Fables Movie Update (There's *Almost* a Script Already!)

Bigby Wolf by Jeremy Bear

Gotta love getting bonus news on the end of a completely different interview which posted yesterday (Friday) afternoon...

I Am Rogue had an exclusive interview with Producer David Heyman, who had a huge hand in bringing the Harry Potter books to the big screen and whose currently-screening project is a little film called Gravity (you may have heard of it? Sandra Bullock, George Clooney... yeah - that Gravity). His current project-in-the-works is, you guessed it, bringing Fables to the big screen*.

Here's the Fables-relevant portion of the interview:

Producer David Heyman

Finally, are you still working on the feature film adaption of author Bill Willingham’s fan-favorite comic book seriesFables? 

Heyman: I am and I’m really excited.  

It has had over 133 issues and is still going, so there is a lot of story to narrow down into one movie. How do you decide what to focus on? Are you going to just concentrate on the Big Bad Wolf’s storyline, or will it feature other popular characters like Jack Horner? 

Heyman: I think we want to bring in most certainly elements of many different characters that make up this world because it really is about a community of sorts. I’m sure Bigby will feature. We’re working with a really brilliant director in Nikolaj Arcel (A Royal Affair). 

Are you still in the script stage? 

Heyman: Yes, we’re in the script stage. We’re waiting for a first draft now.      

So what we now know/is confirmed, is:

1) Fables is well and truly happening - for REALS Y'ALL! (OK, yes. I'm still super excited about this. Why? It's exciting stuff. Period.)
2) They have signed a director: Nikolaj Arcel (A Royal Affair)
3) They have a writer/s, and have gone from treatment/pitch to "script stage" where a first draft is currently being written (that's a big deal - a lot of films get stuck in development and writers don't even get employed to do a first draft)
4) They have chosen their core players (at least) from the gigantic cast of Fables are it looks like Bigby (aka the Big Bad Wolf, aka Fabletown's Sheriff, aka Snow White's love interest)
5) They're going to have a decently sized cast in which characters will play their storybook roles as part of a community (as opposed to faceless/featureless background/filler casting)
6) They're leaving a lot of room open to develop a franchise with a community set-up (ie. sequels, feature stories etc) should the movie go over well
7) This movie is moving along at a good pace and if they keep on this track we could actually see a movie by sometime in 2015... (based on average successful, highly anticipated and well funded movie development)

We have yet to hear word of the next biggest priorities: art direction and casting (but you can bet your Fables collection they're being talked about in every Fables movie meeting right now.)

All sounds great to me. I may have to ramp up my Fables catch-up reading faster than I thought. (This is NOT a complaint.)

* BTW - in case you've forgotten this is being helmed by Warner Bros in conjunction with DC Entertainment. 

J.K. Rowing to Write "Fantastic Beasts" Movie

Does it count as fairy tale news?

Considering the book in question Ms. Rowling is basing her first movie script on (as in, she's actually penning the script) is very heavy in referencing traditional folklore and mythology (with a Rowling twist, of course), I'm going to say this is absolutely of interest to the fairy tale community and am running with it. :)

You know the book. Most of you probably have a copy in your personal library and are lamenting the fact there isn't more to the collection but fear not: there is more from the world of Harry Potter on its way - from Rowling herself.

Announced on her Facebook page yesterday (9/12/13):

Warner Bros. announced on 12th September 2013 that J.K. Rowling would be making her screenwriting debut with 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them', the first in a new film series which is part of their expanded creative partnership with J.K. Rowling. The films will be inspired by Harry Potter’s Hogwarts textbook of the same name, and will feature the book’s fictitious author, Newt Scamander. 

“It all started when Warner Bros. came to me with the suggestion of turning 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' into a film. I thought it was a fun idea, but the idea of seeing Newt Scamander, the supposed author of 'Fantastic Beasts', realized by another writer was difficult. Having lived for so long in my fictional universe, I feel very protective of it and I already knew a lot about Newt. As hard-core Harry Potter fans will know, I liked him so much that I even married his grandson, Rolf, to one of my favourite characters from the Harry Potter series, Luna Lovegood. 

As I considered Warners’ proposal, an idea took shape that I couldn’t dislodge. That is how I ended up pitching my own idea for a film to Warner Bros. 

Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for seventeen years, 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world. The laws and customs of the hidden magical society will be familiar to anyone who has read the Harry Potter books or seen the films, but Newt’s story will start in New York, seventy years before Harry’s gets underway. 

I particularly want to thank Kevin Tsujihara of Warner Bros. for his support in this project, which would not have happened without him. I always said that I would only revisit the wizarding world if I had an idea that I was really excited about and this is it.”

(Emphasis in bold is mine.)

Did you notice? It said "FIRST IN A SERIES". *happy dance*

Happy Friday 13th!

