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A Head for World Domination Patton Oswalt and Jordan Blum tell us everything we need to know about their much-anticipated M.O.D.O.K. show.
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f you thought Disney+’s WandaVision was a wild ride, get ready for the delightful insanity of the new Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. series. Since his first appearance in the 1967 issue of Tales of Suspense, the frustrated, insane supervillain M.O.D.O.K. has left a big impression on fans of the Marvel universe. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, M.O.D.O.K. (Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing) is always coming up with futile schemes to bring down the likes of Captain America, Iron Man, Deadpool, Ms. Marvel and The Hulk. The deeply insecure character is finally getting the respect he thinks he deserves when he appears in own show on Hulu in May. Exec produced by the dynamic duo of writer Jordan Blum (American Dad!) and everyone’s favorite writer/comic/actor/awards show host Patton Oswalt (Ratatouille), not only is the show incredibly funny, it also features terrific stop-motion animation by the cool crew at Stoopid Buddy Stoodios (Robot Chicken). “I always wanted to work in this world of subterranean D-list heroes and villains of the Marvel universe,” says Oswalt, who also voices the main character. “For me, the thing that was most exciting was being able to mess around in the weird side alleys of this world as well as make the main character somewhat human and relatable, as we also explore his home life with his wife and kids.” Blum says he had been wanting to work with Oswalt for a long time. The two had previously collaborated on a pilot for FOX, so when Blum had a meeting with the folks at Marvel, he jumped at the chance to get Oswalt involved again. “He has the perfect voice and spoke the language of superheroes,” says www.animationmagazine.net
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Blum. “They always say never meet your heroes, but in Patton’s case, it was the exact opposite. He is such an amazing and incredible collaborator. We both have this great love for comic books. In fact, we always ran into each other in comic stores around town.”
Let the Game Begin Blum and Oswalt joined forces to develop and build their M.O.D.O.K. series and things got rolling when Marvel and Hulu bought
their package two years ago. “After we wrote the pilot and show bible, we had to figure out the look of the show, so we got several presentations from different animation studios.” The duo says they were blown away by what Stoopid Buddy put together. “They actually did two versions, the first one was standard 2D animation, and the other was stop-motion,” says Blum. “Not only did their stop-motion version stand out, it also incorporated some native, hand-held, verité camera style that was
‘What’s surprising is the show has a ton of heart although it’s about a floating head! In a way, it’s a relatable story about a very driven person who has lost his way. He loses his business and his family in his 40s and has to rediscover what he wants out of life.’ — Exec producer Jordan Blum
He Gets No Respect: Patton Oswalt writes and stars in the new show featuring Marvel’s misanthropic bad guy M.O.D.O.K.
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may 21
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