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Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
- Sanjay Shah (ENLISTED) has sold an untitled autobiographical comedy about an immigrant family running a fast-food franchise together to NBC. (Where they keep on commissioning family comedies regardless of how indifferent their viewers seem to be to that particular arena.)
- Chris Case (RETIRED AT 35) has an NBC pilot deal for MAYBE IT’S ME, an autobiographical comedy about a father juggling three strong women in his life. (Hmm, not only is this another family comedy, it’s also another autobiographical comedy. And you thought writers’ lives were boring!)
- Stefan Jaworski (“hot Danish writer” is all we could get) is writing the pilot for WHITE EYE, a procedural thriller, for ABC. (Curse you, PERSON OF INTEREST! You’re so popular that everybody’s trying to duplicate your success. And we all know where that’s going to lead.)
- Jeff Addiss & Will Matthews are writing a HOUDINI miniseries for ABC that seems to be about the famed escape artist solving contemporary crime. (But maybe it isn’t. The art of clearly stating a premise seems to have escaped the net’s PR.)
- Chris Keyser (PARTY OF FIVE) is writing WARRIORS, a drama about a “national military hospital,” also for ABC. (Cuz that’s the one twist on a medical show that’s never been done as far as we know. Huzzah! for creativity.)
- David Grae (CASTLE) is writing the pilot for ABC’s LIFE IS MURDER, a mother-daughter crime drama. (Oh, God, more family. But at least it’s not a comedy…we hope.)
Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
- Jesse Stern (CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE) is writing the pilot for CBS’s INSECURITY, a drama about an OCD ex-federal agent who helps solve crimes across the country. (Hey gamers, yes, Jesse is indeed a former video game writer who has moved into the TV arena. Proof that, you know, It Can Be Done.)
- Nicole Millard & Kathryn Price (THE GAME PLAN) are writing the drama pilot GUILT at Fox. (Cuz everybody knows that guilt ain’t funny. Well, not our own guilt anyway.)
- Nickelodeon is on the bullet train to The Land of New Series development. In the past couple of weeks or so they’ve greenlighted not one but two animated series from C.H. Greenblatt (SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS). (Both of which will be produced by Nick’s in-house studio and which have gotten, probably not coincidentally, 26 episode orders.
- Also on Nick, Matt Fleckenstein (iCARLY) and Andy Gordon (JUST SHOOT ME), have new and as yet untitled projects in development. And, and, best of all from our perverted point of view:
- Noah Urrea, Jace Norman, and Haley Tju, newbies all, have been signed to talent deals via a route that sounds a like a lot of fun. They were discovered via a talent showcase at the L.A. Groundlings Theatre. (Sorry, gotta run. We’re on our way to Groundlings to, um, make friends and influence people. See you there?)
Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
- Spike Ferenstein (SEINFELD) is writing WIFE NANNY, a comedy for Fox about a guy is really scrwing up his marriage. (Don’t believe us? Here’s the logline: “a sports executive secretly hires a gay best friend for his wife in a misguided attempt to improve his marriage.” We rest our case.)
- Pam Veasey (CSI:NY) is proving that TV writers can succeed by going from comedy to drama and back with a deal for an NBC comedy pilot called THE BASS PLAYER, HIS NEIGHBOR, THEIR LANDLORD & THEIR LOVERS. (And if that isn’t absolutely the coolest series title of the current century, tell us what is. C’mon, we’re waiting…)
- Kal Likkel & John Hoberg (MY NAME IS EARL) are writing an ABC version of the UK dramedy NO ANGELS. (As, however, a half-hour sitcom. Cuz why stick with what works when you can screw it up?)
- Joe Webb is writing the Fox drama pilot TAKE DOWN, about a small town that houses the perps of a very big fraud. (No, we don’t know anything about Mr. Webb other than he’s working with ITV Studios, the U.S. arm of the UK’s ITV Television – and that that’s a very good place for an unknown writer to be. Congrats, dood.)
