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Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
- Colin Wilson’s ancient novel, The Space Vampires is being adapted into a TV series pilot to be called LIFEFORCE as soon as Ringleader Studios finds a writer. (So get them on the horn ASAP and let ’em know how great it would be if
we whoops, you could get the gig.)
- Barbie Kligman (PRIVATE PRACTICE) is the new showrunner of ABC’s upcoming adaptation of the Australian crime drama SECRETS & LIES, so she’s somebody you should get in touch with pretty damn soon too. (We love the title of this series and also just happen to have complete faith in all women named Barbie – cuz…Barbie, you know? – so we figure this could be a long and successful staff gig for all those who get it.)
- New network WGN America is putting together THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (about you know what) as a ten part series. Bruce Cohen (SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK) is producing. Why not pick your favorite commandment and give him a call? (And don’t forget to tell him TVWriter™ sent you cuz…cuz…waitaminnit, we’ll figure out a reason eventually….)
- Chris Fedak (CHUCK) is developing THE WOODS, a haunted house drama, for Syfy. (Haunted? Like with ghosts? But where are the zombies? And the vampires? Ya gotta have zombies and vampires cuz they’re hotter n’ even Satan His Shiny Self now, no?)
- Angela Ruhinda (interweb hero!) has sold her spec interracial love story pilot, IMAN & ANDY to ABC. (Well, actually, Whoopi Goldberg and Ben Silverman did the selling, but they aren’t writers so fuck ’em. Good luck, Angela! You really are an interweb hero to us.)
Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
- Michael Chiklis (yeppers, the actor guy) is looking for a co-writer to help him adapt the comic book he co-created, Pantheon for TV. If you’re into ancient Greek gods battling for the future of earth, have your people give Michael’s people a call. (Word to the wise: It’ll help considerably if you happen to be a current or recent TV showrunner that all the networks are falling over themselves to do business with cuz the PANTHEON TV series really, really, really wants to get on the air.)
- Walter Mosley (yeppers, the hard-boiled novel guy) is co-writing a pilot based on his series of novels featuring Socrates Fortlow with Patrick Charles (BONES). This one’s for HBO and will star Laurence Fishburne as Fortlow. (Hmm, we’re thinking that maybe with Patrick on board we’ll finally get to see a Mosley story that seems at least half as interesting as its P.R. Cool.)
- Samuel Baum (LIE TO ME) is rewriting HBO’s Bernie Madoff movie. (We always wonder about the reason for rewrites so we’re putting this out there for original writer John Burnham Schwartz: Why’d they shitcan you, dude? TVWriter™ will be mighty happy to tell your side of the story so let us know, okay?)
- Bryan Shukoff & Kevin Chesley (THE HARD TIMES OF R.J. BERGER) have written the pilot for NBC’s TWO TO GO, a comedy about single guys and how they deal with their friends’ kids. (Cuz the Millennial audience really gives a crap about people with kids, don’tcha know?)
- Shonda Rimes (GREY’S ANATOMY) has a deal to write a memoir about her early days as a writer and, we assume, human being for Simon & Schuster. (To which we can only add a very non-snarky, “Congratulations, Shonda. And, listen, we know how busy you are with a zillion projects and your life, so if you need a ghost writer just email TVWriter™ and ask for munchman, okay? Aw, c’mon, gang, you can’t blame us for trying…can you?)
Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
- Billy Ray (CAPTAIN PHILLIPS) is adapting The Last Tycoon, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s
highly touted famed novel about showbiz back in the day, into a series for HBO. (Now, we loves us our Billy Ray – wotta fine writer – but a hoary old unfinished novel they kept trying to get us to read in college lit? Sorry, but this concept definitely falls under the category of – who the fuck cares?)
- Liz W. Garcia & Joshua Harto (HOMELAND) are writing the pilot for an untitled CW series about an undercover FBI agent (young, female, and of course beautiful) who discovers a terrorist cell “hiding in plain sight.” (Hmm, guess it’s not a ripoff when you hire writers to recycle their previous hit. But it sure as hell is another example of a concept that fills us with that old feeling, AKA – who the fuck cares?)
