[quote="Nitrol"]Greetings!
First, I wanna apologize if there are any grammar mistakes - English
isn't my native language.
In your mail to other The Lion King fan (
http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc5 ... _email.png
) you write:
"I believe the books were published sometime before the movie"
Question is: did you mean before The Lion King or before The Lion King
2: Simba's Pride?
Second question: you're author of the "Tale of Two Brothers", but did
you take part in making the other TLK6NA books?
Third question (this one is from my friend Ola): Were there any other
ideas - how Taka got his scar?
"I had no contact with them about the characters after the book
project, so I suspect they did not" - you were right, they didn't
know. This is excerpt from an interview with Phil Weinstein:
[quote]Aniu: Well, in regards to The Lion King 2, how involved were you as far as
production of the movie and, I guess, story-wise?
Phil: For Lion King 2 , I was a storyboard artist, and I was—believe
it or not, the
movie went through a series of directors that were hired and fired in
Lion King 2 .
The very first directing/producing team that was on-board, I was
actually part of the
very original development group that was on that. So I was developing
characters,
and we were working on story scenarios. And one day they fired that
director and
writer team. And I stayed with Disney, but I moved on to some other
director/video
projects. And then a couple of years later, I came back to the project
as a storyboard
artist. And I ended up storyboarding a lot of songs, so I think—if I remember—I
storyboarded or helped storyboard a lot of the songs. I can’t remember
all of them,
but that’s—Most of those direct-to-videos back then had one or two songs, and
pretty much all of them from the Aladdin sequels on forward had them, even Lion
King 2 .
(...)
Skul: Okay.
Aniu: Are you familiar with Kopa, the original son of Simba and Nala?
And if so, was
there a reason you all opted not to put him in The Lion King 2?
Phil: No…what was his name?
Aniu: Apparently his name was Kopa, and it was—I forget exactly where the fan
knowledge comes from, because I’m not—
Skul: [interrupting] I can answer that. Kopa was the son of Simba and Nala in a
series of books that were published immediately after The Lion King .
And there were
six books total, all of them 100-page kids books, but they all had Kopa in them.
Phil: Wow. No, I wasn’t aware of that.
Skul: Yeah. A bunch of people have been wondering why it was Kiara instead of
Kopa in Lion King 2 . And, I guess not even you know the answer.
Phil: No, you’re going to have to track down—gosh, I can’t even
remember. Who was
it…was it Darrell Rooney that directed Lion King 2 ? Is that right? I
think he was the
one who ended up taking it to the finish line.
Aniu: Okay.
[Note from Skul: Yes, Darrell Rooney was the director]
Phil: So you’ll have to find him or one of the writers and ask them.
They might know.
Aniu: Okay. We’ll definitely have to track him down and ask that question
eventually.[/quote]
At the end I just want to say that you're author of the most popular
book from The Lion King universe. ...I personally know more people who
like TLK6NA than The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride. And I'm one of these
people.
Best regards,
Lucas[/quote]
[quote="Alex Simmons"]Greetings Lucas:
First let me say thank you for your kind and complimentary words. I am truly happy,
and a little amazed; to find the story still pleases so many people. Thank you.
Now, let’s get to your questions.
1- I meant the books came out before THE LION KING 2: Simba’s Pride. All our
work was based off of the original movie.
2- Yes. Working with 2 other writers, I helped create the plots for all six stories.
3- Not that I recall. It seems to me that I came up with the idea for how Taka
got his scar, based on the relationship between Mufasa and Taka in the
movie. It made sense to me.
Well, that’s it for now.
Hope that helps, but feel free to write if you have any other questions.
Again, thank you for writing. I am very glad you feel my story is one of the most
popular. Very happy indeed.
Best,
Alex Simmons
Web: http://www.SimmonsHereAndNow.com
Blog: http://www.SimmonsHereAndNow.wordpress.com[/quote]
I'll tell you what i traded them for in the lion king collection thread once i get them. 
