This all started when I found out from a friend, who works on Grey's Anatomy with me, that someone had gone to Marvel Studios to see about getting them to do Dr. Strange. When I asked for more info, I found out that it was Patrick (Dempsey) who had been suggesting the character, with that certain synergistic connection of Dr. Strange starting out as a surgeon, but he was turned down, not actually personally, but the project, because they had "too much on their plate" at the moment with Iron Man 2, Thor, Cap America, and the Avengers. So I pointed out this is perfect as I could do a piece of art that shows Patrick as the character and get the 'word of mouth' and the idea out there. (Since then Kevin Feige of Marvel Studios has mentioned in an interview on MTV that we shouldn't be surprised to see Dr. Strange on the 2012 movie slate). At this time, I was also working on my other regular show, Mad Men, and brought this up to Jon Hamm, telling him I thought he'd be good as DC's Hal Jordan/Green Lantern which was about to happen from Warner Bros.. When I brought Jon the preliminary pic (which is mostly the one here) he let me know he had run with it and actually had an appointment with the writer-director of GL that week following wrap. (Never did hear how that turned out, maybe when we begin shooting season 3 in a couple of months...) In the meantime, back on Grey's, Kevin McKidd was introduced, and I had been a regular on his previous show Journeyman as well (though never playing the same thing twice) so we already knew each other. And it turned out he was already in the running for Thor (and in my opinion, he's high up the list). So I told him what I'd been doing and went forth and created TWO pictures (technically three) of him in character. (I do have one other actor I've worked with that I intend to do a similar type picture of, but that will wait until I get it done, but I've already arranged that he'll get it directly when I do it).
Oh and that Grey's connection....Aside from Kevin and Patrick, we have Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Denny Duquette) who is playing the Comedian in the upcoming Watchmen, Allen Heinberg, one of the Executive Producers, who also wrote Wonder Woman for DC, and Young Avengers for Marvel, and myself , walking the halls of Seattle Grace Hospital for 4 seasons now, with many years doing art at DC from Star Trek to Superman, and at Marvel on Spider-man to name a few,
Artwork Copyright Arne Starr
