General Hospital's Anthony Montgomery has found quite a bit of success in the entertainment industry, having made a name for himself as Star Trek: Enterprise's Travis Mayweather before landing the role of hunky Port Charles doctor Andre Maddox. But the Indiana native's true Hollywood dream is to turn his passion project, Miles Away, into a media franchise.
Montgomery has created the story of an entire new world, and while it currently exists solely in comic book form, he's hoping to get Miles Away turned into an animated series, as well.
"It's about a 16-year-old named Maxwell Miles," the actor shares of the story. "He's got a clouded history, he develops a super human ability, gets recruited by a shadowy organization to battle an evil entity and her minions on future Earth. It takes place in 2089 -- I wanted it in the future but still close enough to us to be relatable -- and it also allies with alien refugees and evolves into an interstellar war as Maxwell explores his family's dark past."
Montgomery turned the story into a comic book in 2013, even though that wasn't exactly what he had in mind for the Miles Away world.
"My first thinking initially was to do an animated series, which was really hard," he reveals. "Even with my Star Trek background, it's hard getting into animation. So people started saying, 'Why don't you turn it into a graphic novel? Or a Harry Potter type novel?' But I knew what I wanted, and I could see it in my head, and I didn't want to do it like Harry Potter."
So instead, the actor got to work bringing the characters to life via a graphic novel.
"I sat with an artist and I paid for it out of my own pocket; my book cost me $45,000 out of my own pocket," he shares of the blood, sweat, and tears (and money) he's poured into the project. "It took us a year just to get the first character, and when I first created it back in 2001 when I was on Enterprise, I created 20 characters initially, and I was meticulous with the artist for each character."
Despite his best efforts, Montgomery is still trying to bring Miles Away to the screen. But he's hoping his GH gig might help.
"You guys know what this industry is like; you're only as hot as the last thing you did," he explains. "So now I've got more momentum to talk about Miles Away, because of General Hospital. So all I have to do is keep making Maddox the best he can be!"
For more information on Miles Away, check out Montgomery's official website.
What do you think about the premise for Miles Away? Would you like to see Montgomery's project be made into an animated series? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
