Matthew: Finally, a few personal questions. Where do you live, somewhere on the West Coast I gather? Have you always lived in that region or did you grow up somewhere else?
Paul: I grew up in Natick, MA but moved to CA to attend USC. I currently live in Burbank.
Matthew: I understand you have a few children. Is there anything you’d like to share about them and your family?
Paul: I’m happily married (for over 10 years) and have two kids. My wife is an uber-talented Interior Designer and was once an Imagineer having helped design Disney California Adventure and Tokyo Disney.
Matthew: I love to hear about long and happy marriages. I’ve been happily married for 17 years and have six children. My oldest daughter was thrilled to hear that your wife helped design a Disney theme park. She’s an amusement park fanatic.
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Matthew: I know this may seem like an odd question, but I think it tells a lot about a person… What kind of music do you like?
Paul: LOL…I have very odd tastes in music that on the surface may seem polar opposites but they are all unified by being very melodic at their core. I love Orchestral Movie Scores (John Barry, John Williams, James Horner, Michael Danna, Christopher Young, James Newton Howard, etc…etc…etc..) I have over 500 film scores in my collection. I also LOVE Heavy Metal. particularly Power Metal. Iron Maiden is by far my favorite band, but I also love Dio, Judas Priest, Edguy, Avantasia, Kamelot, Primal Fear, Helloween, Dragonforce…It’s got to be melodic with a good lead singer (Not a big fan of Thrash or Death Metal). I also like Men at Work, Journey and The Outfield. 80’s stuff. oh yeah and Neil Diamond and Barry Manilow. Go figure. So what does that say about me?
Matthew: It says that we have similar tastes! I’m not into Iron Maiden that much, but I do like just about every kind of music from AC/DC (especially the Apologetix parodies) to the Indigo Girls. I also love film scores. James Horner’s Star Trek II soundtrack is one of my favorites. There is no shame about liking Diamond and Manilow. Recently, I’ve been listening to re-broadcasts of Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 from the 70’s and 80’s and the diversity is excellent. It all sounds so good. I’m not that familiar with the Outfield, but I love Journey (especially the album Escape) and Men at Work. Do you ever listen to the Cure or School of Fish or Morrissey? We’ll have to pursue this thread via e-mail another time…Paul: Ironically, STAR TREK 2 is my 100% favorite film score ever!!!! Have you heard the expanded version that was just released last year by Retrograde Records/Film Score Monthly. It’s a must own!
Matthew: No, I hadn’t. I can’t believe my beloved CD was so lacking with only nine tracks! I just ordered Star Trek 2, Logan’s Run, and the original Time Machine soundtracks from Film Score!
Paul: All good stuff!
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Matthew: You told me that you were recently on a panel at a Doctor Who convention. What’s your connection with the Doctor? I’m a newbie (thanks to you) to the Doctor Who phenomenon, but I understand there have been many different ones. Who (no pun intended) is your favorite?Paul: I am a lifelong Doctor Who fan and I could go on for hours talking about it. Let’s keep it simple: I own the Tardis Console (The actual prop) from the 1996 Paul McGann FOX Doctor Who TV movie. I also have a full-scale Dalek that I built to almost 100% accuracy. Tom Baker (Curly hair, long scarf) is my favorite, but I really liked Tennant a lot. Curious about this new guy Matt Smith whose new season starts next month.
Matthew: Those are the only two Doctor’s I’ve seen so far. My wife and I just watched “Planet of the Dead” with Tennant last night and we both really enjoyed it. I picked up some more Tennant episodes from the library today.
Paul: You really need to watch “Blink” from David Tennants 2nd season as the Doctor. It was just voted as the 2nd fan favorite Doctor Who story of all time and features Carey Mulligan who was just Oscar nominated as Best Actress for AN EDUCATION and is in the upcoming WALL STREET 2. “Blink” is Doctor Who at it’s best: Well written, Well Acted and SCARY!!!! Steven Moffet won a Hugo Award for it.
Matthew: Turns out I DID get the right season of Tennant this week and my wife and I just saw "Blink". We skipped the first disc and went right to that episode. WOW! You weren't kidding. It was fantastic...and those weeping angels...really creepy. It reminded me of the hedge chapter in the Shining. I also loved the happy lives the people involved got to live. Yea! My wife and I have another Sci-Fi show to enjoy together!!! After all, her liking Star Trek (and other sci-fi) was one of the reasons I married her. Not the number one reason of course, but number 5 or 6 for sure.
Paul: I'm glad I could help bring even more marital bliss ;)
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Matthew: Do you have a particular philosophy or guidelines you like to live by?
Paul: Actually I do. I like to be a nice guy and treat people well. I feel fortunate that people helped me along the way and I like to do the same. You don’t have to be a complete asshole to make it in the world. I also believe that the best rewards are the ones you worked hardest for and that anything is possible with hard work and ambition.
Matthew: After the Logan books – what’s next for you?
Paul: Lots and lots of stuff. Too much to mention Writing more screenplays, graphic novels, short stories, Producing, Directing. What ever comes next, I’m game :)
Matthew: Do you have an on-line way for your fans to interact with you like a blog or a facebook page? Anything else you’d like to mention?
Paul: Feel free to friend me on FACEBOOK. you can also follow me on Twitter (@paulsalamoff). So in final, I hope you enjoy (and support) LOGAN’S RUN: LAST DAY. It was written with great care and love of the source material and I truly feel I’ve written something special that will make it new again for new fans as well as old.
Matthew: Excellent! Thank you so much, Paul. This was a blast.
Paul: My pleasure
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Correction Department: Last week, I had implied that Paul was talking about Marvel Two-In-One (which he did collect), but he was actually referring to The Thing solo series. Sorry about that folks!
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