Pinewood set sketchbook
Being in London for the Prince of Persia movie press junket, I thought this would be an appropriate occasion to post these sketchbook pages from when we were shooting here 18 months ago.
As the caps and parkas suggest, it gets cold on the Pinewood sound stages in December. The sets are such accurate reproductions of the Morocco locations where we were filming a few months earlier, you’d never guess from the finished film that there’s an 80 degree Fahrenheit temperature difference between certain shots.
Above: That’s director Mike Newell at bottom right, presiding over the action via dual monitors. Going counter-clockwise from Mike, there’s Jake doing the scene, script supervisor Beverley Winston, and my hotel dining room. At bottom left, Sir Ben Kingsley waits between takes with his double.
On the left-hand page, Jake and Sir Ben rehearsing with Mike Newell while second A.D. Rich Goodwin looks on. At upper right, Mike and Beverley watching the take, with Mike half out of his director chair like a bowler using body English to help guide the ball down the lane. Bottom right, cinematographer John Seale.
The sandstorm begins
My second/first graphic novel, Prince of Persia: Before the Sandstorm, is now out in stores and on Amazon, in paperback and hardcover.
It’s a stand-alone, book-length prequel to the upcoming movie, written by me and illustrated by six terrific artists — Bernard Chang, Tommy Lee Edwards, Tom Fowler, Niko Henrichon, David Lopez, and Cameron Stewart, plus a cover by Todd McFarlane — and if you’re wondering why one story has six different illustrators, well, that was part of the challenge and fun of writing it.
Kotaku has a nice review (one that also includes the great news that the next volume in the Dungeon series, by two of my favorite French comics creators, Lewis Trondheim and Joann Sfar, is now available in English).
I’ll post more later about writing the book, and how it relates to the movie and the original 1989 side-scrolling video game. In the meantime, I hope Prince of Persia fans and graphic novel aficionados will check it out.
The next six weeks will also include the release of my first/second book Solomon’s Thieves (written first, published second, from First Second) on May 11, and my first movie, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, on May 28. So this really is the beginning of the sandstorm.
Reporters make good screenwriters
So glad that Jane Espenson has started up her very useful writer’s blog again! In today’s post she discusses why, when making the transition to screenwriting, journalists often fare better than novelists. Her advice to film/TV writers:
Think like a reporter — pare the story down, find the bones of it, and listen to your characters talk in the language of whatever street they come from — even if you let them ramble on a bit in the first draft, eventually try to find the succinct quote.
You get to make up the facts and the people, but the core truths that you’re uncovering should be just as real as if the story had happened. Be a reporter.
Pure gold.
WonderCon 2010 sketchbook
I’ve been to Comic-Cons before, but this WonderCon was a new experience for me.
Being flown in by the studio for one day to take part in a Prince of Persia movie panel felt a bit like visiting a parallel universe — one from which parking, waiting in line, negotiating crowds, showing ID, figuring out where to go next, and other ordinary aspects of flying and attending conventions have magically been eliminated.
Instead, I was whisked along with Jake Gyllenhaal, Jerry Bruckheimer, and Mike Newell from car to plane to car and from one place to another with such efficiency that all I saw of the show and conference center were underground parking garages, service elevators, corridors and backstage areas — only to suddenly emerge on stage in front of 4,000 people. Feeling the energy of that crowd was a rush I won’t soon forget.
It was a great day, but one that left little time for sketching. I did this one on the plane flying in.
(Left to right: Jake Gyllenhaal, Teresa Palmer, Jay Baruchel, Jon Turteltaub. All agreed that the best likeness by far is Teresa’s.)
