FRIDAY: Sitting at LAX, Nichelle did an interview with Mancow (a big Chicago-based morning DJ) and I discovered we’ll be the cover story on a UK trade mag called FutureMedia. Our flight into Chicago hit some SEVERE turbulence; the plane lurched then dropped, a woman screamed, and my iPod fell to the floor, just out of my reach. That meant that I was possibly going to die while listening to Sting (it was on shuffle). Not good. Fortunately, the turbulence stopped and I retrieved the iPod and hit next. But the scars are still there…

After checking in to the hotel, we went down for the cocktail part of the evening and hooked up with Erin Gray & Gil Gerard (and his lovely wife Janet). We all had quite the blast and kept each other in stitches. I tried to talk Gil into getting a  Twitter account but he seemed reluctant. I also got to meet comic book artist/uber-talent Mark Millar who I’m a huge fan of.  Was there anything else? Mmmm… Oh yeah; Gil & Erin both want to do an episode of The Cabonauts together!

SATURDAY: We set up Nichelle’s table and a line of fans appeared – that never let up.  It was magical to see their faces and hear their stories of how Nichelle had affected their lives. I kept myself busy passing out Cabonauts postcards. At 1pm, we made our way over to the panel and premiered the pilot of The Cabonauts to a healthy crowd of people. It went down rather well, despite the sound system in the room that had clearly been blown out years ago. We got some feedback from the crowd and over 95% liked it rather a lot. We asked which character they liked best, and over all the responses everything seemed to come back even.

We went back to the autograph signing table for the rest of the afternoon then headed back to the airport just a few hours later. I’m happy to say we got back to LA without too much more turbulence.

All in all it was a whirlwind but also a great time and we met some lovely people. I also read the BEST book I’ve read in years and recommend that you go out and buy it THIS SECOND. It’s called “The End Of Mr. Y” by Scarlett Thomas, an English author who’s put together a 400 page book that’s both unputdownable and mind-blowing. Ostensibly, it’s about a book from the late 1800s that has a curse – anyone who reads it dies. But it’s SO much more and touches upon quantum physics, religion, thought memes, Einstein, etc, etc – and presents tons of amazing ideas. It also talks about a place called “Mindspace” which is very similar to the “Brainspace” that Cyril and Harry use in their off time in the series. Please go buy it – you can thank me later!

PS – I woke up Sunday morning to find a twitter from Gil. So go add him and tell him who sent ya – @gil_gerard !!!

There’s quite a few sites reporting on the announcement that Nichelle’s co-starring on The Cabonauts; thought I’d list a bunch in case you want to see what people are saying (and commenting).

http://trekmovie.com/2009/07/07/nichelle-nichols-joins-sci-fi-comedy-web-series-cabonauts/

http://newteevee.com/2009/07/07/star-treks-uhura-to-boss-around-hayden-blacks-cabonauts/

http://news.tubefilter.tv/2009/07/07/star-treks-nichelle-nichols-to-star-in-the-cabonauts/

http://www.shadowandact.com/?p=7078

http://www.podcastingnews.com/2009/07/07/hayden-black-snags-star-treks-nichelle-nichols-for-cabonauts-web-series/

By the way, that picture above is a snapshot of CJ (Nichelle’s) office. The Cabonauts offices are stationed in orbit around the newly  terra-formed Titan (one of Saturn’s moons but you all knew that).

The news is out and the buzz is pretty damn loud! The wonderful, beautiful, exceptionally talented Nicky Nichols – Star Trek’s Uhura – has come on board the Cabonauts as CJ, the CEO of the cab company.
We couldn’t have done it without our unbelievable casting director, Erin Gray. Erin allowed us to connect and, after I delivered a script and character breakdown, Nichelle said yes. It happened so fast too; within 3 weeks of having the initial idea to approach Nichelle, she’d said yes.

We’ve already spent some time shooting scenes and recording songs and videos. Nicky looks amazing in an outfit put together by Angela Sauceda, our stylist. It was a crazy day that first day – about 20 people buzzed around doing various jobs, among them the Bui Brothers who took some amazing pictures. You can imagine my surprise when, during an interview we did on set, Nichelle began comparing me to Gene Roddenberry and The Cabonauts to Star Trek. As far as absolutely surreal experiences go, that was right up there. We’ll be releasing clips of that interview over the next few weeks as teasers – you can see the first one up above!

