Some Lessons Learned While Writing The Book

As some of you know, I have written two novels in two different genres. For the boys I wrote a Western in the classical tradition.  The book is Knight Errant and it aims to celebrate basic heroism in a difficult situation.  For the girls I wrote a supernatural thriller called "Pray For You" about dealing with loss when an entity shows up to create havoc.  Anyone can enjoy these books.  You can find links on my website which is on the bio and my Facebook page.  I encourage you to sample the Kindle version if you are so inclined.

With that preliminary out of the way I want to showcase an interesting lesson I learned in creating these two works of fiction.  The lesson has to do with where you think you are going to end it.  And then discovering that to earn that ending you either need to scrap the book entirely or re think what the book is really trying to do.

In exploring this idea I will not be spoiling either of these stories.  I will illustrate this with a writer's process on how to solve a problem.  In both of these cases I only had to get to the point where I felt comfortable handing the book over to a reader to find out if I had something worth sharing.  All this work to get to draft 1 in other words.

First, let's look at Pray For You, the supernatural title.  I have lived with this story the longest.  In terms of evolution of this tale it took me eight drafts to get to the 1.0 version.  That was the version where I first handed it to a reader.  It was a kind of urban fantasy version with these characters.  My reader thought it didn't work at all.  They were not wrong.  The characters worked and the ending I had in mind was more or less there but it wasn't earned.  To fix it I did something unusual with the story.  I applied surgery.  I took the broad beats and cool lines and non cringy dialogue and kept that.  Then I jettisoned the rest.  I was even more ruthless as I invented scenes and dialogue to bridge gaps and make it work.  The characters stayed the same but the genre completely changed.  Gradually I got to version 2.0 and that's the version you will read.  I finally felt I had an ending that was earned.  

The bottom line for this book is that I trusted the characters I created to save the story.  This helped me with the courage to cut the lines that I wrote and rework the book to the story it was meant to be.

Knight Errant, the Western, has a different genesis.  I believe I came up with the plot and characters for a screenplay that I never fully drafted.  I had a very specific ending in mind while it was still at the screenplay phase.  But something funny happened when I got to that scene in the novel.  I was only about half done.  As written it was a long story, not a novel.  I put the thing away for about a week and didn't touch it.  Then I realized I needed to address the consequences of this chase that drives this story.  Addressing those consequences forces me to find nuances in the characters and maybe get at the heart of what really drives them.  And I feel I got a better ending out of it than where I initially had thought.

For this book, I once again trusted the characters.  This one didn't require the kind of surgery that Pray For You did but it did force me to wrestle with consequences of something set in motion in the story.  In addressing the consequences I think the story is better for it.

I will leave you with a final thought about the writing process.  You'll know in your gut when the work is ready for another set of eyes.  No time before the keyboard is ever wasted.  

The Perils of Pitching

According to this link Andy Weir had a pitch for Star Trek that went nowhere.  The linked article doesn't state what the pitch was but goes into greater detail the frustrations with the state of Star Trek.  

J Michael Strazynski had a rather famous pitch in 2004 that rebooted the series in interesting ways.  They didn't go with this at the time instead giving us the 2009 version which led to Alex Kurtzman running the franchise.

Discussing the merits about the franchises and who runs them is outside the scope of this piece.  Two failed pitches above are examples of the business of Hollywood.  It goes something like this:  Producer says "I have an awesome idea for (insert media adaptation here) and I will know exactly what to do with it when it walks through that door."

Andy Weir and Stracynski didn't get past that producer because whatever the idea was it wasn't what he wanted.

If you ever wonder why Hollywood never seems to do much original work it is usually because those original scripts floating around out there act like resumes for whatever IP producer X has in their pockets.  "We're not doing that but we have this other thing over here..."

To use an upcoming example.  Steven Knight (famous for many works but Peaky Blinders is the most recent) has been tapped for whatever the new James Bond film will be from new masters at Amazon.  Whatever his pitch was it must have worked because he landed the gig.  I am cautiously optimistic because one of my favorites of his is Eastern Promises from David Cronenberg-a film that while I like I can't revisit too often because of it subject matter and execution.  

All this is to say don't judge the talent pool by what gets rejected.  Judge it by what gets made.  In the end all that counts is the experience it produces.

Sheena and Schwarzenegger and absurd connections

According to this link we will have three Arnold Schwarzenegger films coming down the pike with him revisting three of the franchises that helped make him a Hollywood icon.

One of those is Commando 2.  Because of this I thought it would be fun to explore the link, superficially though it is, between Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger and pulp comic icon, the most famous Jungle Girl, Sheena.

The short answer is screenwriter Steven E De Souza.

Commando, the film from 1985, is an only in the 80s absurdly fun Arnold Schwarzenegger action vehicle about a retired specialist trying to rescue his daughter from a general who's planning a coup in his own country.  The name of the country?  Val Verde, a stand in for whatever location screenwriter De Souza needed to make the plot make sense.

Val Verde is also the name of the country in South America where Sheena makes her home in a somewhat lengthy run across three comic book companies.  De Souza was effectively given carte blanche to reboot the character for a modern audience.  The only reason this works as well as it does is her first appearance in this rebooted version is from 2007 with Devils Due Publishing.  Her last mini series in this rebooted form came from Dynamite Comics and left her in a boarding school.  De Souza's rebooted Sheena is fun for what it is even if the continuity doesn't quite gel between the Devil's Due Era and the Dynamite Comics era.  

The Val Verde used in the Sheena comics is not the same Val Verde in the Commando film but I thought the connection was funny.  I don't expect the filmmakers to revisit that fictional country for the plot of the sequel.  According to the article the sequel has already been written which is further along in development than some announced projects.  I will be curious to see if anyone other than Schwarzenegger comes back into this.  Alyssa Milano returning as his daughter would be hilarious.

Sheena's comic book future, at least in the rebooted form, is dormant right now.  She'll probably turn up in another form down the line.  If Commando 2 can be made 40 years after the original then Sheena can make a comeback as well.  As risk averse as most American media companies are, if the idea is executed well enough then an audience will seek it out and may find something fun.

How Hollywood Gets Its Soul Back the Sequel

This link is a good break down of the fears that business Hollywood has over Paramount taking Warner Bros.  It's the same fear when Disney took Fox.

The WGA in another article is condemning the merger because it will result in less jobs.  This is true but both articles don't address the problem underlying current business practices.

You've got to get people to want to come to the theatre.  Ticket prices are a barrier.  The quality of the experience is another.  Finally the content being projected is the last.  If these three things get fixed the people will come back.  

Think of this like hotel chains competing with Air BNB.  Make the experience better than some strangers extra room or house.  

