some thoughts on Maleficent
Many years ago, I was up for the gig writing the movie adaptation of Scott Westerfeld’s wonderful sci-fi (then) trilogy Uglies, Pretties and Specials. I liked the books a lot and the idea, I thought, was a real fire-cracker: a dystopian future, a sci-fi trilogy, with a female protagonist, where each movie in the trilogy would examine the same society from a different point of view. It had never been done before and it was a huge opportunity. The producer who brought me the books was a respected big-budget sci-fi producer, and the project was set up at a genuine big-deal studio. All I needed to do was get a firm handle on how to tell the story and there was no way the project could not move forward.
Medusa
Big news in Todd Land, I and my writing partner Holly Golden have sold Medusa, an original pitch to the nice people at Sony Animation. That’s partly why things have been quiet here at What Does the Protagonist Want? We’ll be writing the screenplay, and the movie is going to be directed by Lauren Faust, who created My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. So we’ll be appealing to both Greek Mythology fans and Bronies. You can read all about it here!