My name is John Rogers.
I am a screenwriter.
I currently run the TV
show Leverage on TNT.
Chris Downey, Dean Devlin,
and I created the show.
Well, there's this weird story
is Dean Devlin was talking
about doing a series with TNT at
the same time Chris Downey
and I were talking about,
where's that great Rockford
Files con and heist show?
We just don't have
those anymore.
And coincidentally, Dean and
I had lunch the next day.
And he said, TNT wants
me to do a show.
And I want to do a group.
And I said, well my buddy and
I were talking about this.
Dean and I were friends.
We pitched it and sold
it within two weeks.
I actually wanted to be
a mystery writer.
And I wanted to write sparkling
banter and dialogue.
So I became a stand-up to kind
of learn how jokes worked and
just get a better sense of it.
I was doing my physics
degree at the time.
And it turned out I was
a much better stand-up
than I was a physicist.
So I wound up doing stand-up,
did a bunch of specials, got
my own sitcom for a
minute and a half.
But after the sitcom didn't go,
I was back auditioning.
And the writers went
to the next job.
And I thought, that job, the
one where you fail and get
another job, I want that.
So I eventually wound up
circling back into writing and
became a television writer.
I don't just write television
and movies.
I've also written comic books
over the last 10 years.
I started by doing independent
work for BOOM!
Studios in their anthologies,
like Zombie Tales and Ninja
Tales and that sort of thing.
That eventually led to writing
Blue Beetle for two years for
DC on the old line.
And now I'm writing
the Dungeons and
Dragons comic for IDW.
So my geek cred is firmly
established.
It was a little daunting to do
the Dungeons and Dragons comic
book, because everyone is
so very attached to it.
And that's why I didn't
do one of the worlds.
I didn't do Forgotten Realms.
I didn't do any of
the other ones.
I took the core world that was
very undefined, so I wouldn't
be walking on anybody's
previous work.
And I wouldn't be walking
on any preconceptions.
Interestingly enough, we
actually did much better in
the comic press and got much
better reviews than amongst
the role playing press, because
role playing fans tend
to read very big, thick fantasy
books and aren't
necessarily into serialized
storytelling the way
the comic books are.
So it wound up being more I'm
writing a Dungeons and Dragons
comic for the comic fans.
It goes role playing game,
video game, table top, I
think, just because I like
the story elements.
If I can't get a role playing
game group on a regular basis,
I play video games.
And it splits between the
strategy games and the big
open world games.
But, to be honest, most of the
fun I have is dissecting games
almost more than playing them.
I love game design, because game
design boils down to how
you tell stories through
mechanical means.
And screen writing is all about
how you tell stories
through mechanical means.
You're bound by act breaks.
You're bound by characters.
You're bound by genre.
You're bound by budget.
And so there's a lot of
crossover in game design, game
space, storytelling games,
and writing.
I think, really, I'd love to
do a modern fantasy show.
I think America, I think the
audience is receptive to magic
in a way that mainstream
publishers and broadcasters
don't understand.
Harry Potter was huge.
Lord of the Rings was huge.
And we have no TV shows
reflecting that in any way,
shape, or form.
And, to me, that's just money
left on the table and
storytelling space left
on the table.
Gaming is creativity.
