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First of all I want to thank you for creating the Gargoyles. Even after all these years I still enjoy revisiting them.
I was, of course, very disappointed when the show was cancelled and I would love to see a movie made but I will not hold my breath for waiting. My question for you is this:
If the movie ends up never coming to light, would you ever consider publishing a full length novel? I know that there is a lot of fan fiction out there but there is something about a real "live" book that is so much more satisfying. That and the fact that, as with many other fans, I am avidly curious as to your master plan.
I apologize if you have answered this question before, I browsed through the archives if the answere is there I missed it.
Thankyou for your time.
:)
Yeah, you must have missed it -- several times over.
Anyway, yes, I'd LOVE to write a novel (or eight) based on GARGOYLES. All I need is an interested publisher. Know any?
I am a digital imagery student and freelance artist in Arizona. I wanted to know how you got started working and if you can tell me about any companies that accept freelance artists for concept art, etc. And please keep the idea of that Gargoyles movie going!
All the animation companies go through phases of hiring and not hiring. You posted your question in early 2003, and I'm answering in late 2004, so I assume you haven't been waiting on me to pursue your goals.
My oft-repeated story is elsewhere in the ASK GREG archives under "Weisman, Greg". But the short version is that I've wanted to be a writer since grade school. I eventually got professional work as a freelancer at DC Comics. From DC, I transitioned to graduate school. While at graduate school, I interviewed at Disney and eventually got a junior executive position at Disney TV Animation. I developed and supervised numerous series for TVA, including, finally, GARGOYLES, which I then moved over to produce.
Do you remember the episode "Metamorphosis". In it Servarious theorizes that Gargoyles store solar energy during the day. However no one ever found out if it was an acurate theory or not, could you expand on this?
I tend to buy into Sevarius' explanation, but we intentionally did not make it definitive, and I don't have the scientific background to defend or attack the theory. But I like it personally.
you said that desedemona,othello,iago were not their real names just names in the credits later they were introduced as coldfire,coldestone,and coldsteel, you also said they would later retutn to join golith and the rest of the clan would they keep the names coldstone,coldfire,etc. or would they choose others?
For the sake of simplicity, after "Possessions" we would have stuck with the Coldstone, Coldfire and Coldsteel names. (Unless of course, we were depicting a flashback.)
Recently I rewatched my tape of one of my favorite World Tour episodes, "Grief". While there are so many things I enjoy in that episode, the thing that never fails to blow me away is when Jackal becomes the avatar for Anubis. Oh, the merging of the Packster and the Death God's voice is just... W-O-W, wow! I absolutely love Tony Jay's voice, it's so powerful and majestic with just the right amount of creepiness, great as Anubis just perfect for any role of quiet menance and dignified sophistication. The technique of mingling the two speakers was brilliant-- it was so powerful, and expertly done. Just wanted to tell you I loved it!
Thanks! I will take credit for the IDEA of merging the two voices. But of course credit for the execution of that idea goes to actors Tony Jay & Matt Frewer (and later Tony and Tony Shaloub) under the direction of Jamie Thomason. Plus the excellent soundwork of the gangs at the now defunct Screen Music Studios and at Advantage Audio.
Alright Greg Seems noone is talking about this anymore btu I'm going to ask anyway. So this live action movie that all us fans have been waiting for, Like where is it. I mean the first episode aired in 94 it's almost been 10 years now. I still care but does Disney, Does Buena Vista, Does Touchstone? and whats more Greg do you still care? I mean if it's just not going to happen the rumor may just need to end because after 10 years of waiting maybe people are loosing hope that it will ever happen. I want it to but somebody needs to get the movie out or noone will care anymore. Hell maybe it could be one of those things like Last unicorn wait 20 years then make a movie and everyone will love it but it will have to be pretty close to the series.
Doug
Doug,
It wasn't just a rumor -- not back when you posted your question. Touchstone was developing the live-action movie. They simply had not found a script that they liked.
Unfortunately, as I've since stated many times, the current administration at Touchstone has lost interest in the property and have placed all development on hold.
