Saturday, December 02, 2006

Frankenfun aplenty!



MEETING THE VOICES FOR FRANKENSTEIN'S CAT

Been very busy once more hence absence of posts! Lots of designwork for FC has been turning up in my inbox so that's been my priority of late. This week and last week I've made visits to London, one trip being for a Voice Record for FC. Was delighted to meet the wonderful voice talent, including Jimmy Hibbert (playing FIFI, BIG TOP and THE MAYOR), who as well as being an actor is a writer for animation who I've worked with back in the day on Bob The Builder. There's also the hilarious Keith Wickham (DR FRANKENSTEIN, MR CRUMBLE and PIPSQUAWK) sweetheart Alex Kelly (providing LOTTIE our heroine with a wonderful voice) and the sound stylings of Teresa Gallagher (SWEENY, IGORA and LOTTIE'S MUM) who is a whizz with hungry Brain impersonations... hard to explain but when the show kicks off that'll make sense. Also got to meet Joe Pasquale who is the voice of NINE, Frankenstein's Cat, and a thoroughly loveable fellow he also proved to be. He nearly fell off his perch when my new chum Kirsten O'Brien turned up as a surprise guest at the record, as he and she used to present a show on BBC some time ago! So yes, was grand to see the work that went into the record, and also see just how much the actors are putting into this. It's all tremendously exciting to witness and be a part of. HUGE thanks to Dave Peacock for looking after us all. The picture above is the original cast of children I had illustrated for the picture book, but they've changed along the way...

BLOOMSBURY

Met up with the publishing house Bloomsbury on Thursday to talk texts. They're the publishers responsible for a little known book featuring a wizard school, Barry Potter or summatorother... Anyhoo, all went splendidly and there's interest there in a novel series I'm currently working on (INJun you know the one). Can't say much more than that as I'm waiting for their feedback but the meeting was surprisingly productive. It's nice to get such positive interest in my writing, especially as it's one thing I love to do about as much if not more than anything else. Everything's crossed for feedback next week!

HOT FUZZ TRAILER

Anyone who enjoyed SHAUN OF THE DEAD and SPACED should check out the trailer for those clever fellows' new movie, HOT FUZZ, on You Tube. It looks like a thing of great, great beauty. Hooray!

Bada Bling!

14 comments:

Tidyfiguremaker said...

You have been busy, haven't you! Looking forward to seeing Frankensteins Cat when it airs. And the possibility of a novel too, you are much too talented Curtis. Good luck with everything, I hope it all goes to plan for you.

Hot Fuzz looks like a blast, It's a definate for me that one.

Andrew Glazebrook said...

Doesn't Keith Wickham voice the Koala Brothers ? I'm sure I've seen his name on that show.

Hot Fuzz does look splendid in the extreme !!!

Anonymous said...

nice to the cat moving along. Hot fuzz looks hella funny and i thought hed be able to jump fences haha.

Anonymous said...

Hot Fuzz looks good. Have you got anything on You Tube?

Jo Bling said...

Andy TFM - thanks sir. The Novel thing is just that, a possibility, so I'm not going to get carried away, but it's very refreshing to get such positive feedback from someone in the industry out of the blue like that.

Glazey - I believe he probably is one of the artists in Koala Brothers (an adorable looking puppet show if ever there was one!)

Michael - am I right in thinking you're a new dad? Congratulations fella!

Cassie - the only YOU TUBE stuff of mine is BITENECK BEATNIKS, to which you can follow the link from the front page of the blog. That said, there might be Curious Cow somewhere there as well, who knows?

Anonymous said...

nice image.
funny and colorful.

Anonymous said...

Glad to see you got more out of Bloomsbury than me! Although to be fair you've got far better form:)
Hmmm Hot Fuzz.

Brian Sibley said...

Love the idea of Frankenstein's Cat... Do Dracula, the Mummy and the Wolfman also have pets?

Enjoy your blog and will be coming by to check on news updates - including (hopefully) a good reaction from Bloomsbury...

Anonymous said...

"there in a novel series I'm currently working on (INJun you know the one)."

Indeed I do, and very novel it is too. I'm rather excited about this and it's not even my book.

Joel said...

Dracula had a skeleton dog. He trained it to fetch stakes. Sometimes it would bury itself by accident.
The Mummy had a hawk, nice traditional Egyptian animal, but it kept taking bits of him to make its nest. In the end he swapped it for a scarab.
The Wolfman didn't have a pet but would sometimes pretend to be a huskie to make extra cash from hustling dog-shows.
Fantastic blog. Equally good comments section.

Jo Bling said...

Paul - try and try again would be my motto on the publishers front. Hey, remember that JK Rowling was turned down by just about every publishing house before Bloomsbury took a punt on Potter. Also, do take on board editorial suggestions as in the most part they're usually pretty well advised. Nothing may come of the Bloomsbury interest, so I shall not allow myself to get too excited.

Brian - I think Joel's had a stab at answering that question, although I suspect that in the world of Frankenstein's Cat the possibilities for weird pets is pretty endless, especially as the Mad Doctor is a bit of a wizard with a sewing needle!

INJun - thanks for your support as always, big fella!

Joel - nice to meet you sir and welcome to the world of the Smelly Cat. Joel is one of the writers on the Cat although I've yet to meet him. Judging by his cheeky banter he'll fit right in ;-)

Anonymous said...

Don't worry I'll keep on trying, I like my character too much to give up!
Editorial advice is fantastic, the editor at Orion gave me some great pointers.
Never cared for Potter, but Bloomsbury did publish one of my favourite kid's books, 'Holes', and if they publish yours that'll balance things out nicely:)
Dracula has a dog? Oo, it's coffin would look like a kennel. Cool.

Anonymous said...

nice post again, man. great job on this, looks like you are crazy busy!

Stephen M. Levinson said...

I cant wait to see this done! It looks like it'll be one hell of a show! Congrats!