- Speaking of recycling, Meredith Stiehm (THE BRIDGE), is leaving THE BRIDGE to take over as showrunner of HOMELAND, which she left a few years ago so she could, you know, create and run THE BRIDGE. (We’re guessing Showtime gave her an offer she couldn’t refuse and amazed to find a writer smart enough to not have burned her bridge behind her when she said good-bye. Here’s hoping she can return HOMELAND to its former grandeur so that when we watch we can stop thinking – all together now – who the fuck cares?)
- J.R. Orci (THE BLACKLIST) has a new overall deal with Sony TV. (And we’re confident that even though he’s the brother of half of what we here at TVWriter™ affectionately think of as The Absolutely Worst TV Writing Team to Ever Make us “Say Who the Fuck Cares?” we wish him tons of luck cuz…not burning bridges might be a good idea even for us, you know?)
- Tip to every writer reading this who knows or has worked with Joan Harrison at CBS, TLC, The Travel Channel, or the Gersh Agency: She’s now the Senior Veep of Scripted Programming & Development at Asylum Entertainment. So give her a call. Wine her and dine her. (And, please, pitch something better than everything we’ve written about above.)
Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
- Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon (PREACHER comic series) are developing the comic about a Texas preacher and the various manifestations of evil he hangs with as a series for AMC. (And we think it could really work there cuz it makes BREAKING BAD look all warm and fuzzy.)
- Jan Nash (MEMPHIS BEAT) is the new showrunner on RIZZOLI & ISLES. (So if you know her, time to take the nice lady to lunch and pitch your little heart out while she’s still re-staffing.)
- Chad Kultgen (THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE) has written the pilot for NBC’s BAD JUDGE, a comedy about a “hard-living, sexually unapologetic woman” who also happens to be a criminal court judge. (We see exactly how this would work as a drama. But comedy? We’re looking forward to seeing this one to find out.)
- Amanda Lund & Matt Gourley (GHOST GHIRLS web series) are writing WUNDERLAND, a Fox comedy about what it’s like to work at a place just like Disneyland that, of course, isn’t Disneyland. (We had our hopes up for about a second…but then we saw that Diablo Cody is the producer. So we’re going out on a limb to say that this one will probably be…meh.)
- Erin Ehrlich (AWKWARD) is writing an unnamed NBC comedy about “young 20-something nursing students” and “their ups and downs.” (Aren’t you glad they included the word “young” as well as the actually, you know, age? Cuz otherwise we all might have thought they were old 20-somethings, right?)
Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
- Carter Bays & Craig Thomas (HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER ) and Emily Spivey UP ALL NIGHT) are writing the pilot for CBS’s comedy, HOW I MET YOUR FATHER. (And, yeppers, it’s the same show only…different. The perfect network TV pilot – that is, unless viewers rebel.)
- Paul Scheuring (PRISON BREAK) is writing an “event” series about RASPUTIN, the Russian Imperial family’s favorite healer/sex fiend, for FX. (Politics! Sex! Violence! Sex! Intrigue! Sex! OMG, This baby even has HOW I MET OUR FATHER beat.)
- Dan Lagana (ZACH STONE IS GONNA BE FAMOUS) is writing the pilot for the NBC comedy STAND-UP GUY, about a stand-up comedian who also juggles his husband-and-fatherly duties. (A showbiz guy who spends time with his family? No way. This calls for way too much suspension of belief.)
- Margaret Nagle (BOARDWALK EMPIRE) is adapting the Spanish series POLSERES VERMELLES into THE RED BAND SOCIETY, a dramedy about a group of teenagers “living in a hospital” who become friends. (Why do we think that the “living in a hospital” thing is a mistranslation? Now we’re wondering what other confusion awaits us in the final conversion.)
- Sign of the times: A Chinese company is planning to develop and shoot a Chinese language TV drama series in Seattle. No writer is mentioned so if you know something about the country this could be your lucky break. (Just be sure that you also know how to keep your scenes in as many interiors as possible cuz…Seattle? Outdoors? Lotsaluck!)