Hey, hey, hey… You guys are out of control.  80 comments in, like, three hours!  (I guess the email blast may have helped 'prime the pump', so to speak.)  Also – thanks to those of you who pointed out my typos.  With friends like these, who needs editors?

Some have complained about the loss of all the stories from my old site… fear not!  They shall reappear.  We're just… a little busy… with this NBC stuff…
 
I thought I'd give you a bit of an update on the Pirate Movie.  As you probably know, Big Idea and Universal are producing a new VeggieTales movie starring those loveably surly Pirates Who Don't Do Anything.  I wrote the script way back in early 2003, before Big Idea Productions bankruptcy, and it sort of drifted along with the rest of the assets to Classic Media and the new Big Idea.  Several studios had seen it pre-bankruptcy, and once things settled down in '04 new conversations started up again.
 
So what's happening now?  We were all out at Universal last week to show them the storyboards for the entire film.  I know big studios are supposed to be a filmmaker's "worst enemies," but they actually had some really good feedback that will make the film stronger.  What do you know.  They've made a movie or two.  Some were even good.  So right now Mike and the boys in Tennessee (isn't that a band?) are working some new ideas into the boards.  Meanwhile, all the characters and sets are being built in Toronto at IDT Animation, the studio that has produced all veggie episodes post-bankruptcy.  (Formerly DKP.)  IDT Animation is just finishing their first feature film, Everyone's Hero, which was, until his death, being directed by Christopher Reeves.  So the Pirate movie will be their second theatrical.
 
Anyway… things are looking good.  We'll record voices sometime in September.  (I'll be hoarse for a while given all of Pa Grape's lines… oi vey.)  Mike and the boys are doing a great job with art and storyboards.  Longtime veggie editor John Wahba returned to the company from DNA in Texas (the Jimmy Neutron studio that recently imploded after finishing Ant Bully) to edit the film.  It's good to see old friends.
 
This is the film, of course, about which the Universal marketing team (same team that marketed King Kong) said immediately after my story pitch, "Are you sure it's Christian enough?"
 
Crazy times, eh?  Of course, we have Mel Gibson to thank for much of this.  Thanks, Mel!  Get well soon!  Be nice to the Jews, they're God's people!  (Didn't he watch VeggieTales?)
 
Stay tuned…