Humbug, A Christmas Carol

Humbug, A Christmas Carol was published and released for Christmas 2009!

Story: A magical humbug that attracts the magical reindeer of Santa is brought to the town of Winterton by a little orphan girl. Winterton is a frozen town with frozen hearts and frozen people. The warmth of the little girl and the magical music of the humbug bring Santa, the reindeer and Christmas back to Winterton.

This has been an exciting Christmas and a lot has happened as a result of the publishing of the book. You can see the book and purchase it at the website http://www.humbugchristmas.com/

Here is a glimpse of some of the illustrations by Kienan Lafferty:

When Kienan was Illustrating the book he put Stephen (Creative Director), himself and me in the illustrations. Here are the clips along with the information on the dust jacket of the book:

Here you can see us all as villagers of Winterton. Kienan is also in another picture in the book...can you find him? Kind of a "Where's Waldo" thing...

The Creative Director for the book is Stephen Sobisky. For those of you who don't know Stephen and his background, he has been involved in many of the great films of the last 20 years. You can see his Entertainment Industry credits on the Internet Movie Database http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1657337/ Here are a few:
When we were designing the characters we had a tough time with the look of the main character, Mimi. The first versions were very typical looking and we wanted something special. I finally took some pictures of my daughter Mimi and used her eyes for reference and we got the look we wanted.

There was a challenge in creating Mrs. Sleet because the people of Winterton literally were frozen and covered with Ice. We had to design how they would look when they melted. Kienan did an excellent job of creating a very frigid frozen woman, then a warming and then filled with Christmas warmth:

Mayor Coldstone was also difficult to get right. He also went from extremely cold to very warm:
The bodies of Mrs. Sleet and Mayor Coldstone were also created to resemble icicles and to carry the theme of cold and ice. The warmth in the final look of Mayor Coldstone shows clearly in the final illustration of him and reflects the message of the book that love and warmth can come to anyone.

Kienan Lafferty did most of the illustrations in the book and gave it the overall look and feel however, Andrew Young, a very talented artist did two of them. His illustrations were the first that were completed for the book and they are the Old Window Washer and Santa and his Sleigh.
The illustrations in the book begin and end with a wide shot of Winterton. I was excited to do this because it shows the before and after. The first is very cold and the last is warm and filled with the love of Christmas. Here are the two illustrations:
This is not the last you will see of the Humbugs...there is a sequel in the works relating to another holiday. Soon we will let you know what it is.

Moonlight Sonata

This is a screenplay I have written. It was optioned by a film company in Hollywood. They re-optioned it for a second year and then we got the rights back. We are planning on making the feature film ourselves.

Story: Two British spies, involved in breaking the enigma codes discover that the Germans are launching the largest night air raid in history with the intention of destroying the city of Coventry. This is the story of two men who are against each other to the point they are willing to kill each other, but both are right.

Beau and the Beanstalk

Beau and the Beanstalk is a screenplay I have written and the story was created by me and my friend Curtis Linton. The book I have put together for Beau and the Beanstalk will be ready in a couple months! It is currenty being illustrated by Kienan Lafferty, the illustrator for Humbug, A Christmas Carol.

Story: Beau and the Beanstalk is a reverse of the fairy tale told from the point of view of an adolescent giant who is ridiculed in a magical kingdom in the clouds and climbs down a beanstalk to meet Jack, a hack-magician with a love of fire tricks and a passion for performing in the circus.
Here is some of the concept art created for the film and the book. The digital animation film will not be on the market for several years but the book will be out spring of 2010! Look for it soon.
I would love to hear what you think the story line is.

Cheeruppet World

I was asked to write a full season of scripts for this television production. I wrote 13 teleplays and each is based on a different "Life Skill" for children.

Story: Set in a magical toy store, a Shopkeeper and Toymaker help children gain life skills as they interact with the playful and magical "Cheeruppets." After the adventures the children talk about what they have learned in a fun, open discussion.

This is a fun project and will hopefully move into full production soon. You can see more at the website which was created by Sandman Studios:
Cheeruppet World

Race to Witch Mountain

We did the motion graphics visual effects for "Race to Witch Mountain." This was a fun, high-tech film and you can see what we did on our website at Sandman Studios:
Race to Witch Mountain

Speed of Light

This film is in development and I wrote the screenplay.

Story: Traveling the speed of light traumatizes a man as his mind expands and he sees from the experience and eyes of everyone and everything around him. He pieces himself together and struggles to stay alive as he learns to control his new abilities, discovers his wife's death was not an accident and her killers are after him.

We have created concept art for the plane and several of the scenes in the film:

Here is the speed of light Plane.

You can see that we built the plane and the setting in 3D on computer.

Here is the concept for the speed of light test flight with the plane.

Try to guess what is happening in this concept scene.


This is what happens when a hovercraft is taken into traffic.

I am currently writing the book version of Speed of Light and I am very excited to get it finished.

Lost in Love

I have written the screenplay for "Lost in Love." It is an adaptation of a stage play written by Melissa Bell.

Story: Inspired by the world famous music of Air Supply "Lost in Love" is a musical journey that captures the passionate atmosphere of the turn-of-the-last century as Lords and Ladies, royalty and emerging American wealth collide and a man and a woman must follow tradition or live for love.

The film will have 13 of Air Supply's greatest hits and Graham Russell has written 3 original songs for it. The songs in order of appearance in the film are:

1 Sweet Dreams
2 I Can Wait Forever
3 Lost in Love
4 Runaway (New Song by Graham Russell)
5 Making Love Out of Nothing at All
6 Here I Am (Just When I Thought I Was Over You)
7 Two Less Lonely People in the World
8 The One That You Love
9 A Little Piece of You (New Song by Graham Russell)
10 All Out of Love
11 Goodbye
12 Chances
13 Why Do I Love You (New Song by Graham Russell)
14 Every Woman in the World
15 Now and Forever
16 Even the Nights Are Better

This film is in pre-production and should begin filming in the spring of 2010.