Mark Mayerson has just led us to a link of famous artists who'd illustrated the work of Edgar Allan Poe. Golden Age Comic Book Stories is a site that offers a lot of art other than Poe, so spend some time searching around this great site. I've seen most of the Poe pictures before, but it's somewhat amazing to have it all gathered in one place. Looking at the storyboard sections Jason McDonald has done, you get the inspiration he's found in some of these past artists.

The Baltimore Museum of Art currently has on exhibit (through Nov 1st) a show featuring paintings by artists who were inspired by Poe and his works. The original pieces by Edouard Manet from his 1875 illustrated book of The Raven are part of the show, as are several paintings by Odilon Redon and even a Robert Motherwell. The script writer for POE, Maxine Fisher, visited the show this past Sunday (she was given a private showing prior to its opening) and was enthralled with what she saw. This sounds as if it's worth a visit before the show closes next month.

The next month could be a crucial one in the course of this film. The film may go into full production soon, and it's hoped that the next week will reveal all.

In the past couple of years the script has been developing enormously in my mind. I have a lot I'd like to add to it and think it'll take a deeper turn before we get going full out. I've done a lot of reading about Poe and would like to get some of it into the story. Things shouldn't turn too drastically, but it will certainly enrich the script, at least of the bio section of the story. The gestation period is probably a good thing for the film. I don't think I've had this much time to consider all the parts of a script on any other project. Of course it was not something I'd chosen, but it's undoubtedly for the better of the final film.

There's been an enormous amount of information, bad and good, about Michael Jackson since his death June 25th. A month since the burial, and Larry King is still doing his daily show about the superstar. Digging, digging, digging into the dirt of the poor man's life.

One aspect of his life is not being explored, and I find it quite curious. He apparently had a strong interest in the work of Edgar Allan Poe and his life. In fact, a BBC news report states that a movie written by Phillip Levin would be his first major film role. The article states that the singer "has been looking a long time for the ideal story in which to take his first starring role". Production would start late the following year.

Called The Nightmares of Edgar Allan Poe, the European-funded project was a dream for Jackson. “Michael says by the time he’s done preparing for this, the audience isn’t even going to know it’s him, with the major makeup,” co-executive producer Gary Pudney told USA Today’s Jeannie Williams in 2000.

Obviously, nothing came of the movie, and I'm curious as to what would have happened had it gone forward. I'd also like to know what stopped the film from going forward.

This week's New Yorker magazine features an excellent article about Edgar Allan Poe written by Jill Lepore. Because it is the 200th anniversary of Poe's birth several books have been released featuring some of the lesser known pieces, and this article is basically a review of these books.

The article talks about Poe's propensity to begin his writing with the end of the piece. As an example, they break down his poem, "The Raven." It makes some sense, however it certainly wasn't the method we utilized in writing the script. Chronology dominated our script and moved Poe's life and the stories he wrote forward to tell, as simply as possible, his story.

Jill Lepore certainly gets it right when she says: "Poe’s world was Andrew Jackson’s America, a world of banking collapse, financial panic, and grinding depression that had a particularly devastating effect on the publishing industry, where Poe sought a perch. His biography really is a series of unfortunate events."

This was an underlying and obvious approach to the script, and it was equally as obvious how troubling the lack of money was in Poe's life and death. His beloved, Virginia, died for lack of proper medical attention. He, himself, died in a pauper's hospital. Had he had proper attention he might have lived - or might not even have been kidnapped and dragged about town to cast multiple votes. In short, he probably would have lived a significantly longer life.

His life was every bit as tragic as his stories.

Go here to read Jill Lepore's article.

Despite the fact that artwork isn't moving forward, the project still lives. There's been some tightening of the script and plenty of research to move the script into an even stronger light.

Lately I've been obsessed with EAPoe's death. It's somewhat mysterious, but the consensus seems to be what was called "cooping."

Poe was found in a near coma state, passed out in a tavern and wearing someone else's clothes. He'd been there a while when a doctor who knew him in Baltimore was called to help the stranger. He was taken to a hospital where he died three days later.

Poe had given up alcohol at this time in his life. He'd had an evening dinner with some friends and had purchased a ticket to Philadelphia that same night. Hours later he was found in this state. It was an election day, and this seems to have been the problem. Corruption in the system at the time was met with gangs who would, basically, kidnap those who could read or write. They then would beat and drug them and pour alcohol down their throats. Dress them and force them to vote under the names of dead people. They'd then change their clothes and repeat it over and over getting the kidnapped victims to vote numerous times for some candidate. Poe was a victim of alcohol poisoning and didn't get the care he needed in a public hospital.

In our script, we didn't tackle this part of the story and my question is whether or not we should add it into the fold. I'm not sure it's appropriate or necessary to what we've done, but it is a good story.

Yesterday was the 200th anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe's birthday. There were various small celebrations around the country, all of them buried in the news under the election of our 44th President. Understandably so.

 New York, locally, had an actor playing Poe at the Poe House in the Bronx. This took place on Saturday. I found it amusing that the sign in front of the building misspells his name with an "e" - Allen. There were celebrations in several other cities, most notably Virginia, and many of the cities now seem to be claiming Poe as their own. Even an article in the LA Times trying to discern who "Poe belonged to."

Since he moved around so much during his lifetime, it's no wonder that there are many sites that claim him. I can name no fewer than four sites in NYC, where he lived.

 However, I would like to visit the Bronx site, a preserved house, sometime in the not-too-distant future. We do have an excellent reading, by Joanna Scanlan, of a letter from Mrs. Gove Nichols regarding a visit to this building and her reactions to the family and the small home. It would be nice if I could get some photos to illustrate the letter.

 Things are looking up on the POE front, and hopefully we'll be in production soon.

We've completed a full minute of animation that looks quite good. Our plan is to have a longish trailer to take to Toronto to presell the film. We have some help now in trying to make some film sales and hopefully to raise the rest of the money we're seeking to put the film together. Things are looking pretty good.

We'll show part of the film in Ottawa at the animation festival for our retrospective there. This will happen in September, and hopefully by then we'll be in full production. We've shown part of this last year at MOMA and the response was overwhelming. In Ottawa, we'll include the new animation. 

A lot of additions and alterations have gone on which undoubtedly will help restructure and develop the film.

The holidays are finally behind us, and we're slowly getting back to work. Matt Cllinton is available at the moment, so I've had him looking back at Ms. In A Bottle. The storyboard really needs an overhaul since Jason McDonald's storyboard is stunning, but the continuity doesn't always work. Matt is backing up from the initial scenes he'd animated. (You can see a bit of these on the "animation test" page.) The sailor wakes up on a ship thrashing about in a storm. He's thrown from the bed and makes his way above board to see what's happening. Matt did a bang-up job with these new scenes, and they're a great addition to the film.

 The best part is that it's so much fun working on this film again. I hope we can get into it again full force  . . .  and soon.