The ticket prices are tied into the overall economy which can't be controlled.  But what can be controlled is the budgets in which Hollywood produces content.  We seem to be vascilating between micro budget movies and blockbusters.  No middle ground.  That ground has to come back.  Once the studio has its investment back the rest is gravy.  This in turn helps the theatres keep their costs down and the ticket prices can be adjusted.

Fixing the theatre experience seems to come down to two things.  The first is refreshment cost.  These food prices are high because only after a certain point do the theatre exhibitors get their share of the profits.  The shorter the theatrical window the smaller the return.  People don't see a good return on investment when paying for sub par food for the duration of the movie.  

I am torn about this because I think the theatrical experience should be special.  Unfortunately too many people turn this into their living room and decorum is out the window.  You can mitigate this with ushers enforcing behavior but that can be a big ask these days.  At the very least ushers need to be able to at least confirm everything is working properly with the tech and the house lights and the sound.  

The last part of this equation is the content itself.  Behavior when watching something in public is different when watching it in private, or at least it should be.  The theatrical experience should reward this.  I think we are going to head there in the future and right now these are the growing pains of evolving the theatre experience into something special.

RIP Dan Simmons

I did not expect to hear this news.  I have a handful of influences on my own works over the years and Dan Simmons is one of them.  Most of it came down to "How come I didn't think of that?" followed by "He executed that so well there is no point trying my own.". Anytime a writer finds someone's work that forces you to think bigger and work harder is a boon to your own output.  Dan Simmons did that for me.

He really is that good.  There's a few of his collections I haven't read and three stand alone novels I haven't touched.  Also I should give the latter half of the Hyperion Cantos a chance again sometime.

There is a succinct tribute to the author from another writer named Jon Del Arroz.  I am sure there will be many more in the future.

Depending on the genre you like chances are you'll find something you like from his forays into science fiction, crime, historical adventures, and horror.  Sometimes his books encompassed at least three of those.  If you haven't discovered his writing yet, I envy you.

X Files Reboot inbound and some hopeful musings on it

According to this link we have an X Files reboot coming.  I will reserve judgement until an actual trailer drops.  But being the eternal optimist I am I will gladly give them the benefit of the doubt.  Like Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey I consider this a kind of dare on behalf of the filmmakers.  Ryan Coogler's filmography is fine for the genre and these days jumping between film and TV projects is not as odd as it was back in the 90s when the original was in production.

It's interesting to me that they are going for pilot first as that is rarely done now.  The original XFiles pilot still holds up and sort of stands on its own.  For me the original show still holds up very well but I still think an opportunity was lost when they didn't transition to feature films after the 1998 film that finally answered the alien conspiracy question.  I think they should have continued with movies after that.  As such, on a rewatch I say stick with the first five seasons, watch the 1998 film and then the 2008 film and stop.  I am in the minority with this opinion.  I only saw bits and pieces of the Xfiles with seasons 6 thru 9 and I don't remember seeing any of the limited runs of 10 and 11.  

(As an aside, I have this theory about the perfect length for TV shows.  5 seasons which results in about 100 episodes.  You reach 100 shows and you can air forever 5 days a week in syndicated programming and take in the ad revenue which is a license to print money.  Obviously this no longer works with Internet and streaming)

I don't know how well an overarching conspiracy plot would work today.  Shows like Burn Notice or Lost overstay their welcome when they just keep piling on twists and turns and the original XFiles did this too.  Coogler and his team would have thought of that.  The pairing of skeptic and believer is always a solid play and goes back at least as far as Holmes and Watson.  Writing and casting will be key here and until we know the second lead none of this matters.

Pour One Out for Mass Market Paperbacks

According to this article Mass Market paperbacks are officially over.  It gives a succinct history of the format and why it went away.

I accept that the market forces change and it certainly didn't happen all at once.  I just recently read the novel "Heat 2", a sequel in book form to the 1995 film and I had a good time with that.  But the format might as well be a trade paperback as it is taller than a typical mass market but not as wide as a regular trade.  These days I call the left one a mass markets even though it really isnt.

What's replaced the mass market is the ebook.  I appreciate the convenience but it reminds me more and more that we're not really owning the product.  We're shifting towards a market that supports try everything and then curate your personal collection.  

I also miss the days when we had actual art for the cover.  Such as this one

All this is to say read however you want and fill your shelves with whatever makes it look cool.

   

Dune Messiah and the perils of fixing problems.

Near the end of 2025 we will be treated to Dune Part 3 which will complete Paul's saga and close out the franchise for this director.

Having recently reread Dune Messiah I thought it would be interesting to speculate, in light of the changes the filmmakers made with Dune Parts 1 and 2, the problems that these creators backed themselves into in adapting this book.  All of this is speculation because we won't have a trailer until later this year.

Consider this a heavy spoiler posting so if you haven't seen the saga or read the books stop now.  For the rest, let's dive in.

I reread both Dune and Dune Messiah in preparation for these films and I can say that I got more out of them now than when I was younger.  I will also stipulate that the changes made for the current films make sense for the film but not necessarily for what the books were doing.  This is okay.  They are different mediums and choices must be made to make it work.

For Dune, very broadly, there were only two big changes that fundamentally altered the story.  The first was the time compression.  A lot more time passes in the novel vs. the film, so much so that Alia, Paul's sister isn't even born during the film's run time.  We do get a future vision of her which creates a different problem but I will address that later.  The second big change is what they did with Chani.  Paul's love for her is the same but they gave her agency that makes her more modern than the book does.  The film ends with her leaving Paul as his forces are about to go out and lay siege to the galaxy.

Bold choices.  I think they work.  But it runs into a brick wall when adapting Dune Messiah.  The novel uses a conspiracy plot to drive the action where the Bene Gesserit, Spacing Guild and the Thelaxiu as well as Irulan attempt to kill new Emperor Paul.  Paul is conflicted because he's trying to wind down the holy war he started as well as save the life of the one he loves.  He succeeds at one and fails at the other.

The first rule of adaptation is what do you cut?  A friend suggested that the conspiracy plot might not even be used.  Another crisis could be invoked or invented.  We know by the casting that Scytale, the Thelaxiu is involved, Duncan Idaho returns and Alia is part of this story as well.  

Everyone has been aged up in the film version.  This is logical.  Paul starts out at about 15 in novel Dune, ages to about 18 during the course of it.  He's about 30 in novel Dune Messiah.  Alia is about 15 or so in that book. Timothy Chalamet at least looked younger even though they elaged him up about 10 years for the film version.  

Whipe Duncan Idaho is brought back in a logical way, getting Alia to the proper age for the actress playing her is going to require interesting leaps in "just go with it" logic.