But Disney has NOT given up on Gargoyles. They are currently releasing the first season of the series on DVD on December 7th, 2004. This isn't a rumor either. This is the real thing. A chance for fans to PROVE to Disney that they are willing to spend hard-earned money to support Gargoyles.
It's a make-or-break opportunity for the series. If this DVD is successful -- truly successful, the sky's the limit. If it is not successful (or even only mildly successful), then I wouldn't expect Disney to do much more with the property in the short term.
What are the New Olympians?
They are a hybrid race, the children of "unions" between mortals of various species and the Children of Oberon. The current New Olympians are the descendants of the gods and monsters of Greek and Roman Mythology. These ancestors moved to the island of New Olympus to escape human persecution.
I noticed that in one episode a writer named Steve Perry is listed. One line makes me think this is the same man who wrote the "Matador" series of books back in the late 80's and early 90's: Hyena finds out that coyote is a robot and responds "Even better" with just a hint of sexual tension.
Is this Steve Perry the same one who wrote "Shadows of the Empire" for George Lucas, or am I seeing something that isn't there?
I honestly don't know. Steve was hired by Michael Reaves. I've talked to him on the phone a couple of times, but I don't know him or his resumee very well.
I've asked you what Titania told Fox, but I know now that you're probably only gonna answer it to your kids on your deathbed. So, I have a somewhat related question.
Was there actually something in the script? So did Kate Mulgrew actually say something? Was there something to whisper? Or was it just "Pst pst pst" so that you could establish some mystery for all those characters.
Now, the problem is, if the answer is no, I highly doubt you'll tell us, to keep the mystery that scene was meant to establish. But, if it is, you might tell us just "yes." But, having just written this, you might not tell us one way or another even if it is yes. I wonder, then, why I wrote this.
There was nothing specific written in the script.
On this website can you get pictures of gargoyles?
Not at ASK GREG, no.
I sure do ramble on and on. In your rules, you wrote that we can't send you any ideas, because of legal reasons. Is there a legal way to send you suggestions. I know if you stole one of my ideas, I wouldn't be mad, in fact, I would gloat. Go to all my friends and say "Hah, did anyone steal any of your ideas?!" But that's me. The only thing that would make me made is if you mutulate an idea I gave you, and then, all I would do, is send an email, or letter asking what's up, but I definitly wouldn't do anything drastic, like sueing. I'd never do that to you, you're too important to the future of Gargoyles. So is there a way to legally send you ideas, like agreeing to a lawyers contract or something? I would probubly sign it if there was one.
No. But thanks for the offer.
I must be a bit out of the loop, acording to the FAQ, the idea for 2198 was made a wile back, how did it take so long for me to hear about it? I didn't even know it exsisted until i read that question about it.
I don't know how to respond to this question. You tell me.
When I first came to this web site I only had one question, "why was the show cancelled?" I read the FAQ, and was greatly dissapointed. The fact that Disney wasn't satisfied with there compition with Power Rangers. Have you seen Power Rangers resently? The show is bombing, I can see that. They can't even make one spinnoff last over 2 years. I'm one of those few people who didn't like TGC, I feal it will be very hard to recover from that, if you even try to admit it exsists, but what if you proved to Disney that you deserve a second chance. The way most television is going, you should have no trouble at all. I don't watch TV anymore, cause all the good shows are being cancelled. There is no more competition. I say, why don't you try to write one or two amazing episodes, and prove to Disney that Gargoyles should never have been taken away from you. Then ask them if they watch TV anymore. If anyone says "NO", then it would explain why Disney hasn't came crawling back to you on hands and knees. There is crap out there. Take advantage of it. I miss TV. Give me a reason to watch again.
Ah, my dear Death Hawk...
It's frankly not that easy. There's always been crap on television, and there's always been hidden gems and big hits and everything in between. You perceive an overall change. I don't.
Power Rangers, for example, is STILL going strong from a ratings standpoint. No, it's not at the peak level it was at when it regularly kicked my ass in the ratings. And those spin-offs aren't failing... the constant renewal and reworking of the basic premise has become part of the marketing strategy.
