Here they are, the most viewed TVWriter™ posts during the past week:
Category: By TVWriter.Com
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.)
Peer Production: PIVOT POINT
Who says that the interwebs can’t take on traditional genres and do just as good (or bad?) a job as network TV? If you’re a cop procedural fan, then this is the series for you. Every beloved writing and directorial cliche, plus a dash of interweb tastelessness to add “realism.”
And you thought we automatically loved every web series. Ha!
Of course we could be wrong. Have a look for yourself and let us know whatcha think:
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.)
Speaking of Motivation
Elsewhere on today’s page, the wonderful Peggy Bechko has a very helpful article on one of the essential ingredients of good storytelling: Creating believable motivations for your characters. We couldn’t resist being funny when it came time to finding illustrations for it, but now, here’s a more serious breakdown of what could be pushing your characters forward. (Or backward, or making them stand still, come to think about it.) Anyway:
More about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs HERE