Allen: Tell me about yourself Craig, You are very active individual.

Craig: I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. My father was an architect, my mother a high school teacher. My brother was heavily into sports. Meanwhile, I escaped into fantasy. I had very little interest in the real world. I was more interested in imagining . . . everything.

Allen: What do you like most about working on comic book related projects?

Craig: It’s a return to childhood. As a kid, I used to spend hours making up adventures with my Mego superhero action figures. While I still have them, today I am making up stories for television with a much bigger set of action figures. For in stance I cast both Adam West and Frank Gorshin as super villains in my Sci Fi Channel series BLACK SCORPION. They were a perfect fit – especially because the series was sort of a female Batman. Likewise, I am working on the WILLIAM SHATNER PRESENTS line of comic books (which includes TEK WAR and QUEST FOR TOMORROW) for Bluewater. Working with an icon like Shatner is a blast. So, I guess you could say that working on comic books and superhero related projects has made my toy box a lot bigger . . .

Allen: Did you read many comic books in your youth?

Craig: Like everyone else, I read a lot of Marvel Comics: SPIDERMAN in particular -- which is why it’s a thrill to count Stan Lee as a friend today. We’ve been looking for a project to do together for the last couple years but so far haven’t found the right one.

Allen: Did certain comic book writers or artists influence your career choice?

Craig: My biggest “comic book” influence was probably television. I would watch endless hours of BATMAN, THE HULK, THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN, WONDER WOMAN, SUPERMAN and all the animated superhero shows on Saturday mornings.

Allen: Tell me how you got your start in professional writing career?

Craig: As I said, I watched endless hours of BATMAN, the SIX MIL-LION DOLLAR MAN and the SUPERFRIENDS. Needless to say I was much more interested in being a superhero than I was in creating one – at least at the time. That’s probably why I started acting in school and community theater productions. It was a chance for me to become someone else. But my tendency to change my lines made me think more and more about writing. As much as I enjoyed acting, I was not a very good at it. So in high school I wrote and directed a full length play called CLASS DISMISSED (about an idealistic English teacher who holds his class hostage at gunpoint to teach them a special lesson about life). A year later the play was published by Samuel French Inc. and is still being produced by high schools all over the country. I then went on to study playwriting and directing at Carnegie-Mellon University. I wrote about my experience there as a theatre major in my first screenplay: HAPPY TOGETHER starred Patrick Dempsey, Helen Slater and Brad Pitt in his first feature film role. From there, I did another dozen or so films – ranging from family-comedy to suspense-thriller to gothic-horror.

Allen: How hard was it for you to go from playwriting to screenwriting?

Craig: It was not that difficult. Probably because I was naïve. When I left Carnegie-Mellon I went to Los Angeles to find film or television work as opposed to going to New York to do theater. I felt that storytelling was storytelling and that all I needed to do was adapt to the requirements of the medium. To a certain extent, I was right. That’s why I have been very fortunate to be able to have written (or produced) stage plays, feature films, television series, reality shows and now comic books. The difficulty is that no one knows what to make of me. I mean, Hollywood wants to label you (which can often help you get more work as you are perceived as having a specialty) but so it far hasn’t been able to label me. Is he a playwright? A television writer? A reality producer? Or the guy who does superhero series and (now) comic books? I am not complaining but I do have to constantly re-establish myself and my qualifications every time I switch mediums or genres. I suppose the common denominator in most of my projects is “pop culture” -- as it relates to either the subject matter or the actors I work with. I tend to migrate toward icons. Aside from William Shatner, another example would be Farrah Fawcett. I produced and directed her reality series CHASING FARRAH.

Allen: Tell me how you became involved with being screenwriter for Roger Corman.

Craig: I was spoiled by my first movie, HAPPY TOGETHER. It was the first screenplay I ever wrote and it sold within six months of moving to Los Angeles. It was in production another six months later. But I quickly learned that it was beginner’s luck. I sold some more projects over the next three years or so but none of them got made. They sat on a shelf “in development.” Coming from the theater, I am all about my work finding an audience . . . even if it’s 50 people in an auditorium. To me, that’s better than writing a script and having it sit on a stack in a studio. Anyway, it was about this time I had read about Roger Corman. Dubbed the “King of the B Movies,” he made about 25 a year. Not developed 25 but made 25. Yes, they were low budget movies but they were produced. That’s why I sought Roger out. I wanted to get off the shelf and on a screen. The other benefit of working for Roger is that he’ll give new talent a chance. And he gave me the chance to go from writer to writer-producer. Basically, I got paid to write screenplays while at the same time learning how to produce them.