That's actually part of casting.  Making the audience believe it.  

The biggest problem unfortunately has to do with Chani's inclusion in the plot.  The way she is setup in the film version she either has to become part of the conspiracy to kill him or she is part of some kind of resistance movement on Arrakis.  Maybe both.  In the novel she gives birth to twins and dies during the birth.  It is possible that she could be pregnant at film's end as she walks into the desert.  This creates an age problem for the twins but the film's timeline and the book's timeline are already diverging.  What's a little more.

I have a feeling that however they cope with the changes made for Chani, Princess Irulan's role will have an expansion.  Her novel role is not insignificant but they had already beefed up her role in the film version.  It would make sense to continue that.

If I was helping adapt this I would probably steal a technique from James Cameron or Peter Jackson. Open with the Holy War to quickly setup how we got here, end with some event that shows just how awful this conquest was and the need for the conspiracy to take out Emperor Paul.  Bring in Chani and have her work with Irulan and the Thelaxiu.  Newly resurrected Duncan Idaho is presented to Paul as a gift from the Thelaxiu and the conspiracy is set in motion.  From there we more or less follow the plot of the novel.  Alia will work with Duncan, Stilgar and Paul to unravel the conspiracy.  As for who betrays who we'll just keep the audience guessing because the main antagonist of this plot is a shape shifting assassin.

Incidentally I am looking forward to Anya Taylor Joy playing Alia because she technically already played this character.  She was Olga of the Birch Forest in Robert Eggers The Northman.  Viking Sorcereress.  She was scary.

I might be wrong about all this.  If nothing else I want to see how the filmmakers solve the problems in front of them as well as those they created.

How The Comic Book Industry Gets Its Soul Back

Not too long ago I came across a video from Youtube personality Razorfist who suggested that if you are not satisfied with the superhero action in Marvel and DC comics you should embrace the pulp characters of yesteryear.

It's not a bad suggestion and I found as I have gotten older that my tastes have changed anyway.  The history of some of this exploration led me to think about how to fix the entire comic book industry.  For the purposes of finding solutions I will use three characters that are currently outside the publications of the big 2 of Marvel and DC to show what's wrong and a potential solution.  This is also limited to American comics.  Japanese and other asian comics aren't covered here because, while crossover audiences exist, that industry is crushing it and doesn't need fixing.

SHEENA QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE

This character, one of many jungle girls from the pulp era, predates DCs Wonder Woman by about six months and currently occupies an interesting space of media rights controlled by multiple entitites which makes collection of current and past material difficult to navigate.  

She's a female version of Tarzan but has her own history that makes her a compelling character by herself.  Her supporting cast is usually the one being rescued by her but her male friends are treated like equals.  Her most recent comics are a rebooted concept that brings her into the 21st century and, for the most part, does an admirable job respecting her pulp origins while modernizing it.

Unfortunately if you were attempting to collect all this into one place, you'd have to negotiate with multiple companies.  Her Golden Age material is technically public domain.  The Rebooted version is strewn across three different publishers.  The 1950s TV series is public domain and the 2002 Sony TV series is print on demand DVDs.  If you're going to get media saturation with this character, say at the level of DCs Wonder Woman, the return on investment might not be worth it.  

Keeping things in print, either physical or digital, is a Herculean task.  Diamond Distrubtion which until recently was the only game in town for comic shops is a dead platform and the irony is now that we have competition for distribution it's slowed down the very thing that keeps public interest.  The electronic or physical tpbs just aren't collected in a timely manner these days.

The independent comic space has found a solution however.  They have killed the peridoical version of the story which the Big 2 and most of the rest have continued to use.  The major comic book companies that still use the periodical method of distribution--single issues, expensive, incentive rare covers--are dying a slow death.

We need to embrace the small trade version.  96 pages minimum.  Quarterly releases.   You are getting a book, and a complete story.  Think of it as long form pulp.  The crowdfunded style independents already do this and do it very successfully..  Dynamite Comics, which publishes Sheena as well as the other two examples I will use, would benefit from this.  

VAMPIRELLA

A monster hunter with a very convoluted origin who's been around since the mid 60s has a similar problem to Sheena except all her media rights are under the same banner.  So there's no one stopping Dynamite Comics from doing this.  And the current people at the helm for her adventures would benefit enormously from keeping her past adventures in print as well as embracing the TPB quarterly to keep up with what's going on.

Christopher Priest (AKA Jim Owsley) has been in the comic book business for decades and he is very good at what he does.  Currently he is the longest serving single writer on Vampirella since her debut.  His style, unfortunately, requires a lot of re reading and he's made some deep cuts into this character's past that sometimes take a very long time to pay off especially in the current 22 page periodical format release schedule.  If there ever was a writer who would benefit the most from quarterly trade releases it's this guy.

One other benefit to the quarterly release schedule, outside of getting a complete adventure in one package, is you get consistent art across this single story.  Priests' Vampirella run complimented by Erguin Gundriz's art across about 75% of it is a great example of this.  The periodical format sometimes results in fill ins that don't always hit the mark.

RED SONJA

Red Sonja is technically writer Roy Thomas's creation from when he was writing Conan the Barbarian for Marvel Comics.  He adapted a short story from Robert E Howard called Shadow of the Vulture.  This was not a Conan short story but Thomas made it one.  Dynamite Entertainment now has the rights to this character.

I keep hammering on this one but once again this would benefit from my quarterly TPB releases idea.  Keeping this stuff consistently in print builds brand recognition.  

There is good news with the comic book industry.  The independent scene has proven that the business model can be a success if you are consistent with your releases.  Collectors will seek out the premium and the general audience will seek out the usual releases to experience the great stories they can find.  And, as for content, the market is actually saturated.  A friend once said that it is easier than ever to produce content, monetizing it is the hard part.

I have had great success in finding characters to enjoy from the pulp era.  Doc Savage leads a great team of professionals.  Dejah Thoris's adventures with John Carter from Edgar Rice Burroughs are a lot of fun.  But I still have a soft spot for some of the Marvel and DC stuff.  I'm always optimistic that I can find good things.  It just takes a little while longer to find them.

How Hollywood Can Get It's Soul Back

The following ramble, whole it focuses on Hollywood, can apply across all storytelling spaces.  As I am writing this Warner Brothers Studios is being sold off in a deal where Netflix is the frontrunner to get it.  Paramount Studios, newly owned by Skydance, is trying to aggressively stop it for themselves.  Assuming that either company will complete the deal, the results will probably turn out the same--more content for the living room and less for the big screen.  This is a problem but it exposes a deeper rot that needs to be addressed if Hollywood wants to regain its soul.  I will lay out how I think it can happen below.

