#180: "Fine, You Be the Alpha, Then"

Arthur Trope Presents: The Inscrutables
No. 180
“Fine, You Be the Alpha, Then”

So Artie does, in fact, have a Bollywood offer for ‘Miss Fourth of July’. He’s developed a real following in India since the lecture tour last year. He’s struggling with it though bc he was getting used to the idea of Felicity Huffman in the role despite her recent challenges. Also, the origin story takes place in Ashtabula, Ohio in 1957 & there wasn’t really supposed to be any singing and dancing in the movie itself, but it sounds like that’s a prerequisite for Bollywood deals. Stan’s been shopping a treatment of it around LA without luck & I found out Inky wasn’t in NY interviewing at Marvel, after all. He was at Marvel, but it was part of a last ditch effort Stan cooked up to pitch M4J in person to some of Inky’s old friends in acquisitions there. They didn’t go for it, but I suspect Inky interviewed anyway, while he was there. So, as you might expect, Artie’s struggling with this decision. It’s tough when you have to compromise on your vision, I suppose. The concept would have to be reworked, maybe more than a little. Obviously, the Ashtabula 4th of July parade scene is out. The re-worked storyline would center on the holiday of Ratha-Yatra instead, a.k.a. the Chariot Festival of Lord Jagannath, that happens in early July in Puri. And the Bollywood folks aren’t into the idea of the lead role being a 53 year-old woman with bursitis who works as a dental hygienist by day, which means it wouldn’t really be based on Syd after all. Stan’s pushing him to take the deal, but Artie says he has some thinking to do. While he does, here’s #180, which sort of splits the difference in the whole ‘One for them & one for me’ plan bc it’s a short caption + there are dogs in it, which makes the Committee & the focus groups happy - but Artie’s been riffing on this ‘alpha dog’ concept all year with mixed results (see # 102, 114, 137, 146) and finally landed on one he likes & the Committee can live with. So, at least for today, everybody here’s on the same page. -Ed.