Nicky’s character CJ comes from a long line of very successful women. In fact, she keeps one of them on her desk – the clone brain of her dead Grandma sits in a plexiglass container doling out unwanted advice. CJ had been COO of Farmer’s Seuticals, a top drugs manufacturer, but was ousted after being tainted in a financial scandal that she had nothing to do with. CJ’s now working as CEO of The Cabonauts Inc., a huge step down for her, but she’s going to give it her all.

CJ was married briefly to Cyril’s father who passed away. On his death-bed, he made her promise to help his son out which is why Cyril is employed by her as a cab instructor. And of course it’s Cyril who’s her biggest problem, slovenly care-free guy that he is.

Nichelle will be in every single episode, either in scenes or singing and dancing in the music videos – or both! Mostly both (Grandma will too, but don’t expect her to participate in much dancing.) Seeing Nicky dancing with our dance troupe was so much fun too; I was watching her on the monitor as she shimmied away, her dazzling smile absolutely infectious! You’ll agree when you see it. Plus, we’re lining up some extra special interactive features that will…You know, it’s a bit too early to reveal those surprises, but rest assured you’ll be closer to Nichelle than you ever dreamed possible!

The show will most likely premiere in a few months but between then and now, we’ll be appearing at some big sci-fi conventions across the country, releasing interviews, trailers, pictures and news so be sure to sign up to the mailing list (links on the main page) to be the first to find out what’s going on. Our guest cast keeps getting bigger and bigger too – because someone needs to play the role of the passengers and we’re only taking names from iconic sci-fi TV series and movies ‘cause that’s how we roll. More news soon on who those people are – and which two players from the Joss Whedon universe will guest-star in the pilot. In the meantime, in the summer of Star Trek, we couldn’t be happier, and prouder, to be a tiny part of it with one of the biggest icons in the world of Sci-Fi. Nichelle – thanks for coming on board!

One of the most insanely fun things about the Cabonauts is the fact that we’re getting some majorly iconic sci-fi actors and actresses to play the roles of passengers. Well that was the initial idea. You write that into a pitch and then you scratch your head and ask “how the hell am I going to do that?”. First off, as I quickly discovered, agents are more than useless. I say more than because they actively try and put the kibosh on it. When you’re on a small budget, agents don’t wanna know – not because they’re concerned about their clients (that’s the LAST thing on most of their minds) but because it means the money they’re bringing in to their agency isn’t big enough to warrant their own jobs. Actually, it’s not really the agent’s fault; it’s a plan set up by the agencies themselves and Hollywood’s now a slave to it.

But not us.

Very early on, we met with an absolute angel with a massively impressive acting resume herself. Erin Gray – you will remember her as Wilma Deering from the Buck Rogers TV series and the mom from Silver Spoons – now runs a company that represents iconic sci-fi/fantasy/horror genre actors for conventions and speaking engagements. Over a lunch at the Daily Grill (the one in Studio City, on Laurel), Erin told us that she’d never been involved in casting before. I told her I’d never done a sci-fi musical comedy – and she was in!

While talking, she mentioned a couple of big sci-fi names that she was very close to. It squirreled itself away in my mind as people we could get in our backseat. It was only a few weeks later that I had the thought “What if we got PERSON X as a regular? How unbelievably frakken amazing would that be?” So I made a call, someone else made a call, Erin made a call, and the next thing you know PERSON X said…Sounds interesting. I want to see more.

So more is what I sent ‘em. A script. An outline. And a character breakdown lovingly created 100% for PERSON X. A week later, the phone rang. PERSON X had said Yes.

They. Said. Yes.

I think I jumped up and down and screamed like a 10 year old girl when I got that phone call.

PERSON X said yes? To me? PERSON X will be saying back my lines? Singing my songs? Acting next to me? Holy shizzles. This was big. So big that we thought it best announcing at ComiCon ’09 (not that I’d ever been). And here’s the great thing about ideas, especially ones that spring up around The Cabonauts – it’s going to happen. Daily Motion’s PR firm, run by the very professional Ephraim C., made a call and voila. Looks like it’s happening.

But it hasn’t stopped there. More and more people are expressing interest on a weekly basis. People from Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, Buffy, Dr. Who (the new series), Alien Nation, Stargate… Every week, I get to have my own personal freak out when we get a call from Erin or some of other well placed industry friends who are reaching out on my behalf (thanks to Marti R too for some massive gets!).

Who’s next? There are some people I want to work with just ‘cause I’m a huge fan, so that’ll be fun, just reaching out and asking. I also think once they see the show they’ll say yes because it’s so different – but the sky’s the limit, and there’s only one way to find out!