CO-SCRIPTING…

EXPEDITIONARY FORCE: HOMEFRONT

A spotlight on Jack’s work on Expeditionary Force: Homefront, and audio drama special set in the universe of New Yorks Times Best-Selling author, Craig Alanson.

Read More about Homefront, The Audio Drama here.

“When in doubt, because you have to be highly respectful of someone else’s universe and the characters they created with such love and care - and you should never ignore a doubt on someone else’s property - I would always turn back to the books and the comfort of R. C. Bray’s dulcet tones.. And it wouldn’t be too long before I heard the advice I needed - Skippy The Magnificent, always reminding me to ‘TRUST THE AWESOMENESS!’”

- Jack

Jack was approached by Dagaz Media in late 2018 to develop a new audio drama, based on a treatment from Craig Alanson and Fredrick Greenhalgh, for Podium Publishing. The ambitious plan was to create a stand-alone drama which would work within the existing NY Times Best-Selling book range.

From August to November, Jack worked with Richard Appleby on crafting an initial draft, which was sent to Craig. Craig then performed an author-led rewrite, as no-one knew his world better than him, which was returned to Jack for completion over Christmas. This meant substantial work on restructuring the work around a new storyline, producing nearly 200 pages over one week, all to make the script ready in time for the early January 2019 production schedule in Maine, US.

January 2019, Jack was then flown to Boston and on to Maine to visit the recording sessions, undertaken by director William Dufris and Fredrick Greenhalgh under the Dagaz Media banner.

If ever in doubt, Jack would refer questions to R.C. Bray, who had voiced the entire original book range for audio, and had been retained by the production team here as as Colonel Joe Bishop and, of course, Skippy the Magnificent. “If anyone knew Craig’s material the best outside of Craig, it would be R.C.. I would always ask him if the script I’d moulded felt right, to him. He simply said, “I honestly can’t tell what Craig wrote and what you wrote. Good job.”

Expeditionary Force: Homefront was in the can. A full cast drama now existed.

POST-PRODUCTION DEMANDS:

“I always wanted to work with the late, great Leonard Nimoy. Alas, that will never be, but this was the next best thing. Zachary Quinto is Brock Steele!”

- Jack

Work didn’t stop there, however, as additional sessions took place to record guest stars Kate Mulgrew, Robert Picardo and Zachary Quinto across three separate sessions, along with a LA session with Daniel Logan (Star Wars: Episode II). This saw Jack continue to adapt, polish and rework scripted material back in the UK to tailor it specifically for the guest stars voices, right up until late-March, with a June release date looming.

ABOUT PODIUM PUBLISHING:

“Since launching in 2012, Podium Publishing has become widely recognized as the preeminent source of bestselling award-winning indie content in audio. After exploding onto the publishing scene with the discovery of the massive cult and pop hit, The Martian, Podium’s Publisher, Greg Lawrence, followed that early success with a steady stream of mega-hits.

Not least among these was Craig Alanson’s epic sci-fi series romp, Expeditionary Force. With the first 3 installments of the series releasing in 2016, the epic and irreverent adventures of the everyman, Joe Bishop, and the intolerable arrogance and wit of Skippy the AI, proved to be a classic overnight success.

As with The Martian, Lawrence saw the audio format as the perfect medium for all the awesomeness that Alanson’s ExForce series had to offer. A partnership was struck, and Podium applied the mad stylings of the great R.C. Bray to give voice to these newfound heroes. Overnight success turned into a modern cult classic!

So when the opportunity arose for Podium to expand into the realm of audio drama, ExForce was an easy choice. Over the first half of 2018, Alanson worked with Podium and Dagaz Media to create the story, to write the script, and to plot the supporting casting for Homefront, with production following in the latter half of the year.”

 HOMEFRONT: NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLer…

After one week of release, The New York Times reported that Expeditionary Force: Homefront had broken into the Top Ten “Audiobook” Sales Charts. It was the second-highest audio drama in the US charts, only behind Alien III, directed by Dirk Maggs…

LISTEN TO A SAMPLE FROM EXPEDITIONARY FORCE: HOMEFRONT…