesomely twisted beauty of a film. Not his best, but this is a guy who only makes exceptional films.

Who is Jake Ellis -- New book from IMAGE, brilliant and intriguing.

Boardwalk Empire -- Amazing.

Pangs

First post in an age and it will be brief.

First and foremost, you must hop over to Dan's website. Very nicely put together with info on all his short films including the two I have co written with him and some ace photographs fromthe various productions.

Ella is nearing completition. After a few sound hiccups, we are nearing the finishing line. It had a showing to cast and crew back in October and went down a storm, which is great news.

Violent Crimes is out there in the wilderness.My fingers are crossed, but I am not too hopeful. Its a decent script, maybe the ideas are way above my station and i have bitten off more than i can chew and it most likely needs some editing, but i hope the writing stands out.It has gotten through to round two of the Red Planet Competition, which is awesome.

Hands are tied by the madness of Christmas and my job in an awesome bookstore, so writing is few and far between.

Have a few projects on the go, including two short film ideas, both are skeletons of scripts. There is a script I keep going back to over and over again, well, there are many, Powerless is one that is quite personal to me. I have found a new way to tackle it, to make it more personal, more contempory and less miserable. So pretty excited about that.

NO LIFE...

Morrision's Batman run.... fuck me the coolest brain frying thing ever!

Monsters... cannot wait to see this.

Scarlet... Brian Michael Bendis is God.

Mad Men... continues to be all that is awesome about TV.

The Event... Lost meets 24, but more 24 than Lost.... nothing can replace Lost.

Fringe... except maybe Fringe... which is bloody brilliant.... but could never replace Lost.

Lost Encyclopedia.... all kinds of awesome geekery

Sons of Anarchy... Its taken me a while to go from liking to loving this show.But fuck yeah, brilliant!

No Life

Inception - Christopher Nolan is a genius. This film is genius.

Batman The Return of Bruce Wayne - Fucking brilliant.

The Passage - Greatest Novel Ever!

Joanna Newsom 'Have One on Me' - Beautiful, enchanting, wonderful. I love it!

Justified - Find it, watch it, love it!

E L L A : First Blood

The first cut of Ella has passed my eyes and I adore it. It's a beautifully shot film with an emotional core that has really lept off the pages that Dan and I crafted over six months. Almost there. It's gonna be brilliant. Our cast have done an amazing job of bringing these characters to life. It's so surreal to think that those characters we both lived with for so long are now flesh and blood, walking and talking and growling and shooting and crying and shouting and maiming animals.

Violent Crimes has now finished. I have finally completed the newest draft. Aside from Ella and a brief diversion into the world of Powerless last year, Violent Crimes is the first full script I have finished in ages. I am so pleased with it. It's a tad too long, but that doesn't matter at this stage. All that remains is to fine tune it and get some feedback and get a first season outline written up and get it out there.

Ella FX

Andy Chappell provided the excellent make up and effects and general gore for Ella and completely stunned me with how ace they were. Very freakish. Check out his website for more coolness. His Predator is very very cool.

Speaking of which... Predators... waste of time. Dull. Not as good as Eclipse, which was also pretty fucking dull.

Violent Crimes

Darkness Rising is something that has been rattling around my brain for bloody ages. Over the last few months when breaking from Ella I have been rewriting a script that is about ten years old. It is now completely revamped with a new name. Now called Violent Crimes, it tells the tale of the worlds most angriest police man.

Anyway, each year Tony Jordon's Red Planet Pictures has a competition, asking firstly for the first ten pages of a script. Today I entered the first ten pages. Fingers crossed please!

Ella has been shot... twice, once in the gut, once in the head....

July 8th - July 11th.
Deep somewhere in Somerset I got very sunburnt as Ella was commited to film (or some digital variation of film). Cast was magnificant, crew was amazing, the weather was bright and sunny, hot with a few light showers, days were long, tough and satisfying, evenings were full of excitement, stress, worry and not enough sleep.

Ella is now filmed and it was awesome.