Since Peter Gaffney was kind enough to stop by and answer a Chronophasia thread, I thought he might see this here and respond. Anyway, my question is: with the breakup of Colossal Pictures, what has happened to all those talented writers & animators who worked on Aeon Flux? Are they still in the animation/filmmaking business, & if so, what are they doing?

-- Paul (gilbreathfamily@worldnet.att.net), January 04, 2001

Answers

I'm going to refer your question to Japhet Asher, the executive producer of Aeon and former vice-chairman of Colossal, who can give you more information than I can. As it happens, Japhet and I (we met when he hired me to story edit Aeon) have been writing together ever since the show. We've done a movie re-write, worked on various animated series (from MTV's short-lived "Downtowners" to the disastrous "Starship Troopers") and are currently working on a live- action pilot -- as well as a insanely bizarre, complex internet game, which, if it ever gets off the ground, will change the nature of space and time forever.

On my own I've written, story-edited and produced a number of animated series, from "Jumanji" to "Beavis & Butthead" to "Daria." (I'm afraid opportunities to do stuff as brilliant as Aeon don't come along all that often.) Japhet and I now live in L.A., as does Peter, and the three of us had dinner about a week ago.

-- Peter (trypsys@hotmail.com)

-- Peter Gaffney (trypsys@hotmail.com), February 02, 2001.

Beavis and Butthead is downright hilarious at times, and Daria is simply great, but Aeon Flux is the jewel in the crown. Would love to see the new game, we are still all trying to get over the impact of the space-time changes in Aeon so go easy on us...and I would love to have been a fly on the wall of that dinner...

-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), February 04, 2001.

As the Aeon Flux series was my last project at Colossal Pictures, I cannot give a complete answer to your inquiry. I left Colossal in 1995. Many of Colossal's animators formed a new animation studio in San Francisco called Wild Brain. They do excellent work. Others joined boutique outfits such as Curious Pictures and Pandemonium. And there are folks at Pixar, Disney and other major studios. A CG company, Protazoa, spun out of Colossal prior to its demise. Colossal employed a number of highly talented live action filmmakers too, most of whom have now gone their separate ways. In truth, the Aeon Flux crew was primarily made up of animators recruited by Peter Chung and our producers for the project and much credit must also go to excellent work by studios in Korea and Japan.

In its heyday, Colossal was an extraordinary community of artists from diverse backgrounds cross-polinating ideas and techniques from different disciplines of story and style. It was a wonderful place to work while it defied financial gravity as a determindly creative company for almost twenty years,and though I had left three years beforehand, I was immensely saddened to see the shop close. Thanks for the interest. Meanwhile, Gaffney and I will try to entertain you with e-mails... or maybe something longer some day soon.

-- Japhet Asher (trypsys@hotmail.com), February 04, 2001.

Muchos gracias, Japhet! You and Peter G. have answered my question, and many others ;) Aeon was a remarkable show, and had a huge influence on me. I can't think of an animated series with better writing & direction (maybe The Hakkenden comes close), you guys have real talent. Good to see you're still out there.

-- Paul (gilbreathfamily@worldnet.att.net), February 05, 2001.

So that's where Wild Brain came from! Well, around here we've often mused that Colossal was a real artist's haven, the work out was so creative, it was definitely a cut above the rest. What an interesting group of studios she gave birth too though. A shame the world is run according to profit because the artistic potential is really still there when the profits are not, and the loss is greater than the debt can show. To all artists that know the value of quality of work we salute you! So...tantalize us with promises of longer entertainments to come...aah the lure of confusion, what could be sweeter?

-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), February 05, 2001.

I'd like to poke my head in and comment that Daria is pure marketing genius. Everyone on the planet can relate to the title character. Socially ostracised yet superior to the entire human race? That's everyone I've ever known!

-- Frosty the Snow Chick (mbkrooks@bellsouth.net), February 05, 2001.

Yeah, I have a friend in town who if they ever make 'Daria' a live action film (is really interesting,no?) would play her using the Stanislovsky method.

-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), February 08, 2001.