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I ended up biting off a big chunk of writing assignments over the last week or so, mainly due to my stubborn resistance to thinking, “You know what? I probably have enough on my plate right now. Someone else can handle that.” Some of the work was big news, some of it was Halloween-themed, and some of it, well… some of it was just stuff I plain ol’ felt like writing.

Here are some of the highlights:

‘Gears Of War’ Screenwriter Aims For ‘Gritty And Real’ Big-Screen Version Of Video Game [MTV News] - One of the biggest stories I’ve authored in quite a while, I had a long chat with screenwriter Chris Morgan about the “Gears of War” screenplay he’s writing for the live-action adaptation of the Microsoft video game. There hasn’t been much news about this film since it was first announced (aside from the announcement in June that “Underworld” director Len Wiseman was attached to it), so it was nice to provide some real “breaking” news about such a highly anticipated project. Chris is a great guy, and judging by how off-topic our conversation drifted at times, he’s a kindred soul when it comes to video games, comics and all manner of related geekery. This was also one of two stories I wrote this week for the top-level MTV News site, which is a nice little notch on the ol’ (virtual) desktop.

‘Gears Of War’ Screenwriter Chris Morgan Talks Up The Locust Horde [MTV Movies Blog] - This was the companion post for my “Gears of War” article on MTV News. In this piece, I focus on some of the specific creatures from the game that Chris told me would be appearing in the film.

‘Iron Man’ Crew Will Be Back For Sequel And ‘Avengers,’ Marvel Announces [MTV News] - This was the first article I authored for the MTV News mothership. It was nice to get back into a more newsie voice for a while, instead of the more informal blogging tone I’ve used for much of the last few years.

Halloween Week: Chris Morgan And Kevin Walsh Find Witches In ‘Salem’ & Create A New Action Hero [MTV Splash Page] - As part of our Halloween Week series on Splash Page, Casey and I have been running exclusive interviews, previews and features involving horror-themed projects from the world of comics. This piece on Boom Studios’ Salem: Queen of Thorns miniseries came out of the conversation with Chris Morgan I mentioned earlier. We were joined by his Salem writing partner, Kevin Walsh, and chatted about this project for a hefty amount of time. I really enjoy the series thus far, so I recommend picking it up if the feature piques your interest.

Halloween Week: H.P. Lovecraft’s Mythos Reigns Supreme In This ‘Fall Of Cthulhu: Apocalypse’ Preview [MTV Splash Page] - On Thursday, I previewed the first issue of Boom Studios’ Fall of Cthulhu: Apocalypse #1 as part of our Halloween Week series. What’s Halloween without Cthulhu, right?

EXCLUSIVE: It’s ‘Evil Dead’ Meets ‘Xena’ In 6-Page ‘Xena Vs. Army Of Darkness: What, Again?’ Preview [MTV Splash Page] - And just in case you missed it last week, I previewed the first issue of Dynamite Entertainment’s upcoming “Evil Dead”/”Xena” crossover, Xena Vs. Army Of Darkness: What, Again?. Dynamite has done great things with their “Army of Darkness” comics, and their Army of Darkness series has been one of my favorite recent examples of comics pulled from movie or TV properties.

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