There’s only one movie poster at the Sandwich office and it hangs behind my desk (seen here)—a gorgeous Argentinean edition of my favorite ninja movie, 1983’s “Revenge of the Ninja”. Keep that in the back of your mind.
Today, NBC News is launching a brand new version of their Breaking News app, and they brought me in to make a video for it. Their whole thing is quality news you can trust, not a bunch of garbage. It’s based in a time-honored respect for journalism that reminded me of the old titans of news: Edward R. Murrow, David Brinkley, Walter Cronkite. So I pitched the client on the idea of having one of those salty old news guys present their app as the savior of news. And bless their hearts, they let me do it. So I enlisted my talented writing friend Joshua Allen to give the character a voice, and the next step was casting our news man.
Here’s the fun part.
Casting is never easy in these videos we make. Never. But every once in a while, a brilliant actor, a master of the craft who you recognize as having played the villain in your favorite ninja movie walks through the door to the audition and you try not to lose your shit, you try to pretend you don’t know who he is, but you know that voice, you know those wise, charmingly menacing eyes. This man is Arthur Roberts and he’s played a major part in your subconscious since the 3rd grade. He’s informed some important archetypes for you, as a storyteller. He’s Arthur Roberts.
So you cast him, of course. And he is simply a joy to work with. A gentleman and an artist and a pro in every sense of the word.
Breaking News. What a world.
This is probably the most fun I’ve ever had writing a script, and as a bonus I got to be on set while they shot it, like a real fancy gent!
When Adam was describing the character I was like “Oh OK so I should basically write it in my own voice.” And he said “Well I didn’t want to come right out and say it.”
Installing based solely on this post.