Fairy tale bonus of the day:

For more Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, along with Hogwarts' student scribbles, go check HERE.

Fables TV Ad for BBC America (An Old Post You Never Saw, Updated So It Makes Sense Now)

-- Look! It's an old draft that never got posted and is somehow relevant again! I've kept some of the old post, added updates and smeared the words around a bit to hopefully make a little more sense in regards to where we are with Fables today.--

People who don't read comic books wonder what the big deal is about Fables.

Fairy tale folk who don't read comic book are among them but there's good reason we should be keeping an eye on this graphic novel series by Bill Willingham: what if the fairy tale characters we know and love got chased out of their own land and ended up stranded in our modern day world, where nobody was allowed to discover their storybook backgrounds?

Update:
We now know that:
1) Fables is a HUGE hit. Continually critically acclaimed, winner of multiple awards and written and illustrated by heavy hitters in the writing and comic art world, they're currently into issue #131 (not including spin-off issues or specials so add maybe close to 100 issues on top of that) and have self-contained stories and spin-offs for different characters such as Jack and Cinderella and now there's a whole new series spin-off, Fairest, for the ladies of Fable town, which is proving just as popular.

2) Outside the comic geek community the idea of fairy tale characters stranded in our world has proved popular with ABCs TV series Once Upon A Time. The series has been accused called "Fables-light" for the similar premise, of which the public are eating up.

So why hasn't Fables (which is clearly excellent in its own field, as well as the premise and content proving popular in public viewing) made the move to TV or the movies yet? (Even though there have been numerous attempts to do so, none have resulted in anything except disappointment so far.)

One popular theory is that it's REALLY HARD to market comic books to non-comic book people. But I have to wonder: IS it really hard, or have people just not thought about the comic book property in the same way they do a show, book or movie, with regard to the marketing? With the rise in popularity (Update: and - FINALLY - in quality) of book trailers out there (Update: these have become almost standard now and people/companies are getting creative with production and presentation) it's about time someone thought to do something similar for Fables. (Update: this trailer is from October 2009.)

Take a look:

While I'm really glad this has helped garner interest in the general public, I do have to say I'm disappointed. (Really disappointed!) Apart from the stunning art stills, which are mostly from the covers, the quality is definitely on the low side. But why? I know people are probably still getting their feet wet with "how do you advertise a comic book (ie. a static art form /narrative combo) on a moving medium like TV?" issues but this could have been mind blowing (seriously mind-blowing!) if they'd presented it better.

Update: And I also have to wonder, if they'd gotten this ad "right" back in 2009 if Fables would have beaten Once Upon A Time to TV after all... Of course, we'll never know now but I do hope they figure out another marketing strategy to use in the lead up to the movie buzz, rather than just rely on what the production company produce and piggy-back off that. While I'm incredibly overjoyed to know that "thars-a-Fables-movie-a-comin'!" the Fables serial comics, graphic novels and spin-offs have their own well deserved merit and should be able to stand on their own two feet, er, spines. I worry that if they (DC & Willingham) can't figure out how to encourage people to enjoy the graphic novels in their original medium that a whole generation will "just-go-see-the-movie" and miss out on the richness of storytelling and fairy tale evolution happening on the Fables pages. Let's hope they figure out how to make the Fables movie an encouragement to go pick up the series instead.

Note: There are some more trailers on YouTube for the Fables series, and some tributes though none of them are official. This one HERE tries to transition people from Disney to Fables and show the difference. It's somewhat successful in concept but is lengthy and the text is difficult to read over the images (and using any sort of Disney property doesn't sit well with me here). You DO get to see some beautiful artwork from Fables though and get an idea of the twists the stories take, so if you're finally feeling interested in Fables and want more of an overview before buying, this should give you some idea of how the series develops and how the fairy tale characters play out their stories.

In the meantime, while we wait to see what happens with the movie and the marketing surrounding it, I'll keep up the Fables-watch and report anything I see happening.

Wicked Lovely Film Back On Track

From faerie and fantasy YA author Melissa Marr on Facebook this morning:

I'm told I can finally share: the Wicked Lovely film is back on track thanks to the ongoing work by my producers (Vince Vaughn's Wild West Picture Show Productions) & the addition of IM Global. (For those following YA film updates, you'll recognize IM Global as the company also behind Richelle Mead's fab Vampire Academy film.)

I can say that we are getting near an announcement of a director for the Wicked Lovely film. I'll share THAT news as soon as I can.

In 2011 the Director was set to be Mary Harron (best known for American Psycho) and before that it was going to be Kimberley Pierce (Boys Don't Cry) so I'm very curious to see who's taking the helm now, being that things are the most solid they've ever been to start shooting. 

Here's a link to Melissa Marr's dream cast - the real one still being a big unknown at this point.