When Consumerist.Com tells you something is bad/scary/OMFG!, you know there are a few problems with it. And, boy, are they telling us a lot about this deal.
Read on…if you’re brave enough:
Category: News
FARGO isn’t a TV Series, “It’s a 10-Hour Movie.”
Believe it or not, the article below is the absolute first time that reading an interview with a showrunner or a star has made our Beloved Leader, LB, change his mind and decide to give a new series a try. So let’s put our hands together for…oh, um, reportage in the U.K. Yeah, baby:
by Ben Arnold
This is a true story. In 1998, the current TV belle epoque not even a twinkle in the eye of the US networks, a pilot was filmed for a TV series of the Coen brothers‘ churningly tense black comedy Fargo, which had been released two years previously. It was the last writing and production credit for the late Bruce Paltrow (father of Gwyneth), starred The Sopranos‘ Edie Falco and was directed by Misery actor and occasional director Kathy Bates. Set in Brainerd, Minnesota, it featured Falco as police chief Marge Gunderson, the role immortalised by Frances McDormand in the movie. The Coen brothers were not involved. The project, though strangely enticing, fizzled out.
Then, in 2012, news emerged that another telly crew had taken an interest in the world of Fargo, beginning a slow drip-feed of information about the project that indicated very good things indeed. Firstly, FX, the maverick Fox spin-off network behind brooding dramas such as Justified and Sons Of Anarchy, would be making it. Writing would be Noah Hawley, a novelist and TV writer with a CV including crime comedy-drama Bones. More convincing still, it would not feature any of the same characters from the film, and was amassing an undeniably classy cast, including Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Freeman, Bob Odenkirk, Colin Hanks, US sketch comedy dons Key & Peele, and Oliver Platt.
The UK has its TV Writing Giants Too
We just don’t hear much about them. Till it’s too late. TVWriter™ pays its respects to Bob Larbey:
from Irish Independent
BOB Larbey enjoyed 30 years as half of one of television’s most successful sitcom-writing partnerships. He and John Esmonde had their first major hit with Please Sir! (1968-72), set in Fenn Street Secondary Modern School, with John Alderton as Bernard Hedges, the fledgling teacher trying to keep order among the unruly pupils who call him “Privet”.
Larbey and Esmonde switched to a more traditional domestic setting for their other big success, The Good Life (1975-78), but gave it a twist by making one of the two middle-class couples self-sufficient.
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?)