it's showtime folks

but in a literal way because we have been working on shows not in the ALL THAT JAZZ way promise

Michael Schulman talks AWAKENING

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Hey everyone, it’s Matt, and it’s been a forever or two since we’ve sent one of these and I’ve never done one on this platform before so forgive it and me our trespasses against design, functionality, use.

Part of the reason it’s been a forever or two has been both Kel and I have been working on Shows. Like capital-S shows.

My show — more about that in a minute — is a ways away yet but hers opened on Monday at the Wynn Resort in Las Vegas.

It’s called AWAKENING and it is a proper goddamn Las Vegas S P E C T A C L E. Though even that feels inadequate; me and the kids and Uncle Brian and Bina and Grandpa Bob were with Kel for the debut last week and, I’m telling you, I have no idea how to tell you about this thing, about what it is or what it’s like. 

AWAKENING shares traits with other things I’ve seen or experienced but I’ve never taken in anything quite like it. It’s a fable, an opera, a myth and a musical, a play and a puppet show, and a magic show, and a dance revue about the power of magic, love, forgiveness, partnership, and creation. Broad and soaring and impossibly alive with ideas across every inch of its stage with an energy and identity all its own. I want to see it a dozen more times. At LEAST.

And Kelly Sue wrote it. 

From the outside, watching her work on it over the last few years, meeting the team that realized the show with her, it was hard not to feel like it was her SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE moment. All of Kel’s disparate skills and interests, her experience and education, the long and winding road of her journey as an author, or maker, or creator made her so uniquely qualified for the gig it was as if she’d trained for it her whole life.

Look, I’m obviously in the tank for it, and for her, so don’t take my word for it. Go to the Wynn Resort, go see AWAKENING, and tell me what other words there are to use. I’ve been trying for a week to capture it and promise you I have failed.

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I’ve been in and around Vancouver since June working on, uh, “the Godzilla show” for Apple+. That’s not our title but they haven’t released the title yet officially. I co-created it along with Chris Black of SEVERANCE and OUTCAST and have been serving as co-Executive Producer. I’m not sure what I can and can’t share about it yet. It’s a part of the Legendary MONSTERVERSE world. Godzilla’s in it. It’s ten episodes. Matt Shakman of WANDAVISION and FANTASTIC FOUR [and like a zillion other things] directed our first two episodes. We’re in production now. I hug Kurt Russell a lot theses days.

And Godzilla is a really cool guy!

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AWAKENING and uh UNTITLED GODZILLA MONSTERVERSE APPLE+ LEGENDARY SHOW were largely developing in parallel these last couple years. The result has been maybe the busiest year or two of our lives. Lots of travel, hard work, long hours, time apart, time away. From each other, from the kids, from any kind of work other than what the shows have demanded.

For Christmas we are getting one another sleep, rest, and one another’s company. Shh don’t tell.

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And while we’re at it, look at what Elsa and PK are up to:

Along with promising young newcomer James Tynion IV — write that name down, I think you’ll be hearing more from him in the future! — they’ve launched a Kickstarter for a horror film and comic called ROOM SERVICE.

 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/elsacharretier/room-service-a-live-action-horror-film-by-3-comic-creators?ref=cuzz2g--

James writes; PK directs; Elsa’s boarding it. Here’s the pitch:

We live in a world where everything is for sale, for the right price. Where the wealthy know there is no desire outside the reach of their wallet. “Room Service” is a brutal glimpse inside that world. Our protagonist is down on his luck, his family is on the verge of ruin, and with the help of the mysterious Caretaker, he might have found a way out of his trouble. But at what cost?

And the comic she and James are doing serves as a prequel about the Caretaker — how clients book his services, and the depths of the depravity he is willing to provide to the ultra-wealthy.

Elsa and PK are two of my favorite people in comics, and they’ve mastered how to use Kickstarter to build not only their audience and identities as creators, but to circumvent the traditional systemic levers of power and financing. They’ve already done it with their comics work, so why not film, too? I can’t wait to see it.

And I really have a good feeling about this Tynion kid. Guy’s really gonna go places. You heard it here first.

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Twitter seems to be very very Twitter these days. Kel wanted to share this for those of you interested in leaving that uhh ecosystem for the greener pastures of Mastodon:

Leaving Twitter and Starting Mastodon

Kelly Sue on Mastodon

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Oh! Oh, last thing, for parents of smart kids, spooky kids, funny kids, kids that read above their levels and punch above their weight and deserve books as smart spooky funny and punchy as they are:

STORIES TO KEEP YOU ALIVE DESPITE VAMPIRES by Ben Acker [of THRILLING ADVENTURE HOUR and like a zillion other goddamn things seriously Bing him] is a funny spooky YA book that reads like Rod Serling on a Fruity Pebbles binge. A fourth-wall busting, genre-spanning, clever, sweet, and funny horror mash-up for kids way past Bunnicula but not quite ready for Pennywise.

It’s glorious. It’s the kind of book I wish was around when I was a kid.

STORIES TO KEEP YOU ALIVE DESPITE VAMPIRES!

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Ok. I hope that was ok. I hope you’re ok too. Hopefully it won’t be a million years before we manage another one of these.

mf
vcbc