Well folks, today marks another very special moment in the journey of John Stanisci’s LIFEDEATH. As announced last month, this original story conceived, written and drawn by an artist who has worked on some of the greatest characters in the history of the medium has introduced his own right here in this newsletter. Today, my friends, I take the advice of many of the great moderators I have learned from over the years, and provide merely an introduction and platform for the talented people behind the art tell their side of the story. Thrilled to let my good friend and partner elaborate on the incredibly exciting news that celebrated screenwriter Dan Gordon has joined the project! –Jeremy
John
“There HAS to be more to writing than this!”, are exactly the words I said that led to one of the best friendships I ever had. That sentence also led to me to my Broadway debut and today’s thrilling announcement. I’ll swing back to that in a minute.
So, as I talked about in our very first newsletter (last week), LIFEDEATH began in the 90’s while I was under contract at DC. My path to being a writer also begins there. The entire reason that Denny O’Neil had taken a small shine to my writing was that I had actually gotten to write some stuff for the Bat guys, most notably a Batman/Talia/Rha’s A Ghul story in Batman Chronicles #8. Pretty exciting! Made even better by the fact that I was able to get Sal Buscema to come over to DC and pencil the story ( I got to ink it!).
Apparently, the word was that Denny liked how I handled his characters. I fell in with the bat guys, and their routine talks about writing, story structure, etc. It was a GREAT group of uber talented folks like Scott Peterson, Darren Vincenzo, and Jordan Gorfinkal. All of them had urged me, in the strongest possible terms to go and take this three day weekend course on story structure in film as being taught by, well, I won’t say the name. Needleless to say, this instructor had become THE leading guru of proper screen story structure and EVERYONE was taking this three day course and finding their new religion.
Who am I argue? I went and took the course. It was…good. Everything the guru said made sense. I learned things about story and plot that I didn’t know. And yet, I felt that everything the guru talked about was, very much, like a paint by the numbers, kind of lifeless, unemotive approach to telling stories. Y’know, the inciting incident HAS to happen on page 10, and then by page 23, you HAVE to do this, etc. Probably all good advice, but still, I was unsatisfied. I grew up with a love of movies: The Godfather, The Verdict, Rocky, Empire Strikes Back, Dog Day Afternoon, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid and so on. And while I could see the structure in each of these films, I still felt, well, there had to be more to writing than this. Further, the guru, as it turns out, didn’t actually make a living as a screenwriter, and had never sold a screenplay. He made his living talking about screenwriting.
I said to the Bat guys that I just wasn’t as profoundly impacted as they were. They all looked at me like I had said I really wanted to date their Mothers.
A week later, I saw an ad in the back of a screenwriting magazine I subscribed to: The Dan Gordon screenwriting video course. Hmmm. Ok, who’s Dan Gordon? Only the writer of such films such as MURDER IN THE FIRST, WYATT EARP, PASSENGER 57, THE HURRICANE w/ Denzel WASHINGTON and many many more. This guy makes a living writing. I wanted to hear what he had to say.
I sent away for the 8 hour course and…it changed my life. I would listen to it over and over again, until it became known in my home (by then girlfriend at the time) “NOT THAT DAMN DAN GORDON VIDEO AGAIN!!!”
Dan talked about story structure, character, pitching projects, the business of being a writer and so much more. Words cannot express the impact this course had on me. But, unlike the three day guru course, I felt I was getting all this incredible insight into writing that I longed for from someone who is at the top of the industry and walks the walk every single day. I was hooked.
CUT TO: 2005.
I’m starting a theater company in NYC with my friend and fellow actor, Tom Ryan. We’re looking for original material to produce for the stage. I say, “ Hey, there’s this guy, Dan Gordon, and in this video course of his, he talks about how he turned his film, MURDER IN THE FIRST, into a play.”
We reached out to Dan’s agent and in 24 hours, incredibly, Dan agreed to give us the rights to produce MURDER in NYC! We raised around $30,000 and did our first production, even receiving seven NY Innovative theater award nominations! More importantly, Dan flew in from LA to meet us and work with us on the show. He was so incredibly supportive and excited by what we were doing. What a thrill it was for me to meet him, the guy I had been listening to over and over again in my home all those years!
While doing MURDER in NYC, Dan sat me and Tom Ryan down for dinner one night and said, “ Do you guys want to hear the most incredible true story of all time?” Tom and I said “SURE!” and Dan proceeded to tell us the story of Irena Gut Opdyke, a 19 year old Polish Catholic girl who, during WW II, risked her life to save twelve Jewish refugees from the Nazis over a two year period! Tom and I were hooked and Dan gave us the rights to produce the play.
I’ll cut to the chase and say, about three years later (and an IMPOSSIBLE amount of struggle and hard work), we all opened IRENA’S VOW on Broadway. The play starred Four Time Tony Nominee, Tovah Fedlshuh ( of Walking Dead fame) and a certain comic book artist you all have come to know ! Dan Gordon and I got to make our Broadway debuts together. IRENA’S VOW also has the distinction of being the first play in history to have been performed at the United Nations for over 200 delegates from around the world.
As the years went on, however, my dream of writing as a career only grew. I absorbed everything I possibly could from Dan about his work, what it takes to be a great writer, and, maybe most importantly, what it takes to have a career as a writer. Dan has read MANY scripts of mine, offering invaluable guidance and words of encouragement as I developed.
And now, here we are. Truthfully, LIFEDEATH is not the first, nor the only, project that Dan and I are collaborating on. In fact, well, UGH!! There IS another project, a TV series in development with Vlas and Charley Parlapanides (BLOOD OF ZEUS on Netflix) and…ah, man, I just CAN’T talk about it yet! I can’t. (But, hopefully SOON!)
But, as Jeremy, Joe, and I were planning the relaunch of LIFEDEATH, we all felt strongly that Dan should be on this journey with us. So, today we are officially announcing that while production moves forward with the comic, Dan and I will be working together to develop a TV adaptation to begin shopping.
Man, I just love THAT sentence: “Dan and I will be working together…”
If you would have told me, all those years ago, that the guy I spent endless hours listening to, learning from, would be working with me to adapt my comic series…yeah, I just wouldn’t have bought it. But I’ll tell you this: Dan and I are going to write the heck out of the TV version of LIFEDEATH. You have my word on that!
Dreams do come true my friends. Sometimes it takes a while. But, for me personally, today’s announcement has been worth every moment of the journey.
Thanks so much for following!
Meanwhile, Here’s a couple of LIFEDEATH pages you may not have seen yet! Enjoy!