Blackdog Blues

Blackdog Blues was a movie script co-written by Steven Erikson and Ian C. Esslemont before the publication of the first published Malazan novel, Gardens of the Moon. Erikson and Esslemont's first attempts to dramatise the events of their Malazan role-playing game sessions took the form of screenplays. Their initial screenplay took place in Darujhistan and covered the events of the last quarter of the eventual Gardens of the Moon novel.
Their next effort was the prequel Blackdog Blues, which took place during the Malazan invasion of Genabackis and covered the fighting in Blackdog Swamp and Mott Wood. Although inspired by their gaming, Erikson says the story itself was invented for the script and "would have really shifted the...whole T'lan Imass storyline" away from what had been in the games and eventually the novels. There was "a strong comedic element, but also a completely insane element."Chatting with Ian C. Esslemont, Steven Erikson, and Dr. Philip Chase - No Ochre Involved - A Critical Dragon - See 34:10
:The only version we have now is a on a little floppy disk. We lost the Gardens of the Moon script long ago but we do have Blackdog Blues which I haven't been able to access yet. Hopefully, it's still there. It's the whole Genabackan campaign that precedes Gardens of the Moon. It would be fun to see.--Steven EriksonEbalkin.net interview with Steven Erikson
At a 2018 convention interview, Erikson described the script as a comedy.Erikson interview at Comic Con Portugal 2018 In a 2020 interview, Erikson said the story involved Whiskeyjack and his squad of Bridgeburners, and Tool "played a big role." The script was "quite comedic in many respects."Not A TSACast: Fireside Conversations with Steven Erikson Ep#3 podcast - See 1:13:00 
In a joint 2021 interview with both authors, Esslemont revealed that the opening scene involved a river crossing. Elements of the screenplay might appear in a future Esslemont novel covering the same campaign.- Chat with Ian C. Esslemont and Steven Erikson - A Critical Dragon - See 41:25 In another joint interview in 2022, Erikson clarified that the "main premise was Tool joins Whiskeyjack's squad and he gets a sense that a Jaghut is hiding in the swamp...then he just becomes relentless and drags the squad with him into the swamp and all hell breaks loose." Esslemont mentioned that the Bole brothers were not involved, but the spirit of those characters typified what the squad encountered in the swamp.
Esslemont recalls disagreeing with Erikson over a comic scene Erikson wrote where the sappers were crossing a river and failed to notice "a hand sort of come up out of the water with a sword." Esslemont thought the idea "too Arthurian. I [didn't] want to import any of the Arthurian ethos into the world. I thought that was too much of a wide door...We went back and forth for some time on that."Conversation with Ian Cameron Esslemont - Ten Very Big Books - See 1:06:30
Erikson says that if the movie were ever made he would like to see the Blackdog Forest sections filmed in northern Saskatchewan where he had experience doing archaeological surveys. He described the forest there as thick elm thickets and dogwood, unlike the cathedral-style forests typically seen in fantasy films. "You have to claw your way through...even a machete would be hopeless--you've got to bull your way through. And quite often you're closing your eyes because the branches would just potentially, you know, poke your eyes out...It's one of those settings you almost never see in film and television."Deadhouse Gates: A Chat with Steven Erikson, Part 5 - Claudia Iovanovici - See 19:00 
==Notes and references==
Category:Books by Steven Erikson
Category:Books by Ian C. Esslemont