INTERVIEWS
JASON HENDERSON

By: Cabal, 26th October 2000

Cabal: If you could be any character from any C&C game who would it be and why?
Jason: Definitely Kane. Who wouldn't be Kane? One gets the impression all lights turn green for Kane, plus he's fit and has really snazzy facial hair. I'm blonde; I try to grow a beard and I look like a serial killer, which would never inspire confidence in the masses. Definitely Kane.
Of course, with Red Alert 2, definitely General Carville, because he's so on top of everything. I wanted him to have a love affair with Tanya, although as it turned out, Barry Corbin, that wonderful North Texas neighbor of mine, would have been an odd match with Miss Wuhrer.

Cabal: How much research did you have to do before working on Red Alert 2?
Jason: Same as always, I just buried myself in all the reference materials I could find on Russia and the 50's and Red Alert and then try to shove it all into your subconcious when you start writing. I had already done a lot of cracking into the Soviet mindset for my Hulk book, Abominations, and was able to dredge up a lot of that knowledge.

Cabal: Have you seen much of the actual game? If yes, what do you think of it?
Jason: I've probably seen less than you have-- the thing about screenwriters is we're a particular kind of resource who aren't around for much more than what they're asked to do. I can't wait to see how it all turned out, though.

Cabal: What are the Red Alert 2 team like?
Jason: My role as screenwriter was more like that of a distant satellite sending back information. I worked with Exec Producer Donny Miele by constant email, every day for months. All the comments came through him, and we developed quite a rapport. But I never actually met the rest of the team.
It was product development of the future. I remember once I was typing on my laptop at a lakeside coffee shop in Austin, and Donny was giving me notes from a deck overlooking a golf course in Nevada. Dream project. Most of my work, actually, was done at the Town Lake Hyatt Regency in Austin.

Cabal: Have you played any of the other C&C games?
Jason: Yes! I loved the original C&C, especially the Commando. (So very Texan. "Got a present for ya!")

Cabal: Out of all the screenplays that you've written, which is your favorite?
Jason: Actually, my favorite is one I just finished but haven't sold yet, about a woman who goes to New Orleans, the most haunted city in America, and finds out that she can siphon the powers of the dead. She ends up a sort of ghost-hunting super-hero. I love it but haven't done anything with it. Next to that, I just finished a collaboration with 3D animator Tony Salvaggio, a feature-length Victorian mech team script called Clockwerx. Pure action.

Jason asked for me to post a link to his homepage so here it is... www.jasonhenderson.com