But Gargoyles does have a chance right now... a big chance (and maybe it's last) with the DVD. If the fans buy the DVD when it is released on December 7th, 2004, it will prove to Disney that there is money to be made off the property. If they believe that, BELIEVE ME, they'll want to make that money.
who/what is the target audience for gargoyles. what kind of people are gargoyle fans?
The original primary target was boys, ages 6-11. But even at the time, we created the show to work on multiple levels to appeal to a MUCH wider audience: both genders, all ages (above two).
I don't know if there is a single typical model of a gargoyles fan, but from attending the annual conventions, I'd say the truly dedicated ones share a passion for good story-telling.
When does the new season start ?
You were asking that in January of 2003?
Were there more Scottish Gargoyles then Goliath's clan out there?,
Yes.
What are Gargoyles and why are they carved on the outer walls of Notre Dame Catherdal?
For a question THAT basic, I'm going to refer you to your local encyclopedia. In our series, Gargoyles was an ancient race of sentient creatures -- and the inspiration for all architectural carvings that you refer to.
Time to ramble...
Chapter L: "The New Olympians"
Story Editor: Gary Sperling
Writer: Adam Gilad
Director: Bob Kline
ORIGINS
Well, the Greek Myths of course. But that's not really what I'm talking about. As many of you know, The New Olympians was a concept -- originally created by Bob Kline -- that we began developing at Disney TV Animation even BEFORE Gargoyles. It was definitely a concept that evolved, but it was also a concept that we felt fit nicely into the Gargoyles Universe. So this episode was created as a backdoor pilot. At the time we had big plans for the Gargoyles Universe. Hopes that it would eventually evolve into Disney's equivalent of the Marvel or DC Universe. The World Tour expanded our Universe in many ways -- mostly for the sake of the Gargoyles series itself. But also to demonstrate that our universe had the "chops" to go the distance.
So the New Olympians were imported whole, like Athena from Zeus' head -- into the gargverse. The development for "The New Olympians" series focused on four major characters: Terry, Sphinx, Talos and Taurus. Terry and Sphinx were kept out of this episode on purpose -- so that we'd have fresh faces for the series if it went. Talos has a very minor role. But Taurus took a lead here. Other characters, such as Kiron, Ekidna, Helios, Boreas and, of course, Proteus were also part of the N.O. development. Though again, we left out a bunch of other characters: Xetes, Kalais, Medusa, Jove and Xanatos (yes, Xanatos) so that the whole series didn't become old news, should it get going.
The basic concept of the series, familiar to anyone who's attended a Gathering and seen the original pitch, was Romeo & Juliet. Terry is a human. Sphinx is a New Olympian. They are in love. But their "families" aren't making that love easy. This episode, would in essence be a PREQUEL to that series. Terry hasn't arrived yet. Elisa will help pave the way for Boreas' decision to finally reveal the New Olympians to the human world.
But another important inspiration was the work of Jack Kirby. In my recent ramble on "Eye of the Storm", I commented on how we strove to avoid a Kirbyesque Odin -- and didn't entirely succeed. Here, Kirby was a clear influence. I hope The New Olympians weren't a rip-off, but I can't deny that his Inhumans, his Eternals and his New Gods influenced us -- or me, at least -- when we were creating both New Olympus and our cast of characters.
Creating the cast was also interesting. We basically compiled a list of Greek & Roman myth-figures. Gods. Monsters. Titans. Etc. Then we tried to think about their descendants... Tried to think about which would be the most visually interesting. (A lot of the gods, for example, just look like glorified humans, so we tended to ignore them.) Originally, Kiron had the Taurus role and Medusa had the Sphinx role. But after talking with the artists, we made the double switch, because it was felt that having to animate a centaur and a woman with snaky hair on a regular basis was just inviting difficulties. As with many of these pragmatic decisions, I eventually fell in love with the new version -- and wouldn't want to go back, even if I could be assured of the highest possible animation quality.
