Category: News

More Deals!!!

Cuz no writer ever gets tired of writing meetings money! Wait, if you’re doing it for the money there are better businesses with better incomes. Like plumbing contracting, or banking. So it’s not the money either? Hmm. Must be…love!?

  • Paul Redford (THE WEST WING, DIRTY SEXY MONEY) is rewriting HAMLET, by an old guy named Shakespeare (KING LEAR et al) with a family/political drama called AMERICA’S SON for Fox Network. (Yeah, that’s gonna work as well as that show based on King David’s problems awhile ago. You know, where they rewrote, um, an even older dood named God (THE BIBLE)?)
  • Ben Falcone (HAPPY ENDINGS, UP ALL NIGHT, husband of MIKE & MOLLY star Melissa McCarthy, who is producing this project) and Larry Dorf (THE LOONEY TUNES SHOW) are writing a comedy for CBS about a group of friends who find their lives changed by death at an earlier age than they expected. (Nowthat’s funny, right?)
  • Guillermo del Toro’s best selling vampire book trilogy, The Strain, is being turned into a series for FX, directed by del Toro and co-written by him and his co-writer of the books, Chuck Hogan (PRINCE OF THIEVES). (Well, we need more vampire shows, don’t we? Why so negative? Sheesh!
  • Peter Berg (HANCOCK, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS) will write and direct a spy pilot, M.I.C.E, for NBC. (We can’t think of a single negative thing to say about Berg except that as an actor he looks kinda snarky. Damn.)
  • David Shore (HOUSE) is writing an untitled legal drama for Fox, featuring an ex-cop lawyer with personal demons who’s trying to get back with his ex-wife. (Hmm, Shore loves that House-Cuddy stalker dynamic, doesn’t he?)
  • Guillermo del Toro (see above) is adapting another book, NUTSHELL STUDIES by Corinne May Botz, for an HBO series, this time co-writing with novelist Sara Gran (SOUTHLAND). (Well, he needs another writer to, you know, actually type in the words, right?)

So the secret to getting into TV is to write a book Guillermo del Toro likes, huh? ‘Scuse us while we throw ourselves into Chapter 1…

The TV Academy Gave Out Some Emmys The Other Night

…but we just couldn’t work up enough interest to watch. No, wait, we don’t mean that. We mean that we’re against the idea of artists being regarded as competing for things like awards. Competing for jobs, sure, but awards?  That’s soo uncreative. Anyway here are all the winners. The ones we care about, that is:

Hmm, this dude isn’t writing so he must be singing

Writing for a Comedy Series
Louis C.K.: LOUIE: Pregnant

Writing for a Variety Special
Louis C.K.: Live at the Beacon Theatre, Louis C.K. read article

And the First Movie Was…

This is amazingly, incredibly, imagination-stirringly cool:

Prehistoric Animated Cave Drawings Discovered In France – by Amanda Crum read article

Big Writer Deals! Big Writer Deals! Big…Oh, You know!

Today’s dose of other people’s successes: (…sigh…)

  • Max Landis (CHRONICLE) will write the pilot for VIGILANT, a superhero show featuring a “a smart 20-year-old woman who happens to be a social outcast” for Fox. (Hmm, does Fox really want to glorify the kind of person its executives would never set up a meeting with?)
  • Jason Dean Hall (PARANOIA) is writing an unnamed pilot about a Steve Jobs-like tech billionaire who funds a hospital so its Best-of-Everything staff can heal him – and others as well – for CBS. (Hmm, hmm – this is the second announcement in a row about a writer whose credits we’re unfamiliar with…wonder what that means.)
  • Chad Hodge (THE PLAYBOY CLUB) is adapting Alice in Wonderland into a series called WUNDERLAND, for the CW. It’s about a female detective in modern-day L.A. who discovers an underground world. (Because a literal interpretation of Alice is all the CW thinks its viewers will understand? Or because that’s all the CW understands. Now there’s something to worry about.)
  • Richard Price (NYC 22, THE WANDERERS, etc.) is writing the pilot for CRIMINAL JUSTICE for HBO. The show is based on the BBC of the same name about a lawyer who defends people accused of murder and will star James Gandolfini, who also produces. (What? You heard us yawn? Sorry. We’ll be quieter next time.)
  • Matt Reeves (FELICITY, CLOVERFIELD) has signed a deal with 20th Century-Fox TV to create, write, direct and supervise new drama shows. (So we won’t be reading about him doing a U.S. version of any BBC shows, right? Whew.)
  • Screenwriting god John August is writing the pilot for CHOSEN for ABC and says, “We’re keeping the logline under wraps, but it centers around a family facing unusual circumstances.” John’s partner on this deal is Josh Friedman of THE (late, lamented) SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES.

Wait, that’s it. It’s all about the partners. Well not all, but the answer to the burning question of how did Max Landis and Jason Dean Hall set up their deals, considering their credits, is that they both have Big Producer Partners. Working with Max is Howard Gordon of HOMELAND. Working with Jason is Peter Lenkov of HAWAII FIVE-0. Don’t you love it when a mystery is solved?

Last Week was the 10th Anniversary of FIREFLY’s Premiere

Born – September 20, 2002

Died – Well, it’s still living to us

Let’s all bow our heads while Joss says a few words: