Interview:George Krstic

How did you get into writing?

I¹ve always been a story-teller, and quickly found that I wasn¹t

suited for much else in this life, so I just stuck with it. Growing

up, I decided to make films, and after high school, went on to study screenwriting at the School of Visual Arts. While there, I met a number of the people I still collaborate with today. Among them, Chris Prynoski, who lured me away from the world of live action to write for his animated series, MTV¹s Downtown for which we got an Emmy nomination. I¹ve been writing for film, animation, comic books, and video games ever since.

What do you believe your influences were in the creation of “Megas XLR”?

There were quite a few, but the main one was Macross (Robotech) - one scene especially. It was very early on in the series where the main character, Rick Hunter, somehow wound up at the controls of a Veri-tech robot and accidentally wrecked a chunk of the city. I always wanted to see more of that the wrong kid (and in the case of Megas, man-kid) at the controls of a massive, weaponized robot who constantly did the wrong thing for the right reason. Just a few of the other inspirations Gatchaman, Warhammer 40K, Sailor Moon, WWF, 80s video games, 70s Kung Fu movies, Godzilla, various weirdo Marvel and DC villains, Mr. T, Power Rangers I could go on for days.

   Are the characters in the show based on anyone in particular?

  Actually almost all of our main characters are various takes on

  people we know. Coop is based on a buddy from film school, a

  loud, loveable guy who grew up, and still lives in, Jersey City. We

  asked ourselves, who would be the absolute worst (for heroics)

  and best (for comedic destruction) pilot should we ever get giant

  robot technology, and he immediately came to mind. And Goat is

  actually based on, and voiced by our good buddy wait for it Goat.

  This wasn¹t too much of a stretch for him as he already played

  himself in Downtown.

  Is there any chance of us ever seeing any more Megas?

  We were actually plotting out third season, as well as a feature

  when they pulled the plug, so we would have plenty of material

  should Cartoon Network want to ever revisit Megas. And although

  we¹re kicking ass on Itunes and Xbox Live, it seems that CN is

  moving towards live action these days. Not to mention that they

  recently announced a slew of new giant robot shows!

So yeah, I think the answer is that Megas is pretty much dead right now. But you never know what the future holds...

Did you watch the films/other Clone Wars series to familiarise your self with the show “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” before writing for it?

Luckily I was already a huge Star Wars super-nerd, so I was pretty well caught up on all of the films, animated series, comics, novels, video games, trading cards, video games, action figures, bath soaps, you get the idea...

 It actually really helped to have all of those seemingly-wasted years of my youth finally account for something. Suddenly knowing what the Kessel Run was gets me kudos, instead of an ass-kicking.