In order to import this diverse group into the Gargverse, I posited that these were the descendents of mortals who mated with the Children of Oberon (or Mab). They therefore have incredible abilities and amazing appearances, but they are mortal. Some may have extremely long lives, but they do age. Still, before they left the human world behind, many of the original Olympians were treated as Gods. But some were treated as Monsters. As in Gargoyles, PREJUDICE would be a major theme of the series. In fact, if you look at the PREVIOUSLY of this episode, you'll see that it's fully thematic. All stuff about humans being prejudiced about Gargoyles. That's because we had nothing content-wise that we needed to set up. But if we set-up human prejudice, than it helped forge the twist of prejudice against humans, which Elisa would face in the episode. (I do wish we had thought to include Goliath's line: "Humans fear what they do not understand...")
So the New Olympians fled the Human World. They established a secret island and developed astounding technology... including a cloaking device. (I was always a touch disappointed with all the fog and mist in the opening scene. I wanted the skiff to suddenly be on the open sea, with nothing around for miles. The fog allowed for the notion that something might be hiding BEHIND it. I didn't want that. Still, I think the idea gets across. And the shimmer effect is nice. Plus, I like how Goliath abruptly spreads his wings when he enters it. When my daughter Erin saw the city finally materialize, she said: "Wow!")
OLD LINES IN NEW CONTEXT
Were we just out of dialogue ideas, or were we trying to make a point or an inside joke or something. I'll let you decide...
Goliath: "We cannot wage war against an entire city."
Elisa: "You'll have to do better than that."
VOICE WORK
Michael Dorn wound up playing Taurus and the late Roddy McDowell as Proteus. Dorian Harewood, who was originally cast as Boreas, also wound up playing Talos. But none of these three were our original choices for those rolls. Instead we cast three people who I thought would be perfect for their parts. But none hit it. It was one of our rare recordings that DIDN'T work. So we fell back on Michael to play the very Worf-like Taurus. (This sometimes bothers me as the voice is exactly the same as Coldstone's. But ultimately you go with the best hand you have at the time.) Dorian ended up doing double duty as Talos and was terrific. And of course, Roddy was just brilliant as Proteus.
What's interesting is that Proteus himself is not the greatest actor. Erin noticed... "There's something different in his voice." Of course, it's Keith David PLAYING Proteus playing Goliath. (Which is always fun.) And Keith hits the mark with precision. As does Salli & Michael when they're playing Proteus playing Elisa & Taurus. Sure Proteus always LOOKS the part -- thanks to his shape-shifting abilities. And I suppose he's less of a ham than Sevarius. But he never quite takes the time to truly "inhabit" his roles. Certainly, while playing Elisa and then Goliath, there are a number of small tip-offs in his choice of words that are just wrong. Like can you really imagine Goliath saying: "Who's that guy?" One assumes that his performance as Taurus' dad is equally off the mark.
The walla in the Senate House when Elisa is on trial isn't my favorite. We just didn't get enough coverage, so it repeats and repeats.
PREJUDICE
All of the New Olympians we see are prejudiced. Every one. Some are worse than others. Boreas is well-meaning, but wrong. Taurus is narrow-minded. Talos is, at best, only pragmatic -- not morally outraged by Elisa's treatment. Most of the others are just flat out racists. "New Olympians fear what they don't understand." I'm sure somewhere on the island there were some more enlightened individuals, but we made a point of NOT showing them.
I wanted to do a few things with that theme. (1) Show that prejudice breeds prejudice. The New Olympians have some legitimate grievances against the human race, but they've learned the wrong lessons from their ancient persecution. (2) Of course, we wanted to play the irony of the monsters being afraid of the "Humans of Legend". Elisa tells the Gargoyles to hide when they first land on the island. And she's the one that the New Olympians fear. They have "no quarrel" with the Gargoyles. And the best solution that even Boreas and Taurus can come up with is to "Quarantine" our girl. (3) There was a three. I had it in my head a minute ago. Now, for the life of me, I can't remember what it was.
