072 Announcing I AM NO/ONE, a Massive-Verse Feature Film
We're making a movie! Plus, all the SDCC news including Radiant Black voice cast announcements!
Hey everyone!
Kyle here, finally (almost) recovered from another amazing San Diego Comic Con. As advertised, this year was a huge show packed with plenty of amazing moments— panels, signings, big meetings, a scooter that made things infinitely easier on my knee as well as a host of even bigger announcements.
We’ll get to all of the above in a minute, but first I want to give a warm welcome to all of our new subscribers— welcome! This is our hub for all things Massive-Verse and Black Market Narrative, from our outside-the-box projects and announcements to our limited edition drops (more on those in a little bit). I try to get a newsletter out once a week, highlighting our upcoming titles that are on FOC (final order cutoff, the last chance for stores to pre-order a book, which determines our print numbers), what’s about to hit stands, and any big news items that we’re announcing.
Increasingly, we’ve also been opening this platform up to questions and other discussion topics. In fact, if you have a question or something you’d love to see us talk about, you can leave a comment right here or hit us up at mail@radiant.black.
Back to SDCC— I usually fail pretty epically at remembering to take pictures, despite my dad being a photographer and my own love of cinematography, but thankfully we had some awesome people in our crew this year who were much more mindful of these things— shout out to Kelly McMahon, John Sensback, Sandra Winn and Bear’s group!
We spent most of the show in artist alley at our first SDCC-dedicated Massive-Verse booth— just look at how gorgeous this thing turned out!
Friday morning was our big Enter the Massive-Verse panel where we debuted a host of new art, new Radiant Black voice cast and casually announced a movie (!)—
After the panel, the crew went down to the Image booth for a packed signing where everyone in attendance also received a free Supermassive 2024 poster from Kelly.
Friday night also featured another trip to the Eisner awards— Joe Clark, Ryan Sidoti, Kelly McMahon and I all attended and joined the Image crew for a long-but-fun night. Joe and I were nominated for our jazz series, Deep Cuts— we didn’t win, unfortunately, but a big congrats to everyone who did.
Saturday was split, for me, between Massive-Verse signings and a big signing/panel/press room with Bear McCreary, Raya Yarbrough, and Matias Bergara in support of The Singularity, the graphic novel + concept album that team Black Market worked on with Bear for the better part of the last four years.
Fortunately, it wasn’t all work though. After swearing that I will spend time in the pool literally every year but never actually following through (save for once in, like, 2012 when Snyder and I snuck in at 8am), I’m happy to report that we did manage to fit in a few hours of sun and water this trip.
As well as a delightful dinner catching up with Amy-Jo Johnson and Matt Hotson— big congrats on Power Rangers: The Return, guys!
The hotel view wasn’t too shabby, either.
A huge thank you to everyone who came out to our panel, signings, stopped us to say hi or gave me a hand navigating traffic— this was definitely a con to remember!
I AM NO/ONE
Okay, so, I definitely buried the lead a little bit. Or at least, glossed over it.
Last week, the final issue of our true-crime superhero comic book, NO/ONE, hit stands along with the final episode of WHO IS NO/ONE, our in-universe companion podcast starring Rachael Leigh Cook, Patton Oswalt, Todd Stashwick, et al.
Without spoiling things, the answer to NO/ONE’s identity— as well as the murderous Richard Roe— is given. However, if you’ve read and listened to the finale then you already know— the answers that law enforcement provide raise even more questions. That is… if the official answers are even real (what do you think? Could NO/ONE be the person recovered from the river? Leave a comment!)
But while so much of the finale is centered on the idea of closure often being a misnomer, that doesn’t mean that we don’t have firm answers— and based on the final pages of issue 10 and the tag provided by JC at the end of the podcast, soon you will, too.
From day one, Brian Buccellato and I planned NO/ONE as a multi-narrative story. Comics, podcast, in-universe websites and ARG elements… along with one other crucial platform.
On Friday morning, during our Massive-Verse panel, we had a surprise visitor who helped us make the announcement on what the final leg of this saga is going to be.
Here, check out the announcement trailer from our very-much-not-dead special guest and see what I mean for yourself:
From Black Market Narrative and ZQ Entertainment, producers Ara Keshishian, Petr Jakl, Stuart Manashil and Steven Schneider— who was behind such hits as Paranormal Activity, Insidious and Late Night with the Devil— as well as Brian and myself, comes the final chapter in our wildly-ambitious true crime superhero saga.
That’s right, we’re making a movie :)
And not just any movie! Structured as an in-universe documentary— utilizing the footage that was discovered at the end of the comic— I AM NO/ONE is both an adaptation of the comic and the podcast as well as a continuation of the story.
Here’s how we described the project to The Wrap, who had the initial announcement—
“The film will be comprised of sit down interviews, phone and drone footage, news coverage, and first-person GoPro and helmet videography from the ‘NO/ONE’ operation itself. The upcoming true-crime found-footage feature ‘I AM NO/ONE’ will be the final chapter in this multi-narrative experience.”
In addition to serving as producers on the film, Brian and I are also writing the screenplay.
Oh, and I’m directing :)
This project has been an immense labor of love and something that Brian and I have been working on for the better part of three years, along with Geraldo Borges and our incredible team on the book and the podcast. To say we’re excited would be an understatement. Since I was seven years old, all I’ve ever wanted to do was direct movies— to finally make my feature debut on something as unconventional and bold as what we’re planning for NO/ONE has me feeling electric.
