Author: munchman

Norman Mailer’s Life Coming to HBO

How many of you are asking, “Who’s Norman Mailer?”

Yeah, we weren’t sure either. Some writer our grandparents probably bought but didn’t read. (Hey, books were cheaper then.) read article

What Not To Do To Get Your Book On a Store’s Shelf

For once, we’re speechless. No, wait, here’s our speech: “Long live Chutzpah!” Yeah, it’s a showbiz thing.

Joan Rivers says Costco book ban like ‘beginning of Nazi Germany’ (L.A.Times) read article

Everybody’s Talking About How Much TV Stars Make

…Because money, you know, has always had kind of a loud voice:

The highest paid star on TV. Hi, David!

Who Earns What: TV’s Highest Paid Stars – by Stephen Battaglio and Michael Schneider

Drama (per episode)
Mark Harmon (NCIS): $500,000
Ellen Pompeo (Grey’s Anatomy): $350,000
Kevin Bacon (The Following): $175,000
Lucy Liu (Elementary): $125,000
Stephen Amell (Arrow): $30,000 read article

Joss Whedon’s March to Victory Continues

We’re showing an old cover of “Marvel Mystery Comics” because the exact nature of Joss Whedon’s new series for Marvel is – aw, you guessed it – still a mystery. Yeah.

As if he wasn’t busy enough, Disney has just announced that everybody’s Screen and TV Writer of the Hour is now set to:

  1. Write and Direct the sequel to this year’s smash film THE AVENGERS, which he also wrote and directed
  2. Develop a live-action series featuring Marvel characters for ABC

No one’s giving any details on what Marvel characters they are, but no matter their names, powers, and secret tragedies, we can’t think of anyone who could do a better job on them than the man behind DOLLHOUSE, FIREFLY, ANGEL, and everybody’s favorite vampire slayer, BUFFY.

EDITED BY LB TO ADD: Know those recent rumors that Marvel was about to start work on a TV version of THE HULK but was waiting for the writer they wanted to be available? I’m thinking Joss was the writer and that now that this deal’s in place we’ll be hearing about it soon. Bouquets gratefully accept when I’m proven right. Brickbats for when I’m shown to be wrong? Nah. read article

NBC Buys Another Procedural – From Kelsey Grammar

Not a pic from the upcoming series, but pretty damn freaky, for sure.

Well, from his company anyway. Gramnet Productions and Lionsgate have sold the most active network buyer in town (the town being L.A., okay?) a drama series called PARIAH.

Written by Kevin Fox, whose credits include LIE TO ME, LAW & ORDER: SVU, the feature film THE NEGOTIATOR, and the novel Until Next Time, PARIAH could well be the weirdest project on any network’s development list: A cop show based on the various “Freakonomics” books and website, created by economist authors Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner.

According to Deadline.Com, the series premise boils down to this: read article