Maybe it had something to do with Prejudice only truly being able to be attacked one person at a time. I went to an all boys high school. We were all so deathly afraid of being called homosexuals that a culture of homophobia was ingrained into all of us. It wasn't like I was going around gay-bashing. I like to think that even then, I had the sense and the control to stifle my prejudices. But I can't deny I had them -- probably still have them to some extent, unfortunately. Anyway, then I went to college. Acted in a couple plays with a guy I really admired -- both as an actor and as a human being. Became good friends with this guy (who had the amazing name Steve Wraith). THEN I discovered he was gay. By that time, I didn't care. He had personally won me over -- in a slightly less dramatic fashion then how Homer Simpson learned to accept gays after John Waters saved his life. Steve never saved my life, but I'm afraid the metaphor is VERY apt. I haven't seen Steve in twenty years, but I owe him a lot. A few years later my cousin came out. After that, many if not most of my friends came out. My sister. Etc. Steve paved the way to make me a better person. Conceptually, we can all talk about dismissing prejudice, but I have this sneaking suspicion that the only way we really learn is one human being at a time. That's why Goliath vouching for Elisa was ineffective. People are doomed to HAVE to figure things out for themselves. And unfortunately, some never do.
WHO KNEW THESEUS WAS SUCH A BASTARD?
And so we put Taurus through that process. He meets a human. His distaste is palpable. He knows the story of the Minotaur, his ancestor. [Now Theseus is one of my all time favorite characters from Myth. But I couldn't resist flipping the tale of the Labyrinth and telling it, if just for a few seconds, from the Minotaur's point of view.] But Taurus will learn to respect humans - one human at at time. Elisa and Taurus actually have a lot in common. Both are cops. Both have/had fathers who are/were cops. But as Elisa says, he's "got some funny ideas about justice."
Elisa is clearly more enlightened. In part, that may come from her own history. She grew up as a person of color in a largely white society. She's no stranger to prejudice. Being both African-American and Native American, it's possible that she has even faced some rejection from African-Americans and Native Americans as well. Clearly, based on her openness with regards to Goliath and the Gargoyles, she learned her lessons long before we met her. Pretty much from the moment she realized that Goliath could talk -- and was therefore sentient by human standards, she treated him as an equal. I always admired her for that. Unlike the New Olympians, she didn't let the prejudice she faced turn her into a bigot.
Taurus will eventually get the message. His prejudices don't just vanish. But he's learned something.
SOME NEAT MOVES
I like the sequence where Goliath comes to break Elisa out, and Proteus takes advantage of the situation by first turning into Elisa and then Goliath. (When Erin first saw him as Elisa, she said, "Uh oh." which is pretty much exactly what he was going for.
I like how Taurus threatens to fire Helios.
I like how Goliath turns to stone in Proteus' cell.
I like how Elisa takes charge -- and basically FORCES Taurus to partner up with her. She has two tip offs that Proteus is posing as Goliath. First the fact that he didn't turn to stone and blames it on the cloaking device affecting the sun's rays. Of course, Elisa knows that it's not literally the sun that turns a gargoyle to stone. It's his or her biological clock, which is often triggered by sunrise. But the real clincher is Proteus' plan to blow up the Collonadium. Elisa knows Goliath would NEVER do that.
I like when Taurus tries to express his admiration -- and still can't do it without insulting her species. Elisa takes it in stride: "I'll choose to take that as a compliment." Progress is slow.
THE NEW OLYMPIANS
We end the episode with a pretty blatant pitch for giving the New Olympians their own show. It's certainly shameless. But I make no apologies. I still contend that THE NEW OLYMPIANS would make a GREAT t.v. series.
Anyway, that's my ramble. Where's yours?
third year in a row taht i've posted the first question of the new year...
hey greg, when will you be caught up enough that you get to this question????
or when will we finally get a new Ask greg program running... *sigh* 2003 maybe guys??
Well, the good news is I finally got through 2002.
Today is November 19, 2004. And I'm answering the first question of 2003.
Ask Greg has improved some over the last few months, but we still have work to do.
Okay I have been watching this show scince I was in the 5/6 grade and have always loved it and I got to wander after reading questions from people like us, do you ever wander if we have lives of our own?
P.S. I am a senior in high school and did anybody have any intentions of Goliath and Elisa getting together. You have to agree they are cute together.;)
I'm sure you have your own lives. Unless you have amazing typing skills for a zombie.
And, yes, we had long range plans for Goliath and Elisa.
