TV Writing Deals – Page 46

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 5/10/13

Larry Charles (BORAT) & Billy Crystal (you remember him) are writing a comedy pilot for an as-yet-unnamed network. (Which means it’s a fancy kind of spec cuz Billy Crystal just ain’t Billy Crystal anymore.)
Scott Buck (DEXTER) is adapting Matthew Spector’s novel, American Dream Machine for Showtime. (With DEXTER star Michael C. Hall producing. Funny how that works. The value of networking, yeah! )
Chuck Lorre’s (THE BIG BANG THEORY, etc.) new series, MOM, is about to – or has just gotten – a series order from CBS. (Cuz Lorre is somebody who makes a lot of money for Les Moonves, and the Lessman definitely wants to keep him around…and happy.)
Danny Brocklehurst (SHAMELESS, BAFTA winner) is writing FLEET STREET for Starz. (And he’s perfect for a series about tabloid journalism in England as seen through the eyes of an American journalist. Any Brit writer would be, no? Oh, wait – no!)

Phil Lord & Chris Miller (21 JUMP STREET) have signed an overall production and development deal at 20th Century Fox TV. (And we’ll all be happy to hear that the pact has been described by Fox P.R. as “lucrative.” Oh, wait, that probably means it isn’t. Uh-oh…)
Rod Lurie is writing a mini-series based on the life of none other than T.E. Lawrence, i.e., “Lawrence of Arabia,” for producer-director Roland Emmerich. (No network has been announced yet, though, so, lovers of the classic David Lean film version, you can relax a little…for now.)
David Kajganich (a newbie from the University of Iowa) is writing THE TERROR, based on the novel by Dan Simmons, for AMC. (Just what we need, another Dan Simmons project to take our minds off anything real.)
Stephen Levinson (ENTOURAGE) is writing a half-hour dramedy about retired athletes living in Miami for HBO. (Wait! Maybe it won’t be as bad as it sounds – Dwayne Johnson and Mark Wahlberg are producing, with Dwayne, AKA the Rock, set to star.)
Blake McCormick (a writer-producer on COUGAR TOWN) is the new showrunner of that very same series. (Proving that every once in awhile good sense prevails and writers get promoted from within.)
Speaking of being promoted, over on REVENGE, writer Suni Nayar is now the new showrunner, replacing Mike Kelley. (Just between us, the show sucks and will always suck, so it’s likely that nobody will ever notice the change.)

Matt McKenna (AMERICAN DAD) is writing BIGFOOT, an animated adaptation of Graham Roumieu’s fictitious autobiographies, as an animated pilot for FX. (It’s a natural, and Matt’s perfect for it, but we keep thinking the real reason it’s being made is because Seth Rogen’s company is producing.)
ABC family is looking for a writer for the pilot of the Tori Spelling vehicle MYSTERY GIRLS, a comedy about two actresses who played detectives who decide to become real-life dicks. (Not to be confused with all the failed versions of this idea that starred various actors who became real-life dicks.
Will Gluck (CONAN O’BRIEN’s writer) is writing the pilot for Comedy Central’s animated comedy MOONBEAM CITY, a satirical cop show that mocks everything our Leader, LB, wrote in the ’80s. (Which also sounds like a good idea cuz, you know, satire, Comedy Central…)
Bad Robot Productions has optioned Stephen King’s novel, 11/22/63 with the intention of developing it for cable. (Considering that Bad Robot is J.J. Abrams’ company, can the ~~dread~~ hot writing team of Orci and Kurtzman be far behind?)
Spike TV is developing 5 new scripted mini-series with such writers as Chris Collins, Bobby Moresco, Brant Englestein, and more. (But ~~they all sound like crap to us~~ this is the “network” that gave us THE HATFIELDS AND THE MCCOYS and THE BIBLE s so we’re not saying anymore.)

Steven Thompson (SHERLOCK, DOCTOR WHO) & Guillermo del Toro (PAN’S LABYRINTH) are writing a pilot based on Naoki Urasawa’s manga, MONSTER, for HBO. (Yeah, it’s a great idea, made even greater in the eyes of HBO because they’re such star sucks and del Toro’s got the kind of rep they love tightening their lips around.)
Various web and Old Media sources say that undisclosed writers from the series MAD MEN are pitching like mad to get the go-ahead on a fictional series based on NASA during the ’60s, (Which is very appealing for several rasons, not the least of which is the rumor that astronauts in those days were wild, crazy, colorful doods who’d make perfect television characters.)
Blake Masters (BROTHERHOOD) is writing the pilot for LINE OF SIGHT, a drama about a National Transportation Safety Board investigator who survives a mysterious plane crash, for AMC. (Which sounds pretty damn close to UNBREAKABLE. Not that we’re making any accusations or anything…)
Also pitching away are producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, who are shopping a follow-up to their THE BIBLE mini-series called A.D. (Burnett says he already has scripts for it, but – again – our trusty news sources ain’t talking about who the writers were/are/will be.)

James Ellroy (some kind of novelist or something) is writing SHAKEDOWN, a drama about real-life scum sucking pig private eye/fixer Fred Otash for FX. (Which we’ve always thought of as the “class” network – not.)
Stephen Lloyd (HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER) will be moving over to MODERN FAMILY after HIMYM ends its run. (Which we think is wonderful for MODERN FAMILY and its viewers cuz we luvs HIMYM. You were expecting snark, weren’t ya? Hope you enjoyed the curveball.)
Leslie Greif (HATFIELDS & MCCOYS) is developing WHITEY, a comedy for A&E. (Or maybe for History Channel, or…or…yeppers, no one’s decided yet, but it’s real, for sure. Must be, they’ve got the dullest actor from THE OFICE – David Koechner – already set to star.
Have you seen this headline: “Scripps Has Huge Slate of New Programs in Pipeline for Its Six Cable Networks: 52 New Shows for 2013-14 Season?” Well, don’t get too excited. Looking down the list, not a single one of them is, you know, “scripted.” (Which means they may hire writers but you’ll be called Associate Producers or some such. Sigh.)