Allen: When and why was "The Fantastic Four" made by Constantine Film? What was your role on that movie?

Craig: Constantine Film had the rights to THE FANTASTIC FOUR for almost ten years but they still hadn’t gotten the movie made for various reasons, among them the enormous special effects budget and the limited special effects technology (in the early 90’s). But the bigger problem for the company was that their option was about to expire. In just six months they would lose their stake in the project including the right to do sequels (and remakes). Basically, they needed to make the movie by December 31, 1993. And they needed someone who could actually make the movie in that short period of time.

So they made a deal with Roger Corman to produce it and he hired me to write it. But our version of THE FANTASTIC FOUR would have a less than fantastic budget: three million dollars. But we focused on character rather than effects and the movie turned out pretty okay – all things considered. It was slated for a theatrical release. But what none of us who worked on the film knew was that an under-the-table deal was going on: before the film could be released, Constantine bought out Roger Corman and all the rights. Their plan was to remake it at 20th Century Fox. Even so, that still took about another 10 years.

Allen: What did you learn about Hollywood politics while making "The Fantastic Four." I better make it clear that this was not big budget movie of 2005.

Craig: Ironically, one of the themes in my first draft of THE FAN-TASTIC FOUR (that never made it into any version of the movies) was that scientists are the puppets of the government and their grants were nothing more than price tags to weapons of mass destruction. Well, I learned that the same was sometimes true for screenwriters and the production teams in terms of Hollywood. Sometimes you don’t know toward what end you’re really working.

Allen: How did working on "The Fantastic Four" help you with creating other comic book characters for television or movies?

Craig: When THE FANTASTIC FOUR didn’t get released, I expressed my disappointment to Roger Corman. He said that if I really felt that strongly about it, we should create our own superhero to fulfill the last slot in his 13 picture deal with Showtime. Roger loves coming up with titles and suggested “Black Scorpion.” So I immediately went to work creating the characters and the mythology of our cop-by-day and vigilante-by-night. BLACK SCORPION scored the highest rating of the summer for an original production on Showtime. A year later, the sequel also did well. But instead of doing a third movie, we took the plunge into a series and produced 22 one hour episodes (for the Sci Fi Channel). So, yes, out of the ashes of THE FANTASTIC FOUR came BLACK SCORPION.

Allen: What sort of show was "Black Scorpion."

Craig: The series was “classic” comic book. Costumes and secret identities. Larger than life, scenery-chewing villains. A love triangle. The episodes, like our version of THE FANTASTIC FOUR, had a lot of heart. There was an underlying theme of self sacrifice and doing what is in your nature whether it’s in your own best interest or not. Really, the tone of the series was halfway between Adam West’s 1966 BATMAN and Tim Burton’s 1989 BATMAN. It was campy but not too campy, dark but not too dark.

However in the upcoming BLACK SCORPION comic book for Bluewater, our title character will return to her darker vigilante roots as per the original movie. This new Scorpion will be grittier and more dangerous than the one on the television series. Our heroine will give in to her darker side as a way of releasing her anger and dealing with the loss (of her father) and her frustration over injustice in a city that is desperately in need of a hero.

Allen: Does "Black Scorpion" have secret identity?

Craig: Yes. Black Scorpion’s secret identity is Detective Darcy Walker. She’s a third generation cop who was raised by her single father (whom she called “Lieutenant”). He was a hero cop, a maverick who broke all the rules, which eventually caused his death. It’s at this point that Darcy stopped following the rules herself and started to follow in his footsteps. But not as herself. As Black Scorpion. So here we have a cop who follows the letter of the law by day but executes true justice by night. The shadow of the “Lieutenant” is very much a part of the mythology. Darcy is definitely her father’s daughter. The question is: will she too eventually cause her own demise?

Allen: Who designed "Black Scorpion" costume?

Craig: The costume evolved with the character over the two movies and 22 episode series. I described the costume in my first screen-play and even went so far as to sketch a very crude depiction of it in black magic marker. In the first movie it was a kind of S & M la-tex outfit for (which seemed right considering that Darcy, Black Scorpion’s alter ego, made it using a hooker disguise from her undercover sting operation). For the sequel, Robert Hall and his company (Almost Human) took over and gave both the character and the costume more of a vigilante look. By the time we were a series, Hall and company had turned her into a full blown super-hero clad in black rubber and black metal. So the costume and the character developed together. I suspect we’ll turn back the hands of time a bit and see that same emergence in the Bluewater version of the title.

Allen: Why did you move Black Scorpion from Showtime to the Sci-Fi Channel to do the series? Also, why was Joan Severence replaced with new "Black Scorpion" Michelle Lintel?