Hey Greg, Here's a production/episodic question, First the production question When you were producing the Avalon World Tour. Were there problems with the actors? It is because only Salli, Keith Frank and Bridgitte were the only principal cast? Next, The episodic question, Why wasn't the entire clan included in the A.W.T. it wouldn't been cool seeing the whole clan traveling the world.
There wasn't any problem with ANY of the actors. We made a creative choice to focus on a few characters for the trip. We felt it would be WAY too unwieldy to take Hudson & the Trio along as well.
i am a great fan of your work. i know that gargoyles finished along time ago, but i was wondering if there was anything you will be working on in 2003 for disney or anybody else. also could you please give a brief description
Thanks, Frank.
Of course, it's 2004 now. Here's a sample of how I've been keeping busy:
I worked a bit on "Bionicle: Mask of Light"
I wrote a number of episodes for "The Batman" and a couple for "Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!", plus one for "Alien Racers".
Right now, I'm working on the second season of W.I.T.C.H. (But I had nothing to do with the first season.)
Hello Greg,
I'm a Gargoyles italian fan (and i'm ready to bet, the BIGGEST Italian Fan)
I have many questions to ask, but the most important is about the Movie Status:
- Have you noticed that in this period movies about superheroes, comics/cartoons-heroes and, most of all, Fantasy adventures (some citation: X-men,Spiderman,DareDevil,Hulk,The Lord of The Rings,Harry Potter ecc..) are VERY poular? This could be the right moment to find, at last, a good productor,I think, moreover now that 3D technology is so advanced you cold do great things whit this movie..
Are there any news about this?
If productors think the series is not popular enough, why don't you relance it in television, or at last, have you ever think to make it all in comics? (I mean all the episodes)
I study to become a comic-drower and I know that the italian Disney redaction is actually the most productive in Europe (maybe you already eared about "W.I.T.C.H", or you will..)-If you want some other notice about this, you could contact me by e-mail: ritamico@tiscali.it , or give a look at me and my boyfriend's site: http://pk.immaginario.net
Anyway, I really hope to see soon "Gargoyles The Movie" at my Cinema ;)..Belive me, I perfectly know what it means to create your own characters and see them grow up, wishing them to become famous. So never give up, ok?
Thanks for your attencion,
Rita Micozzi
Anyway, I really
I'm afraid the ONLY live-action movie news I have is that Touchstone is no longer pursuing the project.
I think you've got an exaggerated view of my power over the project. I'd love to make a movie, a television show, a comic book, ANYTHING.
It took me years to convince them to release the first season on DVD. Buy that in huge numbers, and that'll make convincing Disney to do something else much easier.
It is so funny that you brought up WITCH a full two years ago, long before I'd heard of the property. Now, I've read all 27 issues of that DPI comic book. And I'm producing and story editing the second season of the t.v. series.
If Gargoyles isn't going to be renewed would you mind revealing alll your secrets? For example why was King Arthur awakened and how exactly is Samson and his resistance going to defeat the Space-Spawn occupying Earth?
I have not -- and may never until my dying day -- give up hope for Gargoyles to come back in some medium somehow, sometime.
Can you give me a family tree of oberon and titiania's children across the centuries? I can't figure out if Puck is Alexnder Xanatos is pucks nephew or not. I would really like to know about Puck's/owen's secret love that you mentioned earlier too.
I'm not going to reveal anything new at this time, but I will summarize what I've already revealed:
Lord Oberon is the son of Queen Mab.
Lord Oberon married Titania (who became Queen Titania after Mab was overthrown). (Note: Oberon intentionally did not take the title of King. Retaining his "Lord" title is his semi-skewed attempt at being more... egalitarian.)
Oberon and Titania have two children together: one male and one female. I know exactly who they are, but I'm keeping their identities and personas secret for the time being.
Oberon also has at least two sons by mortal women: Merlin and the changeling boy from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream".
Titania has one child with the mortal Halcyon Renard. This is Janine Renard, a.k.a. Fox.
Fox married David Xanatos. They have one child: Alexander Fox Xanatos.
Puck, a.k.a. Owen Burnett, is not directly related to ANY of these individuals.
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