A film professor I had explained the difference television and movies this way.  Movies are about an emotional experience, usually experienced collectively.  Television is inviting someone into your home to spend time with them.  Obviously there is some overlap here but the point remains.  We're going somewhere with a movie and TV involves an invitation of some kind.  

When an audience rejects a movie it's usually because the experience doesn't live up to what was promised.  Television fails because this person you've invited into your home has betrayed your trust by showing you something you didn't want to see.  I believe these are the two issues that plague this kind of storytelling at the core.  

There is a promise made when someone chooses to experience something based on what the enticement is.  Everyone has different limits to what they tolerate from their entertainment.  For example, Is this level of violence or sex appropriate for me or who I am watching this with? This introspection before the decision to experience the entertainment takes out the moral question of the work's existence.  The late Roger Ebert once said something like "A movie is not what it is about, but how it is about.". 

Solving the issue of trust between this promise of the entertainment experience the next step involves something much harder on the logistical level.  How do we pay for all this?

I have to stipulate that changing the Hollywood business model of deficit financing probably can't be changed.  If you pull on this thread you start getting into fixing things like the American tax system which is beyond the scope of this piece.  So, if we keep the current financing model how do we work within that system to get the audience to pay for it and keep it going?

You have to change how the theatrical experience works.  This is an old problem that goes back as long as I have been alive and it also involves issues of trust.  For the price of a ticket I expect to see the best quality projection of light and sound and the audience being reasonably respectful when watching the movie.  The theatre can control the technology.  They can't control the audience.  I will give you two solutions that might help with this experience.

The first is to bring back ushers.  The good theatres have people check on how the experience is going once the film proper starts and occasionally as it is going.  Ushers may have to double as security and I will acknowledge this would be difficult.  Too many audiences treat a theatre like it is their living room. 

The second solution involves the ads and trailers before a film.  Depending on where you go it ranges from 20-40 minutes.  You are not going to be able to get rid of the ads.  Move both to after the film.  They were called trailers for a reason.  They followed the entertainment.  For those that are waiting to see what is next they can chat about what they've seen and get excited about what could come next.  Theatres are meant to be a communal experience.  Let it be one.

Finally, let's address the cost of going out to a theatre.  We all know it is high and untangling this knot would have to involve reworking at minimum how long a movie can remain in the theatre as well as the percentage of ticket sales that go to the theatre versus the studio that distributed the film.  That too is beyond the scope of this piece.  But we can address production costs of the films themselves.

We'll always have quirky indie pictures and blockbusters.  What we need more of is the mid budget types.  Say 30-40 million max.  Genre pictures tend to do best here.  But even those end up with inflated budgets.  One recent example, unseen by me, very well received was Ryan Coogler's Sinners.  The trailer was fantastic. But it's budget is crippled by two wild decisions.  One is to shoot some of the film in Imax and the other is to use the same actor to play both brothers.  Imax film is very expensive and the use of one actor for two roles increases your special effects budget.  Therefore a film that could have been shot for about 30 million costs 100 million.  This gamble paid off but it could have paid off even more.  

I am an optimist and I believe Hollywood will survive merger and acquisition heaven.  Hollywood will always produce content but the line between film and TV is looking more and more blurry and this bothers me.  I also believe theatres will survive but they may not be the experience I grew up with.  If the movie theatre experience ends up looking more like live theatre, ala Broadway, I wouldn't be surprised.

When I experience any kind of story, regardless of medium I enter into a promise with the creators.  I trust that they are going to show me something new.  They may even surprise me.  And this is what keeps me optimistic about the future of entertainment.  

Reintroductions and a new purpose. Welcome!!

Somewhere in the distant past I finally decided to leap into the realm of internet published fiction through Amazon.  You'll find the links in through the website on this blog.  In the future, longer form essays that go beyond the scope of Instagram and Facebook will wind up here.    

I don't use AI to produce my writing and the cover art for the books below was made by wonderful human hands.  

More books are coming and this is only the beginning.

Why This Story Won't Die

Different authors have different ideas about what constitutes a draft of a particular tale.  Some count drafts by number of rewrites.  Others are not so exact.  Broadly speaking I think most authors would say they work in three drafts.  And it works out like this:

DRAFT 1:  Figuring out what you have and this constitutes everything from whatever is planned to the actual writing of the pages.

DRAFT 2:  Making it the best draft possible based on whatever discoveries were made in that work of draft 1.

DRAFT 3:  Bringing it before an audience and finding out if the story works for anyone else but the author.

To use film terminology, Draft 1 is the screenplay, Draft 2 is the footage shot, and Draft 3 is the final edited cut.

I'd like to show you how I grew as a writer taking a tale from Draft 1 to Draft 3.  I'll call this STORY X.  Mostly because it took approximately ten years.

DRAFT 1 came about because in two previous stories that didn't work I met two characters that I thought would make interesting friends.   I liked the spirit of one of the girls and the other fascinated me because I couldn't figure out her past.  Eventually I found a way to have them meet and put them up in a kind of modern samurai/ninja epic.  The supernatural aspect of the story was kind of wonky but I ran with it thinking it could make sense later.

DRAFT 2 was the polishing portion of it.  I tried my best to make it work by making the writing sing and making sure the dialogue was polished and it all made logical sense.  I still didn't have a sense of one of the girl's past but I kept working at it.  This story skewed young but the adults kept taking over and that's when people noticed how slow the story was moving by that point.  I didn't disagree.   It's the old adage if two or people tell you you're drunk maybe it's best to lie down.

DRAFT 3 was the toughest in that I was trying to make the world building aspect of the story make sense.  I thought I finally had this cracked in that some of the myths I was playing with got better details and I was doing my best to make sure the rules I'd set up weren't being broken.  I thought I stripped out most of the boring parts.  Then I passed the draft to a trusted reader.

And that last draft solved a lot of problems.  But my friend's reaction to that last draft made me rethink the central relationship of the story.  She could figure out why one of the girls was fascinated by her.  But she couldn't quite understand why the other one would switch sides the way she did.  Again she wasn't wrong.  Curiously she didn't have much to say about her reaction to the world and rules I'd set up.  This also forced me to take a closer look at that execution.

Now we were in the stage where we discover whether or not this story is worth saving at this point.  One point of clarification about this story taking ten years.  I have been living with these two central characters as they are now conceived for about ten years.  The actual act of writing this particular plot  was closer to 8.  And while I wrestled with other things I was writing for either assignments or my own pleasure these two characters never really left me.  And they still haven't.

