News:
I’ve wrapped up my contract for Surf’s Up, and now I’m working on the next project, which I sort of mentioned before (although not by name). Now that I’ve actually started work on it, I can tell you it’s Spiderman 3. I’ve enjoyed the previous two Spiderman films, so I was looking forward to doing work on the sequel. I’m working on the character Venom at the moment (hence the glaringly obvious pun of this blog entry), and it’s interesting to go back to my comic book roots.
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It looks like I might be moving to Burbank, CA soon for a new job. I’ve been offered a position by a studio down there, and as soon as we work out the nitty gritty, Elena and I will be relocating. It kinda sucks that we had just moved back to the Bay Area where all of my family and friends are, and will now have to move away again. If any of you reading this can offer some great advice regarding living in the Burbank area (or nearby cities withing a quick drive), please do.
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I was invited to write a treatment on spec for an animated TV series called Akihabara@Deep for Polygon Pictures and Nickelodeon Television recently. I had met Polygon’s CEO, Shuzo Shiota, during CG Overdrive 2006 in Singapore, and he expressed an interest in my take on Akihabara@Deep (which is already an established I.P. that was originally a manga, then made into a feature film, and now will be made into a children’s animated TV series for Nickelodeon) and invited me to submit a treatment. The premise of the original didn’t lend itself too well to a children’s show since it had a more mature theme, so Polygon Pictures wanted a rewrite of the premise. I essentially reworked the premise, changed some of the characters, added some new characters, and had a blast recreating the A@D universe. I just got an email from Polygon Pictures regarding my treatment, and their reply was both good and bad. The good is that they told me out of all the submissions by different writers, they thought mine was the most exciting and powerful. The bad is that as much as they liked my treatment, they felt it was still a bit too mature for the 6~11 yr-old demographic and went with another writer whoes submission was more children-friendly.
I guess at least I should be happy that Polygon liked my writing the best out of all the submissions. It would’ve been nice to get the gig though.
You can find out more about Akihabara@Deep from these links:
Article about Nickelodeon’s collaboration with Polygon Pictures on original Japanese content for the English-speaking market
Another article about the same subject
Akihabara@Deep feature film official website
Wow… Congratulations!
Sounds like you are going more in the studio based work situation for the time being- hope you are still painting, are you planning on giving that route a go at some point? Maybe I will see you at one of Rob Howard’s bootcamps:) I’m planning on going to one hopefully next year. He just put up a site for it today: http://www.artbootcamp.com/
Cheers, Jeff
Tristan – Thanks!
Jeff – I don’t know about the bootcamp–I’ve been self-taught in everything I do, and that’s what I’m used to. I’m sure I can get something out of the bootcamp, and Rob Howard certainly knows his stuff, but it’s more likely in the coming years I’ll be concentrating on music and writing in my freetime, and will only be doing art for the day-job in a production studio environment for clients in film, television, video games, and toy manufacturing. But who knows? If our new apartment allows space for an oil painting setup, I might feel that itch do some life portraits. However, priority goes to building a home project recording studio though, as it’s been something I’ve wanted for many years but never had the time, money, and space for.
Awesome, congradulations, Rob! Just stop by and drop in and say hi. I’m always your biggest fan ever 🙂
Your works and fanbase will just grow bigger and bigger. I’m so looking forward to see how Spiderman 3 will turn out. Have fun at work!
hey rob:
bummer to hear that you’re moving out of the bay area but congrats anyways on your new projects! =]
i was looking forward to seeing you more in the ai campus but maybe sometime in the future then, ya?
anyways, congrats again!
best,
angelo
I love the Akihabara@DEEP live action TV show. I wish you would make it into an anime for older teens as the manga and TV show seems to be aimed at young adults. Why dumb it down for American audiences?
Kevn57 – I’m with you there. I personally prefer shows that allow a bit more complexity and depth, and that’s why I’ve never been drawn to children’s shows. The kind of animated shows I love are the ones where an adult can sit down and get something out of it, while children can still enjoy its most obvious layer of storytelling (The Venture Bros. comes to mind). I don’t really understand why Polygon and Nickelodeon are adamant about turning it into a children’s show–maybe that segment of the market is more lucrative (make no mistake–these things are always driven by profit first and foremost)? I personally feel that the premise of Akihabara@Deep is unsuitable for a children’s show in the first place (think about it–cyber crimes and severely dysfunctional characters are the main focus of the story. How is that a suitable premise for a children’s show?), and by turning it into a children’s show, they’re killing the potential for some great storytelling that the premise allows. I’d be curious to see what they end up doing with the show though–just to see what they picked instead of my take on the show. Who knows? Maybe it’ll be really good.
Rob have you seen either the TV show or movie? I’ve seen the 11 episodes of the TV show and I agree that it’s not suitable for American kids, while there is little to no sex or violence it’s about maid cafes, hikikomori, and otaku. Kids may enjoy the Cosplay element if that were left in and the video game stuff, the @Deep office looks like a dream come true to me, with the figures, posters and quarter scale Gundam models.
On the plus side it’s a lot less violent then say Johnny Quest which I grew up on and the basic premise that a bunch of weak people joined together to form a group of much greater strength to protect the weak people around them.
Kevn57 – No, I was given a detailed synopsis of the feature film, plus some preliminary preproduction material of the American Series. I also did as much research as I could online. I was told that I had total freedom to completely rewrite the premise, so I just went ahead with my gut instincts. If I had been asked to stick to the original premise for the rewrite, then I would’ve gone out and gotten the film and the TV series to get to know the universe more intimately.
I tend to feel that trying to Americanize a Japanese show for the American audience is usually not a good thing, because so much of the charm of Japanese shows are because of the cultural idiosyncrasies–you take that away and it’s just not quite the same (we’ve seen this over and over with American remakes of foreign films). For my take on Akihabara@Deep, I tried my best to keep the vibe of a hip franchise, while having the emotional core of the premise be something that’s universally appealing. I’m very proud of what I wrote, and although in the end I wasn’t picked as the writer for the show, I still got a lot out of the process of writing it. Maybe one day I’ll take the new premise and characters I created for it and pitch it to another studio under a different title. What I created is different enough from the original that it could be a completely different series.
Hello, I was wondering if you could send me any details about the project? I’m very curious as to how a show about japanese otaku will be converted to appeal to american children? I’m waiting in great anticipation to see how it turns out! Thank you very much, Will Catherwood.
Will – Are you asking for the spec treatment I wrote? If that’s the case, then I’m afraid I can’t do that, since there’s a chance I could still shop my idea around. As far as how Nickelodeon and Polygon Pictures are going about it, I have no idea since I didn’t get hired for the show.