Skip to content
Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
- John Glenn (EAGLE EYE) has made an overall development deal with Universal Television. (Because he came very close with several pilots in the most recent pilot season and Uni is convinced that he’ll strike gold for them this time.)
- Tim Schlattmann (DEXTER) has a new development deal with Warner Brothers TV for a couple of projects, one for broadcast TV and one for cable. (We don’t know what’s going on here, but we gotta love a writer whose credits range from ROSEANNE to DEXTER via SMALLVILLE. Can’t say this dude isn’t versatile.)
- Meredith Averill (the upcoming series STAR-CROSSED) has signed an overall deal with CBS TV Studios, having risen from the ranks, where she began as a producer’s assistant. (And now she’s a showrunner. Our little girl’s all growed up. Sigh…)
- The GRUMPY CAT movie is going forward at Broken Road, which produced STATE OF THE UNION, among other feature films. (Proving that you can’t keep a good meme down. Or in this case, a bad meme. Come to think of it, can there in fact be a “good” meme? Hmm…)
- Eli Attie (HOUSE) is joining the new series MIND GAMES as a writer-executive producer. (Because before HOUSE he was a writer for some guy named Barack Obama, and if the White House isn’t a place where you can become expert at mind games, no place is.)
Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
- Michael Konyves (THE LAST KNIGHT) is writing PUMP, a Showtime drama about happenings at a Venice Beach gym in the early 1970s. (Because Ahnuld wants to do it and his stories – God, he’s good in the room – will be the basis for the fiction. Anybody out there think this has even the remotest chance of not succeeding – big?)
- Alec Sulkin & Wellesley Wild (TED) have made an overall deal with 20th Century Fox TV to develop, produce and all that good stuff. (Because they’re Seth MacFarlane’s right hand writers, and if you step back and look at the big picture that’s a damn good reason to be hot.)
- Brian Gallivan (HAPPY ENDINGS) now has an overall deal with Sony TV. (Because his pilot THE McCARTHYS came thisclose to getting on CBS’s air for next season and Sony wants him to punch up the script and give it another go as well as develop other properties. Anybody out there think this has even the remotest chance of actually succeeding – big or otherwise? )
- Vali Chandrasekaran (30 ROCK) has a new overall deal at ABC Studios. (Because he freaking deserves it and everyone over there knows it. End of discussion, dammit.)
Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
- David Fury (24) is back as a writer-producer on Fox’s new series 24: LIVE ANOTHER DAY. He also has a new 2-year overall deal with 20th Century Fox Television, which should tide him over nicely as economic Armageddon draws nearer. (Wait! Did we really write that? Where’s the cross-out key? Damn, we can’t find it. How embarrassing….)
- David Greenwalt & Jim Kouf (GRIMM, BUFFY, ANGEL) have signed a new overall deal with Universal TV and will be continuing as Exec Prods of GRIMM as well as doing, you know, other stuff. (Or not, because GRIMM’s the studio’s big cash cow here and if anybody can protect it, it’s David and Jim.)
- Gretchen Berg & Aaron Harberts (REVENGE) have a new overall deal with ABC Studios which includes becoming Exec Prods of REVENGE. (No, they aren’t the new showrunners. That honor goes to Sunil Nayar, who is replacing series creator Mike Kelley.)
- Carol Barbee (TOUCH) is a new “consulting producer” on FALLING SKIES, the first hire of new showrunner David Eick. (Nope, we don’t know what a “consulting producer” is either. Would some distinguished Old Pro or another like to clue us in?)
- Steven Soderberg is directing and producing a new Cinemax series called THE KNICK, about a downtown New York City hospital in the year 1900. (No word on whether he’ll do any official writing. Unofficially, however…doesn’t he always?)
Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
- Time to put your hat in the ring, gaming fans, at least if you want to write the live-action TV series version of XBox game HALO. Some newbie name of Steven Spielberg is producing. (Don’t just sit there, bake the dood a cake, send him a stripper. something!)
- Mike Gagerman & Andrew Waller (they teamed up on upcoming feature ROAD TO NARDO) are writing a pilot for FX that will star Ray William Johnson, host of the snarky YouTube series #3. (Whoa, does this mean that if your name is now known – for anything – you’re not only automatically qualified to write, you’re also qualified to star? The times are a ‘changin’ after all.)
- Lee Eisenberg & Gene Stupnitsky (THE OFFICE) have made an overall deal with ABC Studios, where they’ll be running two new shows, TROPHY WIFE and HELLO LADIES. (As fans of THE OFFICE, we think this is terrific…but what do we know?)
- Jon Vitti (KING OF THE HILL) is moving to feature films and writing the screenplay for – get ready – the 3D film version of ANGRY BIRDS. (We’d really like to find a way to snark the hell out of this, but just the fact that it’s happening lends a whole new depth to the meaning of the S word all by itself.)
- Miles Millar & Alfred Gough (SMALLVILLE) just settled their $100 million lawsuit against Warner Bros Television, only a couple of weeks before it was due to go to trial. The claim was that Warner’s made sweetheart deals with itself for various ancillary licenses resulting in the two writers ending up with a much smaller piece of the pie than they were due. (Since we’ve never heard of that not happening, we’re hopeful that Millar & Gough scored huge.)
- Peter Ocko (FAIRLY LEGAL) has written the comedy pilot, DIVIDE & CONQUER, for USA. (Because this is TV, where nothing succeeds like failure. Let that be a lesson, kids!)
Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
- Tom Fontana (HOMICIDE) is developing a limited series about everybody’s favorite gunslinger, BILLY THE KID, for Fox. (Which means it might actually be about more than the shootin’ but the shootin’ definitely will be there.)
- Robert Rodriguez (SPY KIDS) is turning his and Quentin Tarantino’s 1996 feature film FROM DUSK TO DAWN into a series for the new El Ray Network, co-founded by Rodriguez with Univision. (Yes, the station will be English-language, which is too bad in the case of the its other commissioned series, which will be written by Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci (STAR TREK et al), AKA the two luckiest writers on the face of the earth.)
- Tad Quill (SCRUBS, SPIN CITY) has a new overall deal with CBS to write, produce and generally raise creative havoc. (His first assignment is on a new series called WE ARE MEN, about friends living in Oakwood Gardens…where some genuine creativity definitely is needed.)
- Aron Eli Coleite (HEROES) is rewriting the CW’s attempt to get a new Wonder Woman series off the ground. (This one’s called AMAZON and considering how badly all attempts to re-boot WW have gone, it’s pretty likely that none of us will ever see it on the air.)
- Josh Friedman (THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES) will be a writer-producer on NBC’s upcoming pirate “drama,” CROSSBONES as part of a new overall deal at Universal Television. (Where they love to apply big holding deal salaries to shows already bulging with capable staffs. Hey, it’s the way they do business, you know?)