It’s too early to say much more than we’re looking to shoot this next year and already have some big plans in place— I can’t talk about cast just yet, but if you follow our stuff then you no doubt already know how important immersion is to me. It’s definitely our intention for as many actors as possible to come back from the podcast to play their characters in front of the camera, as well. Plus, there will be a host of new characters and exciting new cast members joining.
A huge thank you to Stuart, Ara, Petr and Steven for believing in this from the beginning and empowering us to tell a story unlike anything that’s been done in film, podcasts or comics before.
We’ll have more updates for you soon in the newsletter along with— when the time comes— all sorts of behind the scenes looks at the production. So, if you’re not subscribed, now’s the perfect time!
Oh, and Image followed up the announcement with their own press release that contained a little bit more detail. You can read that right here.
And please go check out the trailer on YouTube, hit that like button, leave a comment and share it with all your friends!
A Radiant Cast
But NO/ONE wasn’t the only multimedia announcement we made at our Massive-Verse panel.
In April, we officially announced the Radiant Black audio book, starring Will Friedle and Rider Strong (Boy Meets World, Batman Beyond, Cabin Fever) as Marshall and Nathan.
Now, we’re thrilled to be able to tell you about a few more people joining the cast!
First up, from Supernatural and The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, a mom to a generation— KIM RHODES!
From Batman The Animated Series and WHO IS NO/ONE, the voice of NO/ONE himself and the father of the Massive-Verse— LOREN LESTER!
As our favorite outcast cosmic smuggler and numerical name, from Star Trek Picard, 12 Monkeys and WHO IS NO/ONE— TODD STASHWICK as <001>!
And what about a few of our other Radiants? Well, we’ve got two for you today— from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, joining us to play Radiant Pink— MELISSA NAVIA!
From the smash hit anime, Jujutsu Kaisen, joining us to play Radiant Red— ANNE YATCO!
And from too-many-amazing-things to name— *Cough* Last of Us *Cough*— playing SHIFT, our bad boy antihero of the Massive-Verse, the one, the only— TROY BAKER!
How cool is that?!
And that’s just our first wave of announcements!
We’re targeting November for volume one and have a host of other exciting names to tell you about in the not-too-distant-future— once again, this newsletter is the place to be for all the latest on who’s coming to play in the universe!
The Catalyst War Finale
And speaking of the universe, we’re currently in the final act of our universe-shattering event, The Catalyst War!
With Marcelo and Eduardo cranking on these last two issues, we also showcased three pages at the panel:
Radiant Black 30 and 30.5— coming in September!
Inferno Girl Red Book Two
The Inferno Girl Red team couldn’t be with us this year at SDCC but they did send a couple of brand new pages from Inferno Girl Red Book 2!
Rogue Sun #21
Dylan’s finally back in his own body, and he’s made it his mission to take down Mourningstar once and for all! But before he can do that, he’s going to need to navigate a few new threats… including a new villain calling himself VEIN. And we’ve got your first look!
The Moon Man Chronicles
And in non-Massive-Verse news, this week also saw the debut of a brand new livestream + podcast that Michael and I are doing with the ever-amazing Kid Cudi, all around MOON MAN, called The Moon Man Chronicles.
The first episode debuted on Scott’s YouTube channel this past Monday and we’ll also be putting out an audio edition— published by this newsletter under a new section called Kid Cudi’s Moon Man— in the coming weeks.
But if you missed the stream and want to see us break down issue one, you can actually watch the entire thing on Scott’s channel right now!
Going forward, we’re going to be doing these for every issue and intend to keep them live— we’ll be taking more questions, doing give aways and even giving sneak peek listens to new songs. It’s going to be a blast!
Q&A
With the recent announcement of "I Am No/One", did you cast the actors of the “Who is No/One?” podcast with the intention that they would also play live action versions of themselves in the film? Or is it too early to talk about that kind of stuff?
-Owen Seyler
Hey, Owen! Thanks for the great question! As I said up top, it’s a little too early for me to talk definitively about casting for the movie… but I can tell you that yes, I absolutely cast the podcast with an eye towards— and the intention for— everyone to return for the film.
Stay tuned for what that means!
Okay, that’s going to do it for me this week! Next week, we’ll have a big drop of exclusive items left over from SDCC including the Tom Whalen screen prints (!), posters (!!) and the long-awaited arrival of Kelly McMahon’s Massive-Verse pins (!!!).
Plus, the long-awaited debut of C.O.W.L. 1964 in comic stores everywhere!
Until then—
Stay Radiant!
Kyle
Los Angeles
The people who've been saying "RDJ is playing Dr.Doom is the biggest news to come out of SDCC!" clearly didn't attend the Massive-Verse panel. But in all seriousness, words alone cannot describe the excitement I have for both the Radiant Black audiobook AND "I Am No/One" when they release. The pure innovation that you guys are able to achieve over at Black Market Narrative will never cease to amaze me and also constantly reaffirms what I love about storytelling.
I've had a theory for the last few issues on who No/One is, after pursing through the available evidence and I definitely don't think that its as simple as things are laid out. I happen to think its a certain villainous characters sibling but im eager to get more answers in the film