Category: TV Writing Deals

TV Writing Deals: WGN America Wants Us to Watch a Couple of New Series

The upcoming TITANS series probably isn't about this team, but, hey, who knows?
The upcoming TITANS series probably isn’t about this team, but, hey, who knows?

by munchman

Which means that they’ve greenlit one for 13 episodes and have commissioned a pilot script for the other.

The greenlit (-lighted?) series is called TITANS, created by Peter Mattei, who the last el munchero heard, was a writer for CLARISSA EXPLAINS IT ALL, a ’90s Nickelodeon series that, well, was in fact my favorite show of that era. Ah, Melissa Joan Hart, who suspected you’d grow up to become not only a teenage witch but also an adult bitch the most politically right wing actor since Charlton Heston?

But munchy digresses. TITANS is about some yutzes in Appalachia who, according to the Hollywood Reporter, seem to be the vilest set of heroes since the hillbillies in DELIVERANCE. (What? The hillbillies weren’t the heroes? They were when I saw it at a midnight show in West Virginia in the backroom of a dingy pool hall.) read article

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 8/12/14

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

  • Glenn Gordon Caron (MEDIUM) has a new overall deal with 20th Century Fox TV for the usual development stuff. (But Ye Munchie One is secretly hoping that what he develops isn’t usual at all. Whaddaya think? Can Glenny Boy go outre? We’ll find out.)
  • Hilary Winston (BAD TEACHER) has sold a comedy that sounds a lot like THE OFFICE to NBC, based on a Playboy column she originally wrote, called “When Your Boss Has a Vagina.” (Wanna bet that isn’t what NBC ends up calling it? Any takers? Huh?)
  • <Hunter Covington (IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA) & Stacy Traub (GLEE) are developing a comedy about a successful businesswoman who can’t seem to succeed at life for ABC. (What’s that you say? You’ve heard this particular premise before? A thousand times before? Geeze, gang, lighten up. Not everything on TV can be as new and different as…as…well, dang it, I just can’t come up with a name for a current show like that right now.)
  • David Klass (LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT), Perri Klass (RUNAWAY VIRUS), and Arthur L Caplan (the guy this new series will be about)  are writing the pilot for CBS’ AUSTEN’S RAZOR, about “a brilliant bioethicist who is called in at crisis moments to solve the most complicated, dynamic and confounding medical issues imaginable.” (Zzzz…oops, sorry, I fell asleep there just copying the description. Which pretty well sums up how well I think a show like this one will do.)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 8/8/14

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

  • Joe Wengert (newbie) is developing BIG KIDS, a comedy about a big brother who just plain tries too hard, for NBC.  (And, hey, it’s about a blue collar family, so the big munch – i.e. me – already loves it.)
  • Richard Price (CRIMINAL JUSTICE) is developing an untitled new crime drama for Fox TV. (Cuz he’s Richard fucking Price and this is a crime fucking drama, and, well, dood’s got the kinda cred I’d commit a crime or two to have. Good luck, Richard! Um, that’s not too big of a suck-up, is it? Huh?)
  • Rachel Carey‘s novel, Debt, described as “a satire of the 2008 financial meltdown in New York, is comilng to ABC Family. (Cuz ABC Family ain’t a family channel anymore and, more importantly, cuz GREY’S ANATOMY star Ellen Pompeo wants to play the lead, so what the hell. Oh, and no writer is attached, so if you know Ellen or Rachel, time to give ’em a call.)
  • Scott Peterson & Joshua Pruett (PHINEAS AND FERB) are developing HAUNTED MANSION as a special (read “backdoor pilot) as an animated Disney Channel project. (Sorry, but try as I may, your munchman just can’t get into this one. I think it’s cuz I absolutely can’t stand the Entity You May Now Prostrate Yourselves Before And Hail As Disney. Then again, it could just be my constipation. Ciao!)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 8/6/14

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

  • Nat Faxon & Jim Rash (THE DESCENDANTS) have a new overall deal to develop series for Sony Pictures TV. (Welcome, Oscar-winning brothers! Yer friendly neighborhood munchman is thrilled that you’ve taken shelter from the storms that are feature films in the, erm, storms that are TV. Oh well, it’s good for TV anyway.)
  • Kurt Sutter (SONS OF ANARCHY) has a new “first-look” deal with 20th Century Fox TV. (Which isn’t as good as it sounds cuz a first look is far from the same as a “must buy.” But at least Kurt will get paid for all his brainstorming, right? Right? Hey, Fox, munchie’s talking to you.)
  • Jishnu Pablo Dey (newbie) has won the first place prize for third grade in the national PBS Kids Writers Contest with his poetry (and mixed media illustration) book, A Humble Book of Poems (With a Little Seasoning), and muncho’s here to tell you that the title just blows me away. Congrats, Jishnu. Here’s hoping one of your next mixed media is TV cuz there’s no place anywhere that can use your originality and creativity more. And to think, when I was in third grade all I cared about was my GI Joe figures.)
  • Meghan Lyvers and Brianna Bennett (they’re network suits, kids) are the new Senior VP and VP, respectively, of Drama Development at CBS. (You know the drill. If you know either of these two fine peeps and are pretty sure they don’t hate you, give ’em a call and congratulate them. Take ’em to lunch! Tell ole munchberger here where and when you’re doing it so I can kinda pop in and, you know, strug me stuff!)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 7/31/14

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

  • Frank Spotnitz (THE X-FILES) is adapting Phil Dick‘s mucho-kudo’ed masterpiece of fiction, The Man in the High Castle into a pilot for an Amazon Studios series. (There is so much wonderfulness in that sentence that I just have to sit back and taste it for a beat. If this comes anywhere near yer friendly neighborhood muncher’s expectations, I promise to stop mocking Amazon and except it as, oh, almost a genuine, professional studio-network-whatever. And who knows? Maybe I’ll toss out the “almost” bit too.)
  • Warren Ellis (currently a big deal comic book writer, don’tcha know?) has a deal with Universal Cable Productions to write an as-yet-untitled pilot about an as-yet-unspecified bunch of characters engaged in as-yet-unspecified, um, stuff. (I can hear the Warren Ellis fans celebrating already. As well that should.)
  • Taylor Elmore (JUSTIFIED) has a new overall deal with CBS TV Studios to develop and write and produce and all that good stuff that we all want to do. (And while I’m not a member of the JUSTIFIED Rave Society, I wish the Tayman all the luck and success in the world. Cuz I just can’t help meself. Y’all know how positive a nature the munchman has.)
  • Charlie Kaufman‘s (INSIDE JOHN MALKOVICH) FX pilot isn’t going to series after all. (Proving that even the A+ listers can get crapped on. Sorry, Charlie – and believe me, I mean it. Cuz if they can reject Charlie Kaufman, what chance do the rest of us writerly types have?)