Craig: While Showtime wanted a third movie, Roger and I saw more potential in a series – both creatively and financially. And the Sci Fi Channel saw the same potential we did. In terms of casting, Roger and I both loved Joan Severance. But the simple truth is that we couldn’t afford her on an episodic basis. So the decision was made to recast our heroine. We probably auditioned a thousand actresses, some of them known and some of them were not.

In the end, we chose Michelle Lintel (and I mean “the end” literally as she was our very last audition). While she was just beginning to pursue a career as an actress, she seemed to have the right experiences or qualities to play Darcy Walker/Black Scorpion. She was a former Miss Kansas, an athlete in the Junior Olympics, and came from a family with a long history of law enforcement. So Michelle had beauty, strength and the proper perspective to play a police officer (turned super heroine). Fortunately, she also proved to be a good actress.

Allen: Tell me about some villains you put in show. Who were they in real life?

Craig: Aside from Adam West (who played Black Scorpion’s recurring arch enemy the Breathtaker) and Frank Gorshin (who played the ticking, time-controlling Clockwise), we cast Lou Ferringo (television’s original HULK) in a gladiator-themed virtual reality episode. Other pop culture personalities included B movie actresses (like Lisa Boyle, Shannon Whirry, Jeannie Millar, and Athena Massey) and Playboy Playmates (Shae Marks, Victoria Silvstedt, Carrie Stevens, and Patricia Ford) among others.

Allen: Did you have more episodes planned for "Black Scorpion"?

Craig: Yes and some of them are likely to appear in Bluewater’s comic book relaunch of BLACK SCORPION.

Allen: Did "Black Scorpion" ever get collected into DVD buyable copies?

Craig: Yes, both movies are available on DVD and there is a 22 episode box set of the series which includes a commentary by me and Michelle Lintel.

Allen: How enthused were to find out Bluewater Productions was interested in making Roger Corman Presents comic books? How involved will you be with "Black Scorpion " stories?

Craig: Roger and I were both very excited by Bluewater’s interest in doing a comic book adaptation of BLACK SCORPION. We had always intended to do it ourselves but launching a comic book (let alone a comic book company) is difficult – especially when you’re writing and producing a television series.

Allen: What sort of future projects are you working on? Any comic book related projects?

Craig: Yes. I am a writer/editor on Bluewater’s WILLIAM SHATNER PRESENTS franchise which includes titles such as TEK WAR, QUEST FOR TOMORROW and MAN O’WAR. There is also a fourth title that I am creating with Shatner based on his original idea. But I can’t say too much about that one right now. Separately, Bluewater and I are also planning a new female superhero title based on a teleplay I recently sold to Fox -- but I can’t say too much about that one right now either. But soon.

Allen: Do you ever go to comic book conventions promoting "Black Scorpion"?

Craig: We haven’t done it in a few years but, yes, the cast and I did Comic Con as well as a handful of conventions in Los Angeles. I wouldn’t be surprised if we started doing some again with the premiere issues of the BLACK SCORPION comic book.

Allen: Do you have any hobbies?

Craig: Nope. Work and play are both the same for me. For the most part, it’s all about “let’s pretend.”

Allen: What are some of your favorite movies that you saw in last couple years?

Craig: Probably RENT. I loved the theatricality of it. Emotions that were so large they could only be expressed through song. The characters simply speaking their thoughts and feelings would not have done them justice. Their life experiences needed to be sung. To a certain extent, that’s what I also like about comic book projects. The operatic quality, the heightened emotions that become even complex in their simplicity of expression.

Allen: What kind of music do you like to listen to while writing?

Craig: I never listen to music while writing. I need total silence and stillness to lose myself in the page. I need to hear the characters’ voices and see their faces in my mind’s ear and eye.

Allen: What sort of novels do you like to read?

Craig: I used to love reading Stephen King. But two of my favorite books are A CATCHER IN THE RYE and A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANEY. Unfortunately, I do not read as much as I used to these days because by the time I am done writing, the last thing I want to do is look at words. And that includes e-mails. It’s then that I listen to music or watch a movie. Anything but look at words on a page.

Allen: If you could have any super powers which type would you like to have?

Craig: I would like to be able to read people’s minds. Partly because I am a writer and I am constantly “observing” others in general but also because in the entertainment business it’s always good to know who is lying to you and who is not.

Allen: What is best way for someone to contact you?

Craig: The best way for anyone to contact me is through my company: Windmill Entertainment, 8535 West Knoll Drive, Suite #310, Los Angeles, CA 90069