John August

Projects

Big Fish, the musical

Big Fish, Broadway, News

As [announced](http://www.playbill.com/news/article/151625-Producers-Reel-in-a-Whopper-for-Broadways-Big-Fish-Musical-Susan-Stroman) [today](http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/08/susan-stroman-signs-on-to-direct-stage-musical-of-tim-burtons-big-fish/), we’re doing Big Fish as a Broadway musical, aiming for Spring 2012.

Susan Stroman is directing and choreographing. Andrew Lippa wrote music and lyrics. I wrote the book. Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen are producing.

It’s based on Daniel Wallace’s novel and my script for the 2003 film.

This isn’t one of those announcements where some people had lunch and said, “Hey, maybe let’s try to do a show.” It’s written. Two acts. Amazing songs. We’ve read it and sung it forty times for lots of different people.

Studious readers of the blog and my Twitter feed may have noticed I’ve been in New York City a lot. This is why.

I’ve had to pass on writing and directing jobs because I’m unavailable — but couldn’t explain why. This is why.

I’ve learned how to sing passably. This is why.

I’ll have much more to write about the show in the weeks and months (and hopefully years) ahead. Broadway is a completely different world than Hollywood, a parallel universe in which many things are better for writers — but also more complicated.

All the hard work getting the show to this point will no doubt be eclipsed by the hard work getting it to the stage. I know I’m lucky to be working with veterans.

I’ve approached this whole experience — a six-year journey — as a fascinated newcomer. I’m excited to share what I’m learning.

Born on the Fourth of The Nines

QandA, The Nines

questionmarkIn The Nines, was there a particular reason you chose to make Dahlia and Gavin’s birthday the same, November 21st?

— Guarionex
Florida

answer iconIf you look through the screenplay of The Nines in the [Library](http://johnaugust.com/library), you’ll see that many scenes in the second section of the movie are basically unscripted.

Here’s that scene as written (italics in original):

INT. SUSINA COFFEESHOP – DAY

Gavin meets with Dahlia Salem. She’s pretty, funny, and very cool.

They talk about the other pilot (Gatin’s), the role, and how fucked up it is to be having these double-top-secret conversations. It goes well. They seem to genuinely like each other.

When filming these scenes, I was beside the camera as it was rolling, telling the actors what to talk about. I told Dahlia that she and Gavin had the same birthday, and she went with it. (In fact, she misunderstood at first, and assumed that she and Ryan Reynolds had the same birthday.) Ultimately, it didn’t really matter what they were talking about, just that they were talking and seemed to click.

All of Part Two was shot essentially this way. Even in scenes with traditional dialogue, I would “wind the clock back” a minute and have the actors talking about something else, eventually getting to the text of the scene.

The conceit of this section is that it’s a half hour episode of a reality TV show, so I needed lots of little pieces to suggest the conversations have been stitched together in editing. Non-scene conversation got the right rhythms goings.

Part Two was the last section we shot, and by far the most fun. It was like real-time writing. A lot of things that came up in the moment could easily be incorporated; I’d say something, then have Ryan say it. Melissa McCarthy talks about buying a house because just that day she bought a house.

The Nines was a very special case, and the only time I’ve done it. I wouldn’t suggest trying such non-writing in your own scripts unless there’s a particularly good reason for it.

Sales figures for The Variant

Follow Up, The Variant

questionmarkJust wondering if you’d be willing to share sales figures on “The Variant.” How many copies sold? I’d like to get a gauge on how feasible using the digital market is over print copies.

— Jeremy W. Bouchard

answer icon[The Variant](http://johnaugust.com/variant), a Borgesian spy-thriller short story, was my first experiment with self-publishing on the Kindle platform. You can find it on Amazon [here](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0029ZAPRW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=johnaugustcom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0029ZAPRW).

As of March 31st, I’ve sold 4,608 copies through Amazon at 99 cents. I get 35 cents on each, earning me $1,613.

The majority of these sales came in the first six months. I now sell between 10 and 45 copies per month.

variant sales chart

I also sell The Variant as a [direct download](http://johnaugust.com/variant), for which I give up only a small transaction fee. I’ve sold 740 copies, earning $732.

I haven’t tried selling The Variant through iBooks because, honestly, it’s a massive pain in the ass. As annoying as Amazon’s DTP scheme can be, Apple’s is byzantine. There are aggregators (like Lulu) that take some of the sting out of it, but for a surprisingly large cut of the action.

If self-publishing were more than a hobby for me, I’d definitely focus more energy on getting the maximum value out of both The Variant and its successor, [Snake People](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004H8GF0U/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=johnaugustcom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004H8GF0U). (Which, by the way, is desperately in need of some reviews. If you’ve read it and liked it, I’d appreciate some feedback on its Amazon page.)

I have a few book-like projects I hope to put out this year, but I haven’t made firm decisions about what form they will take. They might be physical books like [A Book Apart](http://www.abookapart.com/)’s great little tomes, Kindle-able ebooks, PDF/ePub combos, or even iOS apps. Ultimately, it will depend on what’s best for the content, and which can best reach the audience.

Making the original Prince of Persia

Prince of Persia, Videogames

Jordan Mechner, my friend and collaborator on several projects, has a [terrific post-mortem](http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014634/Classic-Game-Postmortem-PRINCE-OF) on his original Prince of Persia videogame over at the GDC Vault. If you’re interested in game design, it’s definitely worth checking out.

The videogame world is still so young that the study and analysis of its history is largely in the hands of its creators. I wonder how long that will last.

Here’s the test, I guess: Who will be the first person to make a living as a full-time videogame theorist? Not a reviewer or industry pundit, but the guy who creates context in articles entitled, “The Side-Scroller and the Dissolution of Self.”

Videogames are certainly a legitimate field of critical study. But I wouldn’t want to lose the primacy of hearing pioneers talking about what they did and why.