There were two major things I changed based on my friend's reaction to Draft 3.  Since I wanted the focus to be mostly on these two girls I had to eliminate one character.  I also conceived of a backstory for the girl who switches sides.  Her switching sides finally made sense with the building of her past.  The supernatural agents causing the chaos in this story recruited her when she'd died.  But the era in which she lived fascinated me.  I put that on the back burner while I attempted to see where the story went when I eliminated one of the characters (made Girl 1 an only child instead of a sibling) and just ran with the friendship as part of the plot.

While I liked what I had something about the entire enterprise was bothering me.  And this went back to the world I created for this story.  There is a very real act of evil that kicks off the story but the reason for that evil are the agents that Girl 2 works for.  And this bothered me.  It took the agency off the characters when it came to taking responsibility for their own actions.  And taking responsibility for what you could do and not do to prevent these actions drives the plot of the story.

It took a long time but the world I'd set up was flawed from the start and I couldn't make this work.  This wasn't a waste of time except for maybe a few hours lost from my very patient first readers.  The characters worked.  The world didn't.  And all of this effort showed me something that made all of this effort worth it.

I am not very good at world building.  Those writers who conceive whole worlds I greatly admire and love reading them but I can't do it.  I am more fascinated by character.  This is why this particular story hasn't yet died.  I am still convinced I can use these characters in the future.

In fact, Girl 2's backstory provided a window of something I'm going to try.  It's set in 16th century Japan and if I really still want to do a samurai/ninja epic, well why not go to the source.  And the era in which the girl was alive provides a fascinating time in history in which a very real act of evil occurred.  Their response to it would drive a book's plot.  And there's no supernatural crutches to diminish the horror of it.

I figure if I can't build a world, I can simply steal it.  This will require research for the details and I think I can stick with that.

In the meantime I'd like to work on something as a kind of test.  If I really feel that character building is stronger than my world building, I have an old plot in my files that will fit this.  It's a ghost story that will have to succeed on character and atmosphere.  A slightly different challenge but I think I'm up for it.

Thanks for sticking with this post.  I'll leave you all with this caveat for any writers, published or not.  Don't ever stop.   Any time spent before a keyboard or pen/paper gets you better.
 

The Perils of Remaking Classics

I have wondered now and again when a story doesn't connect with an audience is it because of the idea behind it or in the execution of the idea.  I tend to side with the way it is executed.

Case in point is three versions of that sci fi classic The Day The Earth Stood Still.  I say three versions because the original story that inspired both film versions has a connection with the theme that all three versions share despite being separated by generations.

This theme is our reaction to being made aware of proof of the existence of extra terrestrial life and how we are judged as a species by that life.  Ultimately our response to that encounter helps us grow or, in other versions of this kind of tale, destroys us.

To start with the tale that inspired these works we have to look at Harry Bates' original tale "Farewell to the Master".  This short story involves a reporter dealing with the aftermath of an arrival of an alien ambassador protected by a robotic machine who'd been accidentally killed when first arriving.  The robot never moves while it stands sentry over the tomb put up to commemorate the event.  The reporter suspects that this robot can move and is up to something.  The story details what he finds.

Robert Wise's version of The Day The Earth Stood Still takes the broad plot of the story and tailored it to the politics of the day of Soviet era Cold War Red Scare and McCarthyism.  Scott Derrickson's version takes the same broad strokes in the plot and builds a convincing first contact scenario.  But in that scenario the reasons for the contact are about environmental destruction.

In both of these versions the ambassador is there to deliver an ultimatum to the planet.  The ambassador has an experience with a cross section of humanity and both beings are changed by that experience.  The short story is most different in that there is a sense of loss with this first contact scenario.  There isn't an ultimatum delivered.  Both films invented one for the eras in which they were made. The reporter mourns about what they could have learned from this ambassador.  I won't spoil it here but what the reporter discovers gives us hope for all.

Your mileage will vary but I think both movie versions are successful in selling their ideas.  The reasons for the ultimatum change due to changing times of course but neither lose sight of the opportunity to learn.  Missteps happen but that's what drives the plot. They are working from a scenario which is a hard sell to begin with.  You have been measured and found wanting.  Fix your problems or face the consequences.  I think both versions fail in one regard for both their messages in that they have to expressly spell out the message with speeches and then also respond with speeches.  It is very much "on the nose" as writing instructors would say.

For the evil version of this scenario check out The New Twilight Zone episode "A Small Talent For War."

In some ways I think the original story sold the idea the best by leaving out the ultimatum.  Simply mourning the loss of an opportunity to learn from another species is the greatest missed opportunity.

The Terminator and Time Travel

This summer, The Terminator is getting a reboot.  Two trailers have been released.

And boy is it a doozy.  In terms of marketing it does everything it is supposed to.  Show right out of the gate that this is new and also give away a lot.  Kyle Reese is sent back from a timeline that is broken.  Everything that presumably happened in the four other movies occurred but now has been reset to make room for this story. Your mileage will vary but I am genuinely excited for this.  It feels a bit like what the Star Trek reboot did and this is a good thing. 

The original Terminator is my favorite movie.  I didn't fully understand it when I first saw it (probably around age 10) but it stuck with me through the years and still holds up on repeat viewings.  And what keeps that viewing fresh is the love story underlying the plot.

Strip away the time travel, the apocalyptic future, the unstoppable killer cyborg and you have a story as old as fairy tales.  One lone knight protecting a princess and willing to die to protect her.  The sequel is a variation on this plot only it's a father protecting a family instead.  Too early to tell if this film will have an authentic emotional core but I want to outline below the kind of potential I see.

The Terminator film rights revert to Cameron in 2019.  Before that happens we get this film, the first of a planned trilogy.  This second trailer gave away another plot point that I wished they'd saved but like the two terminators in the sequel it was kind of hard to avoid.

John Connor has joined the machines.

I cackled with glee upon seeing that twist.   This series is going in a direction that I always thought it needed to if it would continue beyond two.  John Connor would have to die.  T3 and T4 sort of addressed this but mangled the execution.  The Sarah Connor Chronicles was heading in this direction, I think, before it got weird.

My only worry for this series is that bit about stopping judgement day from occurring.  This series now appears to be playing with quantum mechanics rules of time travel.  Alternate realities here we come.  It takes the sting out of that horribly bleak ending to the original.  Maybe Sarah and Kyle can find a reality where the missiles were never launched.

Solaris: A Saga of First Contact

Stanislaw Lem's novel Solaris is one of those novels that proves how difficult science fiction can be to adapt to other mediums.  Two filmmakers separated by a generation have taken a crack at it and both missed the point.

As a story Solaris is as simple as it gets.  A research station orbiting an alien planet experiences some trouble and a psychologist is dispatched to determine if the project should be shutdown.

What the psychologist discovers is just how alien alien contact is.  The planet Solaris has been attempting contact with manifestations of people or things from their past.  Our psychologist must attempt to understand why when his dead wife returns to him.

