Not just 1 or 2 but an entire Acme Mess O’TV Writing Quotes.
Cuz, you know…TVWriter™ cares:
Month: September 2013
John Ostrander: Secrets
by John Ostrander
Everyone has secrets; lots of them. As I said in my column about the TV miniseries Broadchurch, “…what gets revealed to whom, when, and how and is that a good idea really drives narrative and character. The revelation of secrets may answer some questions but may raise more.”
Some things you can tell about a person by looking at them: what they look like, ethnicity, gender, rough age and so on, but these days of social media such as Facebook, even that may be a secret. Are those pictures really of him/her? Those can still be secrets.
There are levels of secrets and not all of them are deep and dark. Your name, for example. Unless you’re wearing a name badge, it’s not immediately apparent. If you’re asked for your name, you usually give it. Some situations may alter that – women in bars may not give their real names or phone numbers, often with good reason. If a cop asks you your name, however, you’d better be prepared to share it.
Overthinking The Hero’s Journey
Because, you know, we (us critic types) can:
Shaun of the Fuzz’s End: The Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy and the Hero’s Journey
by Mark Lee
Shaun of the Dead. Hot Fuzz. The World’s End. These movies make up the Three Flavors Cornetto Trilogy, and they share more in common than the creative team of Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Edgar Wright.
They all tell the story of the Monomyth, otherwise known as the Hero’s Journey:
Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 9/4/13
Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
- Cody Heller & Brett Konner (WILFRED) have a 10 episode commitment from Hulu for their new series DEADBEAT, a sitcom they created about a medium who helps ghosts finish their unfinished business. (We’ll give this one a try cuz we can’t help it – we’re crazy about ghosts and those they hang with.)
- Breckin Meyer (MEN AT WORK ) is co-writing a sitcom pilot called THURSDAYS with Jesse Stern (NCIS) for NBC. (What we find interesting about this deal is that not only is Breckin known primarily as an actor (FRANKLIN & BASH) as well as the creator of MEN AT WORK, but Jesse is primarily a procedural writer getting a chance to do comedy. Are genre walls finally starting to tumble?)
- John Wells & Jack Orman (ER) are developing OUTBREAK, based on the 1995 film, for NBC. (And they already have a pilot production commitment cuz, well, ER, you know?)
- Brian Koppelman & David Levien (OCEAN’S THIRTEEN) have been set as showrunners of an untitled “rock’n’roll drama” series at HBO created by Martin Scorsese, Mick Jagger, and Terence Winter. (But there’s absolutely no certainty that the series will get picked up, so what are Brian and David really signing on for?
- John Scott Shepherd (SAVE ME) has sold BROKEN GIRL, a series about “an emotionally damaged” female superhero, to Fox. (Cuz Fox executives love them those hot babes in spandex, no? At least, we hope that isn’t the reason.)
Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 9/3/13
- Shepard Boucher (MEN AT WORK) has written the ABC Family pilot MYSTERY GIRLS a drama about stars of a TV mystery show who also solve real crimes. (Let’s see now. TV’s been in homes since about 1948, right? So that means that some version or other of this concept has been worked on in every development season for 65 years. And still hasn’t succeeded. Hmm…)
- Grant Levy & Dominik Rothbard (BUNHEADS) have written a sitcom pilot, also for ABC family, about a young woman who hires her mother to be her assistant. (That sound you just heard was our super long yawn. Or, to put it another way: Somebody thinks that’s interesting? WTF?)
- Also on ABC Fam, David Holden (ACCIDENTALLY ON PURPOSE) has written the pilot for YOUNG & HUNGRY, a comedy about a tech entrepreneur who hires a “feisty young woman” blogger as his personal chef. (Completing ABC Family’s Trifecta of Meh very nicely, we think.)
- Chris Carter (um, a little thing called THE X-FILES) is writing an After the Apocalypse pilot for a show called, not surprisingly, THE AFTER for…Amazon? (Okay, that part is surprising. Has Chris’s career been so deeply down the toilet that this is the only place he can go to get flush again?)
- Adam Fierro (JUSTIFIED) is writing the Fox pilot GRINGO about an American cop who gets caught up in a Mexican drug war when he moves to Mexico with his Mexican wife. (Okay, this one definitely reminds us of various arcs on NCIS. But at least it isn’t for ABC Family.)