Tickets are on sale now on the Sky website. Sunlight Serenade train, Santa and Pablito, Exodus Express, Murder on the Lamy Line… and many more to come in the new year.
Books make wonderful gifts, you kn0w. Especially AUTOGRAPHED books, which are also collectibles.
And Beastly Books has hundreds of signed books… my own work, of course, plus a huge range of titles from the writers who have visited Santa Fe and the Jean Cocteau since 2013. Hardcovers, paperbacks, SF, fantasy, thrillers, mystery, history, romance, you name it.
A few years back, Hidetaka Miyazaki and his incredible team of game designers, the creators of the DARK SOULS videogame series, reached out from Japan to ask me to help them create the backstory and history for a new game they were working on. Now, video games are not really my thing — oh, I played a few back in the dawn of time, mainly strategy games like RAILROAD TYCOON, ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS, and MASTER OF ORION — but this offer was too exciting to refuse. Miyazaki and his team from FromSoftware were doing groundbreaking stuff with gorgeous art, and what they wanted from me was just a bit of worldbuilding: a deep, dark, resonant world to serve as a foundation for the game they planned to create. And as it happens, I love creating worlds and writing imaginary history.
So I did my bit, and handed off to my new friends in Japan, and they took it from there. And years passed. Videogames are as big as movies these days (bigger, actually)… and take just as long to create.
We wrapped principal photography on NIGHT OF THE COOTERS back in August, you may recall. That’s our adaptation of the classic short story by the one and only Howard Waldrop. Shot entirely in greenscreen in Santa Fe, from a screenplay by Joe Lansdale. Directed by Vincent d’Onofrio, who also starred. After that we turned it over to the wizards at Trioscope, who have been busily working on it ever since with their groundbreaking animation process.
They’re still working. It’s our hope to have a finished film by February, maybe March.
Meanwhile, though, we did put together a short teaser trailer for COOTERS. We debuted it in Montreal at the World Fantasy Con, where Howard received the Lifetime Achievement Award. And we screened it again during the Trioscope panel at the recent San Diego Comicon (which Vincent and I joined via Zoom).
The second season came started streaming recently, and Parris and I have binged the whole thing. I would not recommend the series as a way to pass your course in Russian history, mind you. Certain… ahem… liberties have been taken. But as entertainment, we love it. It is funny, exciting, full of twists and turns and an amazing cast of characters. And bawdy. Very very bawdy. You thought there was a lot of sex in GAME OF THRONES? Hoo hah. The dialogue is sharp, witty, often laugh out loud hilarious, and the cast… there are a LOT of fine actors in this one, but I have to single out Nicholas Hoult. His take on Tsar Peter III is a delight… and it still boggles me when I remind myself that this is the same guy who played J.R.R. T0lkien so well in TOLKIEN. That’s some range.
HUZZAH!
I have no idea where they can possibly go third season… though likely not where history went.
It’s finally time to open the doors officially for Santa Fe Sky Railway, and we’re all proud as punch about it!
It was a hard road but well worth it when we finally get to see the train pull up to Santa Fe station for the first time, come check us out down at the Santa Fe railway to find out more about what rides are available and what’s coming next year.
The Stagecoach Foundation continues to impact New Mexicans and provide pathways into the film & TV industry, but we can’t do it alone; it’s only with our partners that we can provide quality training & job placement. One such partner is Stan Cassio and his post-production company, Mango NM.
Stagecoach Foundation and Mango NM’s collaboration creates opportunities for New Mexicans in the post-production arena. Having a pool of post-production professionals is essential to a thriving film industry. Mango NM has donated 5 editing bays, a teaching station and is committed to training and hiring New Mexicans – Oh, and did we mention the training is FREE?
Mango NM is a state-of-the-art, full service post-production company providing digital dailies for Santa Fe Studios and Q Studio on productions such as Perpetual Grace, Goliath and Roswell, NM.
Stan Cassio’s generosity and expertise are essential in our success, and we couldn’t be more grateful. Thank you, Mango, NM!
Find out more about Stagecoach Foundation and how you can make a difference too.
Donate Here https://secure.givelively.org/donate/stagecoach-foundation-inc/fund-film-training-workshops