Category: By munchman

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 4/28/14

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
by munchman

  • David Manson (HOUSE OF CARDS) has a new overall deal with FG Productions, where’s going to do the usual developing and stuff. (Word is that the company is absolutely bonkers in love with his FX drama pilot HOKE, so this is a pre-emptive move to keep our hero – no relation to either Marilyn or Charlie Manson as far as we know – in the fold before he gets way too hot for their budget. Munchy congrats, Davey!)
  • Jason Aaron (Scalped graphic novel series) has sold that very series to WGN, which is developing it into a TV series for WGN America. (There’s an insider word here too: Jason’s a Prairie Village, Kansas resident who, we understand, is now going to storm the big city. That’s right, he’s coming to – wait for it – Wichita! Congrats on the deal and the new address, Jase!)
  • The latest news about Chris Albrecht who, okay, isn’t a writer but certainly has made a bunch of ’em rich as CEO of HBO and, now, Starz, puts the writing deals we talk about her into perspective: Dude may indeed have contributed to the wealth of all kinds of talented wordsmiths, but he himself personally made over $30 million last year just by, well, musing around, it seems to Yer Friendly Neighborhood munchman. Muse me, Chrissy baby! Muse me!)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 4/24/14

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
by munchman

  • Angela Robinson & Alex Kondracke (THE L WORD) are developing a too-be-named drama about “the Golden Age of Hollywood and the intersecting lives of Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich. (Which is sure to be a hit cuz let’s face it, it’s gonna emerge as lesbian porn, am I right?)
  • David M. Stern (THE SIMPSONS) is developing WORMWOOD, an animated comic book adaptation, for IDW Entertainment. (After which it’ll promptly die cuz series that are developed independently of networks almost always do. Tough break for Ben Templesmith, the comic’s creator. Take it from the muncher, Ben: Not even partnering with George Lopez will help unless you’ve got a network on the hook first. Hmm, make that “especially when partnering with George Lopez. And I thought you comic book guyz were smarter than this.)
  • Matt Lopez (RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN) has a new overall deal with Universal TV. (Cuz he’s the “go-to screenwriter for family fare,” and farmily fare is the new buzz genre de jour in the wonderful world of creatively bankrupt TV.)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 4/22/14

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
by munchman

  • Frank Spotnitz (X FILES) & Nicholas Meyer (HOUDINI) have created the ultimate crime series: FREUD: THE SECRET CASEBOOK. (That’s the good news. The not-so-good news is that it’s being set up in the UK, which means that most likely the show will take its sweet time coming to where we in the U.S. can see it without doing something illegal.)
  • Pivot TV has announced a whole passel of new shows for, you know, “younger viewers,” as in the same obnoxious demo that all TV shows these days are made for but presented as though only Pivot is doing this. Yer Friendly Neighborhood munchman is especially interested in FORTITUDE, created and run by Simon Donald (LOW WINTER SUN). (Cuz it’s set in – get this – “the Arctic town of Fortitude…surrounded by the savage beauty of the polar landscape,” and if there’s one thing this munchy one loves its looking at barren wastelands for at least an hour a week.)
  • Speaking of barren wastelands, Pivot also has LEADER TOWN, an animated comedy about an American family trying to fit into a Russian town, created and showrun by THE SIMPSONS’ Jeff Westbrook. (Warning note: This particular wasteland is a moral-ethical one. The town is where “the world’s deposed ex-leaders…live out their lives in luxury using their ill-goten gains.” Oh well, if there’s one thing THE SIMPSONS writers know about it’s…yeah, you guessed it, moral-ethical dilemmas.)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 4/12/14

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are=&0=&(SONS OF ANARCHY) have a new overall deal with HBO, starting with the drama series, YELLOWSTONE about, uh, violence in Montana. (The munchy one has absolutely no interest in Montana, so no way am I going to watch this if it gets on the air. Well, maybe if I get on staff. Yeah, if I’m writing the damn thing I’ll be glad to watch. But only my eps, dudes, cuz that’s how munchies roll.) Steven Knight (LOCKE) is writing an 8-part BBC drama called TABOO, about a 19th century adventurer fighting with the East India Company. (Ooh, man versus corporation. I can hardly wait. What could be better than watching the guy who broke Batman’s back go up against a corporate charter? Thing better be made of some very thick paper!) David Milch has extended his overall deal with HBO. (Evidently cuz HBO thinks that having a hack has-been who’s last decent work was on the air almost a decade ago is preferable to letting anybody new and/or under 60 into the building. The Milchman is gobbling up a piece of the pie that could’ve been yours, mine, or anybody else’s. The only Big Name who’s gone lower than Milchovic is Bruce Springsteen, who now makes his living covering hits recorded by dudes at least a century younger than his botoxed self. Oh, brave new world – why hast thou forsaken us? Or something like that.) End of rant. Buh-bye for now!

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 4/10/14

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are=&0=&(SPOOKS) are developing a drama series called HUMANS for – wait for it – XBox! It’s all about a parallel universe where humans use highly developed robot servants and the moral, ethical, and just plain dangerously real problems the situation creates. (A slavery parable, kids? Possibly. And also the prequel to BATTLESTAR GALACTIC that should have been. ) Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day and Glenn Howerton (IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA) have a new 3 year deal with FX Productions. (And not only does it give them all kinds of development ops, it also renews IASIP for 2 more years and picks up their new Tracy Morgan comedy series as well. (Congrats, guys. Hey, remember how great I was when I guested on Philly?Wouldn’t this be a terrific time to, you know, lock me into your new show?) The Weinstein Company has a new deal with Gannett giving the Weinsteins the rights to develop TV projects based on anything in Gannett newspapers, TV stations, websites, etc. (Which means – and this is confidential, just between us – that our Beloved Leader, Larry Brody, is sitting with his fingers crossed that somebody at Weinstein tries to develop LB’s old Gannett newspaper column, Live, from Paradise, into a series. But is that cuz he wants to see it on the air or cuz he wants to sue their butts off since Gannett never bought those rights from him? Whatcha think, fellow idealists?)