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!

Welcome to the pre-production blogs and website for The Cabonauts – thanks for coming!!! Before I go any further, a massive thank you to Gennefer Snowfield for designing the site and getting it up and running for me. Yay Genn!!!

It’s a work in progress, but that’s what we’re here to celebrate. With behind the scenes videos and peeks at the creation of the CGI and expert design work, the casting process, the recording of the songs, etc, we’ll cover it all. Well, everything the bloody lawyers will allow anyway!

So where are we at the moment?

Let’s start with the basics.

The deal with Daily Motion is now officially signed (pause for roars of excitement – oh, wait, that’s just me). Two very British signatures (their CEO is English and if you don’t know me, now you know I’m English, too) now sit on the paperwork, and so we’re off to the races. Although, to be honest, we set off on this journey almost a year ago, and that’s where this blog shall begin…

(Making wavy shapes to denote a flashback.)

The original script was written back in May 2008 back when I hadn’t thought of making it a musical yet. That came when I cast the very handsome, square-jawed Norm Thoeming as Harry. Norm performs weekly at I.O. here in Los Angeles, in an improvised musical. You yell out an idea at the beginning of the show – and I tried it myself, so I know it works – and the team launches into a wholly original, one-hour improvised musical! It’s absolutely hysterical and the entire team (that, comedy fact-fans, comprises Shulie Cowen who co-stars in both Goodnight Burbank and Abigail’s Teen Diary) works wonders.

I was sitting with Norm at Burbank’s own Bob’s Big Boy over a ‘getting to know you’ lunch (Shulie had introduced us), when I began wondering aloud how we could incorporate Norm’s singing into the show. Ironically, my first thought was just to have him sing original, improvised songs for fans as an interactive add-on – but it was so incongruous. I mean, okay, I could make his character a wannabe singer who’s become a cab driver because he can’t catch a break, but it still felt fairly shoe-horned in. Watch the show about two guys driving a spacecab then have one of the main characters sing you a song? Weird. Norm, bless him, was up for it but then, he’s up for anything, or so his wife tells me. So after a month or so of thinking about it, I had this other, rather crazy idea.

What if I made the show a musical?

Oooh.

You feel the excitement, too?

It took another few weeks whilst my head came to grips with the idea. A musical sci-fi comedy? A comedy sci-fi musical? A sci-fi comedy… you get the idea. It was like holding a square peg and a round hole and wondering what to do with them. But one morning, I woke up and it fit. Perfectly. The only problem now was writing music because I’d never done that before.