Both versions of the films follow this template to the letter.  Andrei Tarkovsky's 1972 version proves to be more faithful than Steven Soderburg's version in 2002.  At least in terms of whole scenes lifted verbatim from Lem's novel.  Both films emphasize a love story and that was never the point of the book.

A film professor I studied under maintained that people go to movies to experience an emotion.  I think he is correct.  Both films hang on the love story as that is probably an easier hook for an audience than anything else.  Science Fiction doesn't deal in terms of those emotions as much.  What science fiction excells at is Wonder.

And Wonder, despite the ability for filmmakers to craft any image, is seemingly hard to convey.  Lem's novel is all about Wonder.  Humans attempting to understand an alien intelligence through any means necessary and failing utterly.

All that said I don't think either of these films fail as an experience.  These are vehicles for the filmmakers own ideas that they took from Lem's novel.  Tarkovsky's version in particular seems to understand better not only why the humans misunderstand the nature of the contact.  But the planet itself seems to understand where it went wrong.

Soderberg's version deviates the most only because it follows a more Hollywood like plot structure including a third act twist to produce a villian and an action sequence.  It also only plays lip service to some of the greater ideas from the book.  I think it succeeds in making the wife a little more human than the Russian version.  It also can't hold a candle to those long philophical arguments that Tarkovsky loves.

I think what I find most curious about this is even with the original text (translated of course) and two different interpretations of the book filmed the ultimate answer is still waiting to be uncovered.  And Stanislaw Lem would probably appreciate that.

HORROR BETWEEN CULTURES. Re-experiencing The Ring.

Recently my littlest sister and I were having a movie night and she wanted a
list of good scary films.  I looked at the list on her phone and made
suggestions accordingly while we waited for our pizza.
 
Something struck me about the titles I suggested for the list.  All of them
were remakes of foreign horror films.  "Quarantine", aka "REC"; "Silent House";
"The Ring" aka "Ringu"; "The Grudge" aka "Ju-on"; "Let Me In" aka "Let the
Right One In."  The film my sister picked that night was "The Ring", the american version of
the japanese hit, "Ringu."  She liked it and it had been long enough between
viewings that I got a new perspective on it.  This also allows me to make a
larger point about what happens when you adapt source material for different
cultures.

Let's start with the original novel.  Published in 1991 as "Ringu", Koji
Suzuki's novel about a reporter's quest to uncover what killed a family member
struck a chord in it's home country.  It's a good cocktail of urban legend,
technophobia, and that old staple of Japanese horror the vengeful female ghost.
 The title comes from the neverending cycle of this cursed videotape that kills
you in a week.  The novel's protagonists are two men, the reporter and a friend
of his who's basically a nihilistic sociopath.  The nature of the girl at the
center of the curse is different and there's a better explanation in the novel
for the need to copy her endlessly.
 
"Ringu," the 1998 adaptation of the original novel takes some liberties with
the book beyond the basic plot.  They changed the gender of the reporter and
the nihilistic sociopath is the ex husband of the reporter.  The nature of the
tape is basically the same.  The ex husband has some psychic abilities that act
as a visual shorthand to get the info you need across at times.  The fate of
the girl and her family have changed the most between the book and the film. 
They basically made it palatable for a bigger audience without losing the main
idea behind the story.  This isn't the first time this has happened and it
won't be the last.  The novel "Let the Right One In" was similarly neutered but
for it's benefit.  The nature of the monster in that story was changed by not
revealing a few key points from the book.  The horror is lessened but still
effective on screen.  The American remake "Let Me In" simplifies it even
further without losing the impact of the story.   

"The Ring" most directly adapts the 1998 feature and the original novel.  The
protagonists and the plot turns are basically the same.  I will say that the
American version has a slight edge in atmosphere but I think that's mostly
because "Ringu" feels like a TV movie by Hollywood standards and "The Ring" is
a big budget studio feature.  There is a lot more shocks in this film and set
pieces that goose the audience.  I got the impression that the filmmakers
didn't trust the audience to stay awake or something.

But here's where I think the cultural differences come in.  There's a
difference in running time between the two features of about twenty minutes. 
That extra twenty minutes in the American version is devoted to those
unnecssary shock scares and the dreaded "Jake the Explainer" roles.  And yet,
with all that explanation on the screen I still had to explain to my sister
what was going on in the ending.  Believe me it wasn't just her.  I saw this in
theatres in 2002 and you could feel half the theatre go "Huh?"  I saw the
japanese version later and only THEN did I get what was happening in the end. 
The novel does a better job explaining all of this. 

I think horror works best when the reasons for WHY this is happening to people
isn't really spelled out.  This is why I tend to enjoy the first film in a
franchise rather than the sequels.  One of the complaints I remember about the
american version is once that countdown starts you're just sort of waiting for
the end to see if how they get out of it.  To be fair that's a problem with the
set up for both versions.  But japanese culture has a different relationship to
ghosts than western culture.  Japanese culture treats spirits as part of the
scenery.  They only become dangerous if they become something else.  A ghost by
itself wouldn't necessarily be scary--just something to be respected.   
American culture tends to treat a ghost as a problem to solve.  "How do we help you
pass on?" 

The American version also spends much more time using the scientific method to
break down what this is and what it isn't.  It feels like a quick class in
video production in some of these scenes.  That is completely missing from the
Japanese adaptation but is pulled liberally from the original novel.  

I can recommend both versions of this movie as I think they represent two
responses to a classic ghost story.  More films and books are in this franchise
and while I haven't seen or read all of them they go in wildly different
directions and beyond the scope of this piece.

Big Hero 6 and the Lost Audience

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AUDIENCES CROSS OVER:

I wish I could say the news about THIS  was surprising but in the business of Hollywood it's not.  I think it illustrates something about audience crossover between media.  In brief, massive success in one medium doesn't always translate to bigger numbers when accessing the adapted source material.  I'll try to outline why here.
 
Big Hero 6 (TRAILER HERE) is a Disney Animation adaptation of a somewhat obscure Marvel comic.  As the article above states Marvel Comics won't be reissuing the older material except for a short mini from 2008 and that's only in digital form.  What we will be getting is a manga adaptation of the film.  The article is HERE.  Irony abounds because Big Hero 6 was initially conceived as aping Japanese comic book conventions in superhero form.    

The article above points out why Marvel is doing this and it's not surprising.  Disney gets to make the property their own while Marvel Studios focuses on it's ever expanding superhero roster of films.  The money keeps getting made and this is a good thing.    Guardians of the Galaxy was the biggest success of 2014 because it was well made and everybody involved had a good time.  But I can nearly guarantee that those that enjoyed the film won't attempt to seek out the inspiration.  

