Month: May 2015

LB: Epix is Doing a Series Starring Nick Nolte

PARK CITY, UT - JANUARY 24: Actor Nick Nolte from "A Walk in the Woods" poses for a portrait at the Village at the Lift Presented by McDonald's McCafe during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2015 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images)
Now here’s a guy I could have a drink or 10 with, “ex-POTUS” or not

by Larry Brody

…And even though I’m almost clueless about what Epix is – except that they’re a “premium cable network” and seem to do a lot of streaming over the web – I absolutely would watch (as in try out) their upcoming series GRAVES, starring Nick Nolte “as a former President of the United States…who twenty years after his term ends…begins to think that his policies have damaged the country…[and] goes on a Don Quixote-like journey to fix things.”

Oh, and it’s a single camera, half-hour comedy, in case you couldn’t tell from my abridged longline…not that I could tell from their longer, tedious logline the Hollywood Reporter ran a few days ago.

The creator-showrunner is Joshua Michael Stern, who wrote something I haven’t seen called SWING VOTE, and Oscar winning producer of THE HURT LOCKER (which I thought was naive in its “gritty reality”) Greg Shapiro is also on board as an executive producer. For all I know, these two men are the funniest, most creative individuals on the planet, but I’ve got to be candid here. I’d rush to watch this thing even if it was from the GILLIGAN’S ISLAND gang because Nick Nolte being Don Quixote? C’mon! read article

Kelly Jo Brick Attends the Sundance Institute Film Financing Intensive

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by Kelly Jo Brick

With research showing that film financing and going out to ask investors for money are big challenges for female independent filmmakers, Women In Film and Sundance Institute have teamed up for a Female Filmmakers Financing Intensive.

TVWriter.com Contributing Editor, Kelly Jo Brick, was one of the filmmakers selected to participate in this event. She shares these takeaways from her experience with the Financing Intensive.

1.  Creating opportunities: As part of a small group selected to workshop our current projects with Sundance advisors, I was quickly caught up in the energy and enthusiasm of those around me, both advisors and participants, real examples of people who aren’t waiting to be chosen, but are going out and making things happen, which is something anyone can do. read article

The Best and Worst Trends of the 2014-2015 TV Season

In case y’all need to be told how to feel about the current TV season. Cuz it’s such a drag, you know, to have to think for yourselves:

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This pic doesn’t necessarily reflect the article, but we couldn’t resist its message cuz we’re so used to obeying, you know?

by Pilot Viruet

Last week, networks announced their 2015-16 television season pick-ups, cancellations, and official schedules. Just by looking at the big four networks, it’s easy to pick out the trends they’re betting on for next year: movie-to-television adaptations, reboots and remakes, childhood nostalgia like The Muppets, more medical dramas, and more superhero shows. But before we look ahead, and now that the current TV season is finally winding down, it’s necessary to take a look back at what networks were gung-ho about last year — and to see whether or not any of those ideas worked. From multiple knockoffs ofThe Americans to romantic-comedy sitcoms to, of course, superheroes, here’s a look at 2014-15’s best trends and worst failures.

Win: Comic book adaptations and superhero narratives read article

Letterman Writer’s Good-bye to Dave

Bill Scheft, one of the backbones of the Letterman show over more than twenty years, has written this insightful look into the finale. When TV series work, everything about them becomes family. Scheft’s article works wonders, letting everybody who reads it into the clan:

lettermangbye (Final) Show Diary of Stuff Noteworthy Only to Me, Day 28 (End of Daves)…
by Bill Scheft

It is Sunday, around 1:30 pm, as I write this. If you must know, my boss of 24 years, Dave Letterman, is where he always is on this day, somewhere on Pit Row at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. His driver, Graham Rahal, is currently running ninth with 132 laps to go. Maybe by the time I finish this, he’ll be further up on the others. And so will you people….

If you must know, I feel relieved and extremely proud. But that’s all I can give you right now. Mercifully, for the purposes of this exercise, how I feel is not important. You saw it, you know how it made you feel. That’s all that is relevant, practical and real. But I can take you through the last day and maybe they will be something there. Something else. Something else, like that last 78 minutes we all had together. read article

Herbie J Pilato: DARK SHADOWS’ Original Incarnation is Originality in Action

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by Herbie J Pilato

Live performances.  Rehashed ideas.  Retold stories.  Dead-on scripts.

Turn of the Screw.  Picture of Dorian Gray.  Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  Dracula.  Frankenstein.  The Wolfman.  Even HP Lovecraft’s The Cthulhu Mythos.

Actors play a piece from each, working, temporarily, steadily.  Stereotyped, indefinitely.  Fallen movie stars, resurrected for the small screen. TV superstars yet to be born.  Future TV angels, present spectres. read article