- Ryan Tavlin is writing LOVE IS for ABC, a drama about, um love. (Don’t know much about him either, but his deal is also via ITV Studios, as is another ABC drama he’s doing called COUNTING BACKWARDS. Hmm…)
- Speaking of ITV Studios, Richard Murphy is also unknown to us and working with them on an untitled NBC comedy pilot about retirement aged men and women still dreaming the dream in the uberhip L.A. area of Silverlake. (Hmm…hmm…)
- Micah Barnett, another newbie, is yet another writer with an ITV Studios deal, this one an NBC thriller about a pro hitman who becomes a forced guinea pig for an NSA espionage program. (Know what all these ITV Studios deals say to us? They say it’s time to get our people, and yours, to talking to their people. And if you don’t have your own people, call ITV yourselves. )
Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
- Blake Herron (THE BOURNE IDENTITY) will write an untitled action drama for TNT about a super agent. (Who just might remind some of the audience of a certain Jason Bourne. Totally coincidental, of course.)
- Josh Heald (HOT TUB TIME MACHINE) is writing a TBS comedy which also is untitled but probably won’t be anything like THE BOURNE IDENTITY. (Although some viewers might wish it was.)
- Vince Gilligan (BREAKING BAD, natch) has sold an 11 year old drama spec to CBS and will share showrunner/writer duties with none other than David Shore (HOUSE). (The show’s about two “very different” cops who team up to inflict justice on the town of Battle Creek, Michigan. And after hearing that description all we can say is, it better be fucking funny.)
- Josh Harto & Liz Garcia (MEMPHIS BEAT) are adapting Anne Rice’s Songs of the Seraphim novels into a series for CBS. (And we’re going way out on a limb here to tell ya that the series will be so much better than the original books it’ll make Anne Rice’s head bleed. No, we haven’t seen any advance script pages we just luv MEMPHIS BEAT. Watch it if you can and see why. Go on. We dare ya.)
- Emily Goldwyn & Sasha Spielberg (newbie daughters of famous dads) are writing an ABC comedy pilot called GIRLS WITHOUT BOYS, which we really, really, really hope is about lesbians cuz we’re sort of bent that way. (And regardless of whether it is or not, we’re hoping even more that the father of one of these fine lady writers stays totally out of the loop of the show cuz let’s face it, Stevie S. doesn’t exactly have the best TV track record in the world.)
- Joel Hlavin (UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING) is writing the pilot for OASIS, a si-fi thriller, for CBS. (And while we’re getting a little tired of science fiction everywhere we look, we admit to being curious about any show about “the inhabitants of a new…perfect community, who discover there may be danger….” Actually, what really makes us curious here is the understatement in the announcement. It’s so unlike good ole broadcast TV.)
Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
- Mitchell Burgess & Robin Green (THE SOPRANOS) are writing the pilot for NBC’s PARK ROAD, a U.S. version of a Danish black comedy about, well, let’s just say it has a few SOPRANOS elements of the kind we all love. (Here’s hoping that this retains more of the comedy of the early seasons of THE SOPRANOS cuz, you know, fun.)
- Adam Armus & Kay Foster (THE FOLLOWING) have written the pilot for ODYSSEY, a global conspiracy thriller for NBC. (And thank God for that “global” part. We mean, who cares about a conspiracy on say, your block? Those things just never work.)
- Jeff Astrof (GROUNDED FOR LIFE) & Bill Lawrence (COUGAR TOWN) have sold MIDDLESENCE, a family comedy, to CBS. (This deal came about because of an already existing relationship between Bill and CBS. Jeff Astrof was brought in later…which is how it works in this biz, kids. So odn’t just sit there, make friends!)
- Jill Gordon (THE SECRET LIVES OF WIVES) is writing an untitled Bravo dramedy about a family that takes justice into its own hands when its matriarch is murdered. (Yeppers, there’s nothing like a good vigilante show to make folks snicker. You suppose Bravo’s research backs that up?)
- Hart Hanson (BONES) is writing THE GOOD THIEF’S GUIDE, based on a bestselling series of books by Chris Ewan about a thief who blogs about his adventures around the world. (Does the idea of bestselling books about a blogger sound sort of out-of-time to you? We’re having trouble wrapping our heads around it…unless these are ebooks. Hmm…)
- Bruno Heller (THE MENTALIST) is adapting/creating/writing/whatever Fox’s GOTHAM, a drama about Gotham City’s Police Commissioner in the days before Batman. (Yup, we’re talking about a series about a young James Gordon here. And we mean series – it’s been given a series greenlight without a pilot or a script, just because…comics. Wonder what Fred Wertham would have to say about that.)