An author I like works in both novels and comic books.  In one case he wrote three novels featuring characters from his comic book series.  They weren't adaptations but original stories.  He said something that stuck with me during one of his signings.  He found that the comic book readers of that series sought out the novels featuring the same characters.  But the novel fans did not seek out the comic books.  I am sure he was painting with a broad brush there but the point remains.  Fans appear to seek out anything.  But the average audience won't.  And if this ARTICLE'S stats haven't changed much the audience is there but it's rather small.

I think there are two reasons for this audience disconnect.  The first is pure economics.  Comics are insanely expensive these days for lots of reasons.  When I got into comics as a kid they were slightly easier to find but they were also less expensive.  Average cover price was about $.75.  Now they're $4.00 or so.  Per issue.  You'd also think that trade paperbacks of collected material--the only way comics get into bookstores these days--would be cheaper.  Not so.  Digital comics mimic their paper counterparts in price and that's not going to change anytime soon.  Film ticket prices have been going up but it's still cheaper to get two hours of entertainment than about twenty minutes of a comic book for the same price.

The second reason requires some training.  Some people don't understand how to read a comic.  Panels flow in a particular order to convey the story and if a writer and/or artist doesn't understand how that works you get an incomprehensible mess.  Scott McCloud wrote and illustrated a graphic novel called "Understanding Comics" that explained the theory behind how a comic works, how it's put together as well as the history of the medium itself.  It's fascinating reading but one critic I remember pointed out that unless you knew how to read a graphic novel it wouldn't work.  This isn't just learning to read a comic.  This also applies to reading subtitles on a screen.  Some can't do it.  This is why we'll get a new English dub on foreign material. 

The economic reason can't be fixed but the education reason can.  Those that create the source material that gets adapted into something else have a responsibility then to make it the best it can be.  A good film will pay for itself and then some.  As will good source material.  I want graphic novels (and superheroes are only one part of this medium) to be on the same shelf as all the other things we read in bookstores and online.  I want it to catch up to the rest of pop culture.  It's getting there.  Slowly. 


  

  

SCIENCE FICTION PURITY TESTING

A recent post of mine on FB sparked a conversation about the "purity" of science fiction in films.  Christopher Nolan's "Interstellar" posted a trailer HERE and I remarked that Hollywood was releasing a "pure" science fiction film and I hoped audiences would embrace it.

A friend asked for a "purity scale" and I just used an arbitrary 5 point system.  It would measure how close a film adheres to science fiction concepts without aping other genre conventions.  Just based on the trailer and what I've heard about "Interstellar" this film looks at best to explore a human's place in the universe or perhaps some variation on a first contact type of situation.  I gave it a four out of five. 
For contrast I used James Cameron's "Avatar" as a counterpoint for something that looks like science fiction but is clearly a western instead.  The alien NaVi are the Native Americans.  The humans are the calvary.  Jake Sully is the officer that goes native and joins the war against the oppressors while trying to make his CO see where he's wrong.  (He's also stealing from Edgar Rice Burroughs' "A Princess of Mars" but everybody steals from that book so he gets a pass there.)  Avatar gets a 1 out of 5 on this scale.

My friend's next question prompted this entry.  "What's 5 out of 5" on this scale?"

Before I dive into that I need to clarify a few things.  Science Fiction revels in exploring really big ideas--explaining the origin of life, our place in this universe, what being human really means.  It's a great strength and sometimes a weakness in that sometimes the concept outshines the characters.  Asimov, as great as he was, was a better idea man than a character writer.  I think this is part of the reason that science fiction isn't embraced as easily by some audiences.  You need to care to have an emotional reaction.  It's no accident that Interstellar is focusing on that main family in that trailer.  The heart latches on.  The head will follow.

Let's stipulate that story, whatever it is, trumps everything but in telling that story sometimes genres cross.  Films do this less than books but that's primarily a matter of time.  Urban Fantasy seems to borrow from everywhere--horror, science fiction, romance, mystery.

With that in mind here's a few films that rate a 5 out of 5 for the most pure science fiction films out there.  Order doesn't indicate preference and these are limited to what I've seen.

Robert Wise's Star Trek: The Motion Picture:  Yes, this is the one that everyone seems to hate and you can lob a lot of critcism on it for it's pacing, stiff acting and such but in terms of pure science fiction this film is the closest out of the dozen that have been made.  It's a first contact story even if the alien turned out to be our own creation.  It embodied everything that made the original Trek such a phenonenon.  What happens when we actually discover new alien life?

Stanley Kubrick's 2001:  Another alien contact saga filled with multitple interpretations that required a sequel (2010) to explain what happened in this one.  I'm going on some very vague memories here but I don't know if this film is known more for what that alien presence was trying to teach us humans or Hal 9000s homicidal rampage and the perils of messing with artificial intelligence.
Ridley Scott's Prometheus:  A group of scientists attempt to unlock a mystery about what seeded the Earth with life.  They are essentially trying to find God (in a plot that Star Trek V only wish it had) and they get more than they bargained for.  Yes, this is part of the "Alien" series and ironically it was the least well received out of the series despite being the only one that qualifies as science fiction.

Alex Proyas' Dark City:  Lots of science fiction deals with that perception of reality and how we relate to it.  This story of a man trying to figure out what's hunting him in a city that changes every night is fascinating in just how much is held back until the ulitmate reveal.  Others I know figured it out before I did but I didn't and I was thrilled for it. 

I've barely scratched the surface here but I'll close with a list of honorable mentions and why they didn't quite make 5.

Ridley Scott's Blade Runner:  No matter what version you've seen (there are technically seven) they are all wrestling with that question of "What makes us human?"  This film is a noir thriller in science fiction dress and plays like a Raymond Chandler novel.

Christopher Nolan's Inception:  Even though this is wrestling with things like memory, reality, dreams and such it's a heist film only instead of knocking over a bank they are knocking over a brain. 

James Cameron's The Terminator:  Despite the time travel, apocalpytic trappings this is a horror film.  The Terminator is an unstoppable killer and Sarah Connor is the babysitter running up the stairs into the closet.

Danny Boyle's Sunshine:  A group of scientists attempt to use a nuclear device to restart the sun when the first expedition doesn't succeed.  The science is plausible but this is a horror film once they get where they are going. 

Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days:  A very misunderstood picture with stomach churning violence but despite the tech trappings is a psychological thriller about an ex-cop trying to uncover the identity of a serial killer.   

Horror Films and Christian Expectations

I recently viewed a film called "Seance: The Summoning" which prompted a curious reaction in me.  I wanted to like it much more than I did.  I applaud it for the ambition it was straining under but it was hard to call it a success.

