MALAYSIA
And updates about my upcoming movie and books!
I’ve been working hard on a variety of writing and film projects, which has left me, ironically, unavailable to do my writing newsletter! I have THREE new book projects written now, at least one of which I should be able to tell you about next month. I also now have TV shows in development at AMC and Warner Bros Animation. Pretty fun!
Meanwhile, my first screenplay I got paid to write is meant to enter production later this year, which has meant a lot of meetings and discussions with the production team, as well as a jaunt to Malaysia to check out a studio there as a potential place to shoot the movie.
It was my first time in Malaysia and it was INCREDIBLE. Malaysia is a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic country. Malay is the official language, but everyone I met spoke some English or Chinese as well (most of them spoke both, in addition to other Asian languages).
Here are some pics from my trip!
Maybe the most important pic is this one, where I was reunited with authentic hand-pulled noodles from China:
And here’s the studio backlot, where we’ll hopefully be shooting a lot of our movie!
It was a great time, and so much fun to be back in Asia after a long absence.
I only learned a little bit of Malay in my short time there, but my favorite phrase was “Malaysia boleh!” which means, basically, “Malaysia, we can do it!” It started as a government commercial meant to build national pride, but the Malay people mostly thought it was silly, so now it’s used in a lot of funny ways. For instance, when we saw a van on the road driving in the middle lane with their hazards on, someone asked the driver, “Why isn’t that guy in the slow lane” and he replied, “Malaysia boleh.” So now it can mean things like, “We do what we want” or “that guy’s not the smartest but hey, it’s Malaysia, we can do what we want.” It’s a great example of a saying in another language that I wish we had in English.
GOD WITH US
If you haven’t yet read GOD WITH US, it’s my first graphic novel and I am so pleased with how it turned out. It’s a beautifully illustrated story of the Emmaus Road… Jesus walks along with some of his followers who don’t recognize him. They tell him stories about himself, and he tells them stories from the scriptures (and, in the case below, he does tell one from his recent experience as well)
If you HAVE read the book, would you consider posting a review to Amazon? It’s a huge help to me and gets more eyes on the book.
And as always you can order books from local shops as well, including Hearts and Minds, White Oak Books, or Nooks bookstore.
This your ball, kid?
This is a funny little social media post I saw recently and enjoyed. In Japan, comics are read right to left, while obvs in the US we read them left to right. So this heartwarming Japanese comic about a very tall woman became a story of terror when read backwards by people elsewhere.
THE SLAP!
I was reminded of this video recently. “The Slap” was an Australian TV show about a guy who slaps a kid at a party and all of the fallout that comes into his life and community as a result, as everyone reckons with the fact that a grown man has hit a child. THE SLAP 2 is a funny little video that came about in response.
BRUCE!
Bruce likes to stick close to my wife in the evenings when he comes in. Here he is taking a rest under her feet. Yesterday morning when he came inside he was eating, and when he heard her come into the kitchen he started running in circles until she came over to say good morning and give him a head scratch.
And this is Jolly Roger. I’ve trained him to come stand on the table by the back door when he wants a treat. He pretty much always wants a treat. Bruce mostly tolerates him, but every once in a while he chases the poor squirrel up a tree.
I hope your week is filled with people you love to be around or, worst case, someone you can mostly tolerate. ;)
Peace to you,
Matt
Of course you got a picture of the Durians, I would expect nothing less.