When last we left our intrepid blog, the idea of Eldritch had languished for a good while in the dank, dark recesses of my brain...
Recently rewatching the delightful Strange series (starring Richard Coyle, better known to some as the legendary Jeff Murdoch in the UK version of Coupling (still one of the classic comedy series, and written by none other than Steven Moffat, latterly of Dr Who fame, but enough sidetracking...)), the idea of Eldritch resurfaced.
Whilst the idea itself isn't original (mix up equal parts of Constantine, Buffy, Angel, Legion, Prophecy and throw in a tad of Kolchak, a pinch of detective-noir and a soupcon of any other supernatural TV show you can name), hopefully it'll be entertaining. In any event, the main thing is (as ever) for me to have fun with it and if others like it too, it's a bonus :)
A while ago now, I'd passed the stalled initial script to the talented Mac to see if he could jumpstart it, and for various reasons, neither of us had done much about it. However, I've recently gotten back into Moviestorm in a big way (mainly since the increase in quality mods being released, starting with Chris Ollis' excellent Moddingstorm packs). After playing around with it a little last year (which ended up with Strange Worlds and Strange Worlds: The Beast of Eastbourne for the annual TMU Roger Thong contest (which reminds me; where's my damned thong, Ken?!?), I decided after the latest Odyssey episode to sit down and play around with it some more. And quickly realised that Eldritch stood a good chance of now being able to be made.
A swift PM or two to Mac, and the wheels started turning again. Within a few days, we had thrashed out the basic premise (updated somewhat since I acquired Chris' excellent Castle, Horse and Peasant mods, which necessitated a change in some of the flashback sequences, but made it much more visually interesting as a result) and, whilst the redoubtable Scot hammered away at his keyboard, I started blocking out some scenes and generally fiddling about to start to put the initial vision together.
I had Mac in mind for a main role anyway, and was lucky enough to get the talented Bezzer on board to play another of the recurring characters in the story, Zack (his interpretation of the part and his great voice, although initially somewhat different from what I expected, actually fit the character really well, as I'm sure you'll agree when you see the first part of the story). My old pal Norrie was a shoe-in for another pivotal role, which I'm glad to say he agreed to play, and with LewisQ aboard, Fospherous and that talented bloke KV, the cast began to fill out with some quality Brit actors.
The main female role was never going to go to anyone other than my lovely wife (who, after all, brought the original character so vividly to life as we sat around the gaming table so very long ago, it now seems), and she was (and is) very excited about this project; more so than anything else I've done upto now. I might even be able to convince her to write for it, which would be very cool.
And, naturally enough with me being the director and all, I wanted to do the part of Eldritch myself.
So, whither the future and the direction of Eldritch? I've got more ideas bubbling away (after all, there are 2 years of twice weekly game sessions to base stories off, and the characters themselves have rich backstories that I'm aiming to leak tidbits from as the series progresses) and, as a "side project" to Odyssey, it's nice to be able to lay aside sci-fi from time to time and stretch my wings a little into a different area.
Well, that about wraps it up for the initial blurb about the mini-series. The script is still in development, but expect the first part to debut very soon... very soon indeed... Keep watching TMU and you might be surprised... and hopefully, you'll enjoy the first installment of Eldritch - Apocalypse Then!
In the meantime, here's a few screenshots to be going on with...
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