Bryan Christy

It’s official!! Director David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada, Marley & Me) and Fox 2000 Pictures have optioned The Lizard King!  David lives in South Florida giving him an intimate understanding of that crazy world of wildlife, and he tells me screewriter Howard Franklin is at work on the script.  What a terrific combination! Here’s a profile of David Frankel that really made me feel great about his taking on my first born.  I can’t wait to see what he and Howard come up with!

My pal Dr. Bryan Grieg Fry of Australia is in the news this week for the paper he’s publishing on the Komodo Dragon and the revelation that Dragon saliva contains venom, not bacteria, as its lethal component.  “Your average lion has a much dirtier bite,” said Bryan Fry, a biologist at the University of Melbourne. “It’s complete voodoo.”

Komodo Dragon

Here’s the New York Times story.  Check out BGF and his amazing adventures at his website, here.

I spent last week in St. Louis, Missouri at the 2009 World Taxidermy and Fish Carving Championships.  What a blast!  When I was a boy a friend and I did lessons from the Northwestern School of Taxidermy.  It turns out that many of the legends in the art started out the same way.