Wednesday, December 24, 2003

"I've been down this road, walkin' the line ..." Dan Slott responds to all those groans over "She-Hulk" being pitched as "Ally McBeal meets Astro City":

"The term 'high concept' is Hollywood jargon. It just means you're coming up with a QUICK and EASY way to describe your idea. SPEED was pitched as 'DIE HARD on a bus.' MIAMI VICE was pitched as 'MTV cops.' Did Keanu Reeves hide in the bowels of the bus and cannibalize equipment to take out German bad guys? Did Don Johnson moonwalk while he was busting perps? No.

"So I can safely tell you that She-Hulk is not going to sing Al Green songs at her local bar while hallucinating about dancing babies. Yes, Ally McBeal is no longer on prime time. But there will ALWAYS be courtroom dramas: from PERRY MASON, to LA LAW, to THE PRACTICE, and shows that are still IMMENSELY POPULAR like LAW & ORDER and JAG. Using ALLY McBEAL in my pitch was just the fastest way to get the 'quirkiness' of what I wanted to do across."