Posted in: Comics | Tagged: christian beranek, Comics, dodge & twist, edgar wright, entertainment, tony lee

Edgar Wright's Dodge And Twist – And Tony Lee's Dodge And Twist

Fresh from not making Ant-Man, Edgar Wright has signed up to write the screenplay for Dodge & Twist for producer Ahmet Zappa. But this has nothing to do with Dodge & Twist by Tony Lee that he talked to Zappa about seven years ago, honest. As Tony Lee says,

I first met Ahmet Zappa in 2008 at the San Diego Comic Con. I also met him in 2009 at the New York Comic Con. At the time, he was working with Christian Beranek at Kingdom Comics, and they were looking for new IPs for Disney products. During these conversations, I talked about other things I was doing, one of which was Dodge & Twist, then with AIT/PlanetLar books. Originally, it was a 144 page Graphic Novel.

And you can see and hear Tony's plans for the graphic novel in 2007 twice, 2008 and 2009. A 19 page preview was released, with art by Paul Peart-Smith, but the full book never made it to publication. Lee wrote looking back on the noughties, saying,

Three years ago, I pitched AiT/PlanetLar this sequel to Oliver Twist and Larry Young agreed on the spot. He even had the perfect artist, Paul Peart-Smith, who had recently asked about work and was raring to go. The contract was signed in April and in July there were eight pages of finished, lettered art to show people at San Diego.

And then – it all slowed down. In the following two years we saw about thirty pages of the book, a book promised in a year – not because Paul was slow, but because he;d taken too much on. With his more important paid work, he simply didn't have the time to continue it.

Earlier this year we discussed this and agreed to part ways, and for the next six months Larry and I looked for a replacement artist. And, in December, Dodge & Twist is living again – but I can't say yet how

The "how" was to write Dodge & Twist as a novel, with a cover illustration from the planned comic and put it up on Kindle. And write an (unproduced) screenplay. But he then had a rival in Ahmet Zappa.

In 2013 Christian Beranek verified these conversations and meetings, telling Tony:

"I hereby affirm that while working with Ahmet Zappa at Kingdom Comics Ahmet and myself spoke with Tony Lee at San Diego Comic Con in July of 2008 and at New York Comic Con in February of 2009. Both times the property and story details of Tony Lee's Dodge and Twist were discussed. When Ahmet decided to pursue Dodge and Twist separately from Tony Lee, I tried to remind him several times that the story idea and title were already owned by Tony. Ahmet scoffed and kept going, bringing on board writer Michael Scott."

Now it seems as the project has developed, it has moved well away from Tony's original pitch, but has retained the title and the central conceit of grown up Oliver Twist and Artful Dodger teaming up for the purposes of crime and stealing jewels. The news report for the announcement states,

The germ of Dodge and Twist's story came from Charles Dickens, of course, but the idea to concoct a twenty-years-later steampunk adventure caper starring Oliver Twist and The Artful Dodger apparently originated with Ahmet Zappa.

And also notes,

It's worth noting that Tony Lee's novel Dodge and Twist shares little more than its title and the "let's do an adventure sequel" premise with this film, but the basic idea is a good one, and Lee appears to have had it first, or at the very least independently, so all credit to him for that.

Possibly a little less of the independently, depending upon whom you believe…

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!