Category: TV Writing Deals

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 11/25/12

Ratings & Demos Note: We’ve been amazed to learn via our own internal ratings system that Luv & $$ is the least read department of TVWriter™. But we’re forging ahead anyway cuz everybody knows ratings are bogus.

  • Jessie Miller & Bennett Wolin (no credits cuz they’re newbies – yay, newbs!) have sold a sitcom pilot script, THE MESSED UPTONS, to NBC. (Hey, didja catch that subtle pun in the title? Not bad, huh?)
  • Neil Tokin (RICHIE RICH) is adapting Kate Braestrup’s novel, Here If You Need Me, as a “spiritual” drama series pilot for CBS. (Whatcha think of that “spiritual” thing? Yeah, we’re pretty meh about it too, even without knowing any details.)
  • Novelist Ayelet Waldman is writing LOCO, a CBS drama about a couple who take in their best friends’ “unusual and gifted” children when said friends are killed. (Askin’ yourself if you coulda sold this idea if it’d been yours? Yeah, us too…and we all know what the answer is, don’t we?)
  • Kenan Thompson (SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE) is writing, producing, and starring in an untitled NBC sitcom about a New Yawk kinda guy who moves into his in-laws’ house in the burbs. (Askin’ yourself if his wife moves in with him? Yeah, us too…but maybe she won’t cuz that way there’s more casting money for, you know, Kenan?)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 11/22/12

Showbiz Secret Number Three: There is no Showbiz Secret Number Three

  • Nina Colman (DR. DOOLITTLE 3) is writing the pilot for BOOK CLUB, the CW’s adaptation of Hope Harman’s documentary about a young woman who starts a book club in New York (because the CW thinks its teen audience will go gaga over reading? What?).
  • Peter Calloway (BROTHERS & SISTERS) is writing the pilot for MTV’s adaptation of Gwenda Bond’s novel Blackwood, about a bunch of supernatural weirdness (because Kelsey Grammer’s company is producing and supernatural anything is hot now, don’tcha know?).
  • Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick (ZOMBIELAND) are writing the pilot for HBO’s OUR FATHER, a drama about a “powerful pastor” who “fights to rediscover faith and connect with his family” (because God always opens well in middle America, where HBO’s audience is weakest, so…).
  • Ryan Murphy’s (LAST RESORT) adaptation of Larry Kramer’s play The Normal Heart has died as a feature film project but is now at HBO as a miniseries (because dead big screen projects by writers whose most recent series was just cancelled just say “Big Winner” all over ’em, right?).

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 11/19/12

Showbiz Secret Number Two: Writers always write for love, but if we admit it we’ll never get anybody to pay us.

  • Andrew Miller (THE SECRET CIRCLE) is writing the pilot for SAGA, a drama about a writer who goes missing, for ABC (because writers are so interesting, especially when they’re missing. Just ask ABC).
  • Ted Mann (HATFIELDS & McCOYS) is writing the pilot for History Channel’s new miniseries, TEXAS RISING (because HATFIELDS & McCOYS was a runaway hit, which actually makes perfect sense…unusual, yes, for TV).
  • David Seidler (THE KING’S SPEECH) is writing the pilot for an NBC series based on Ron Chertoff’s Washington: A Life (because Abe Lincoln projects have been doing so well as feature films).
  • Jane Goldman (KICK-ASS, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS) is replacing Bryan Fuller on Tim Burton’s live-action PINOCCHIO film, even though Burton isn’t officially attached (because putting Burton’s name on it gets the project mentioned here, there, and everywhere, we suppose).

Okay, okay, PINOCCHIO isn’t a TV project, but, c’mon, it’s got Tim Burton’s name on it, and what the hell, we’re suckers for the guy too, just like everybody else.

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 11/16/12

Showbiz Secret Numero Uno: It takes a whole lotta writing love to generate even a little writing money.

  • Chris Morgan (FAST & FURIOUS) & Jason Fuchs (CONTINENTAL DRIFT) are teaming up to turn Disney’s Big Thunder Mountain amusement park ride into a dramatic WesternTV series for ABC.  (Because if anything in this world can be considered tried-and-true it’s Disneyland.)
  • Mark Goffman (THE WEST WING, STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP) is writing the pilot for NBC’s I AM VICTOR, about an abrasive but brilliant divorce attorney. (Because NBC always wanted to have its own version of HOUSE.)
  • Phil Klemmer (POLITICAL ANIMALS) is writing the pilot for the CW’s adaptation of THE TOMORROW PEOPLE, which once upon a time was a big hit in the UK. (Because Nickelodeon had such success with the very same show a generation ago.)
  • Chad Kultgen (THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE) is writing the pilot for BAD JUDGE, a comedy about a, you know, bad judge, for NBC. (Because he has such a cool last name. In fact, to us it sounds like the perfect name for the next generation of esoteric TV/online video viewers. Whatcha think?)
  • Gretchen Berg & Aaron Harberts (REVENGE, PUSHING UP DAISIES) are writing the pilot for an untitled ABC drama about the soap opera world, created by Josh Duhamel, who evidently is some kind of actor. (Because Duhamel was on a soap years ago and actors creating shows based on, you know, themselves, are all over the place these days.)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 11/15/12

“Of course I write for the love of it. If I wanted money I’d be a #$%! lawyer!” (Anonymous Award-Winning TV Writer Person)

  • Nastaran Dibai (RETIRED AT 35, ACCORDING TO JIM) has taken over as showrunner/head writer of MALIBU COUNTRY, replacing Kevin Abbott, who’s moved on to rehab.
  • It ain’t television, but this is too important to too many TV viewers for us to ignore it: Michael Arndt (LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, TOY STORY 3) is writing the screenplay for Disney’s upcoming STAR WARS: EPISODE VII. Not bad for a guy who started his career as an assistant.
  • This ain’t television either, strictly speaking, but we find it profoundly significant that writer Dan Davison (People’s Pilot 2010 1st Runner-Up with partner Anil Sthankiya) is now followed on Twitter by none other than Mark Cuban ($$$), who quite properly respects Dan’s financial acumen.
  • Henry Colman (THE LOVE BOAT) died November 7th at 89. Our condolences to his family and friends.
  • John Quaintance (WHITNEY) & David Feeney (2 BROKE GIRLS) have been elevated to co-showrunners of BEN AND KATE, replacing Garrett Donovan & Neil Goldman who have left because of “creative differences.” We assume that the entity they differ with is Fox Network, since BEN AND KATE is the lowest-rated of Fox’s Tuesday night comedies.