In this horror story of four friends breaking into a hospital to prove the supernatural abilities of their Santeria practicing witch they conduct a seance that leaves one of them dead, the other possessed by a demon that wants the witch for itself.  During the long night of bloody mayhem the witch and her friend, newly converted to Christ must call on Christ to keep them alive to fight the demon.

That setup is ripe for some fun and perhaps a few questions to make you think and it was heartbreaking to watch this film throw most of it away.  I think all of its problems point to a misunderstanding of its audience.  A film like this can do two things: entertain those of this faith and hopefully not embarrass their friends who don't believe.  The problem is it's gory enough for the typical horror film crowd but kind of cheesy otherwise even for the low budget roots.  I don't know if the audience that made Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ the monster hit that it was would embrace this kind of film

It plays fast and loose with both Santeria and Catholicism but does a good job not breaking it's own rules.  I admired it for sticking with the idea that only by relying on Christ could they survive.  And who's left standing is actually a surprise I won't spoil here.  Some didn't like the unsubtle nature of the story and that's fine.

This film reminded me of a much better executed film called "The Prophecy" from 1995 or so.  It was written and directed by Gregory Widen, the man responsible for the original "Highlander" film and Ron Howard's "Backdraft."  It spawned a few odd sequels.  In this story a former priest turned detective investigates a murder only to find himself caught up in a war raging in Heaven and on Earth.  The angel Gabriel wants a soul that's apparently the most evil on the planet and it's taken up residence inside a little girl that becomes the detective's charge.  How they get there is a mess but it's a lot of fun watching it.  Even Satan himself makes an appearance.

What we eventually learn is that Gabriel wants this soul to lead his armies against God the way Lucifer did back at the start.  Gabriel and other angels like him are angry over God elevating humans over the angels.    Later on there's a confrontation between the ex priest and the angel and the priest genuinely asks him, "If you wanted to prove your side was right why didn't you just ask Him?  Why didn't you just ask God?"  Gabriel replies, "He doesn't  talk to me anymore."

See, it's a moment like that when a film, whatever it's intentions, can hit both believers and non believers between the eyes.  Mileage will vary of course but I remember being stunned that a moment like that even existed in a mainstream movie.

It's easy to mock a film for what it does wrong.  I think it's more useful to find the moments that work and see if they can tip the scales to greater enjoyment.

  

THE PERILS OF BEING A MEDIA COLLECTOR

The problem with collecting media in physical form these days is how easy it is to lose the opportunity to get it.  This is true of anything with a limited shelf life or a short print run or a specific edition that may no longer be available.  This is especially true of foreign media which has a shelf life even shorter than most.  So here's a list of mostly forum and some domestic media I'd like to grab that will cost me various parts of my soul to access. 

1.  MAISON IKKOKU.  This Japanese produced animated and print property from Viz Media has been around since manga switched over from the comic book format to these digest versions that populate our shelves.  In it's animated form it's been around since the VHS days.  It's 96 episodes long and 15 volumes of manga.  Both are very hard to find.  This story of an apartment manager and one of her tenants falling in love is sweet without being cloying and real without pandering.  There has been movement lately on Artist Rumiko Takahashi's other work for reissue.  My hope is this series gets another chance to run and I will have the funds to get it at the time.

2.  BATTLE ANGEL.  This is known as Gunm over in Japan and is currently split between two publishers.  An earlier 9 volume run that is difficult to find and an 18 plus retelling and expansion currently in print from Kodansha.  The OAV made back in the 90s is still kind of in print.  I hope that the earlier run gets a reprint.  If James Cameron is to be believed he wants to make this as an adaptation after the next Avatar trilogy is finished.  I will believe that when I see it.

3.  CHUNGKING EXPRESS.   The OOP dvd is fairly easy to find.  The OOP Criterion Blu Ray or DVD is not.  The latter has the best special features and the best visual quality.  My brain hurts watching the price rise.

4.  JOHN WOO'S THE KILLER.  This thing has been out multiple times but I would like the long out of print Criterion version as visual quality of the video doesn't change much between the blu-ray and various dvd versions. 

5.  NODAME CANTABILE.  This is an animated, live action and print franchise that I wish someone could pull together.  16 of the 25 manga volumes are here in English but were not finqished when Kodansha continued Del Rey's catalog.  The live action version never had a stateside physical release.  The anime is available streaming through Sony's Crackle service but only the first season.  This romantic comedy doesn't have a chance because it features students at a prestigious music college  and features classical music. 

6.  YOU'RE UNDER ARREST. This is a Manga and Animated Franchise ( and one live action feature) that needs to be collated.  The animated film is way oop and the second release with better quality is quite expensive.  While the later second and third seasons are readily available the first season is oop but has the distinction of two of its volumes being impossible to find for no earthly reason.  37-44 of Season 1 must be more hilarious than the others.  The manga only has 2 of 22 volumes here in English and that depresses me.  No stateside release of the live action film.

7.  ROBOT CARNIVAL.  This anthology film never received the DVD treatment here and the vhs copies are dinosaurs.  I wish Japan would remaster a blu ray.  I'd gladly import it as we share the same region code. 

8.  THE LEGEND OF BILLIE JEAN.  For a long time this wasn't available but a print on demand DVD exists and the visual quality is murky at best.  This is dying for a remastered blu ray or hell even just a remastered DVD. 

9.  SANCTUARY.  This 9 or so volume manga is way out of print and was released flipped originally.  I'd like to see a re-release unflipped.  Marketing this would be tough as it is very much of its time and aimed at adults. 

10.  READ OR DIE.  The best way to get all of this is through a long oop blu ray set that mimics the Japanese pricing structure.  I've priced out what would happen if I tried to get the original domestic DVDs and depending on the secondary vendors you're not really saving that much money.  I am saving my pennies now.

Looking over this list I am surprised to see that most of the print side on this list is from one company Viz media.  Battle Angel's case is unique as the artist jumped publishers and Viz only prints things from its Japanese counterpart.  Dark Horse holds You're Under Arrest and they tend to do a good job keeping their stuff in print but You're Under Arrest must have had especially cringe worthy numbers for sales to kill it after two volumes. 

The overall problem with seeing any of this come back is no one outside of the publisher knows exact sales numbers and how that squares with the licensing and production costs.  Maison Ikkoku has a chance to come back only because they are bringing back Ranma 1/2.  The latter had a lot more popularity due to the broad comedy.  MI has a devoted fan base hence the crazy prices for the manga and anime but that may not translate for another dip in the well. 

A lot of these things only get one shot before going away forever.  The only lesson learned is if you love it, support it and vote with your wallet.