Category: TV Writing Deals

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 11/4/12

“Writing for money is a totally unfulfilling waste of time. Writing for love, though, can often end up making you a ton of money.” (Anon.)
  • Leslie Levings, creator of The Beastlies monster figurines, reports that she’s signed on to develop her creations into an animation project for J.J. Abrams’ company BAD ROBOT. (Which we think is really cool because it proves you don’t even have to be a writer to create a TV series these days, and writing being as hard as it is, hey, this is really awesome!)
  • Jamie Paglia (EUREKA) is writing the pilot for an ABC drama called EVOLVE, based on the Toxic City trilogy by Tim Lebbon. (Which we think is doubly cool because not only has Jamie aced out the writer of the books, the title is totally different so that none of their readers will ever suspect something they love is about to be on the air. Oh, waitaminnint, that doesn’t sound quite right, does it?)
  • Lew Schneider (EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND) & Rick Marin are adapting Marin’s Kindle Single memoir, Keep Swinging, in a sitcom for ABC. (Which we think is triply cool because, hey, Kindle, self-published stuff, making good…something all of us dream of, right? Right?)
  • Jonathan Ames (BORED TO DEATH) is writing a BORED TO DEATH TV movie for HBO. (Which is quadrupaly cool because a) it was our favorite show all 3 years it was on the air b) we got the word personally from this dood named Ted Danson and we’re just all giddy cuz he even spoke to us. HBO’s official response to this, btw, is silence, but screw them. Ted’s the Man!)

Stephen Merchant’s HBO Series is a Go

This just in from Hollywood Reporter.Com:

Stephen Merchant Pilot Gets Series Order at HBO – by Michael O’Connell

Stephen Merchant is stayin in business with HBO. read article

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 11/2/12

“Love is never making your partner get a day job.” (Anon.)
  • Dan Harmon (COMMUNITY) has a pick-up from Adult Swim for his animated series RICK AND MARTY, about an inventor and his grandson/sidekick. (Proving you can’t go wrong with Mr. Peabody & the Wayback Machine)
  • David DiGilo (Disney Writer Program – awesome) is adapting Debra Driza’s soon-to-be-published novel Mila 2.0 into a sci-fi thriller series for ABC. (Proving that new writers should all make friends as possible with extra-hot writer-producers like Shonda Rhimes, whose company is producing this baby. )
  • Jason Jones (THE DAILY SHOW) is writing the pilot for a Fox sitcom about a single guy acting as guardian for his sister’s kids. (Proving that the concept doesn’t have to be all that high when a hot actor like Steve Carell is producing, as he is here.)
  • Robert Padnick (THE OFFICE) has written a sitcom pilot about four people trying to deal with their relationship problems and sold it to NBC. (Proving that if you partner up with somebody like Greg Daniels, producer of the soon to be late, lamented THE OFFICE, as Robert has, not only do you not need a high concept, no concept will work just fine too.)
  • Lew Morton (FUTURAMA, ROB) has partnered with Jake Kasdan (NEW GIRL, FREAKS & GEEKS, THE ZERO EFFECT) on WENTWORTH HALL, an animated comedy for Fox. (Proving that go-to guys help cinch deals even for writers who don’t really need go-to guys.)

We trust that you’ve all learned today’s important lesson.

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 10/28/12

“Write to tell a story, not to sell a story” (Gerald Sanford of BARNABY JONES, KNIGHTRIDER, etc. writing fame)
  • Margaret Nagle (SENSE & SENSIBILITY) is writing the pilot for the Fox sitcom PARADISE FALLS, about a documentary maker investigating a “Memphis Three” type story. (Everyplace else on the web talks about the producer of this project like he’s kind of a big deal. So we’ll leave him nameless here.)
  • David Hubbard (something called NOEL) is writing THE RETURN OF DANIEL SHEPHERD for HBO. (Everyplace else on the web neglects to tell what this project actually is – a pilot or a TV movie or what. We aren’t telling either. Not our fault, honest – the inept press release doesn’t say.)
  • Terry George (HOTEL RWANDA) is writing THE CLAN for ABC. (Um, nope we don’t have info on whether this is a pilot because the same inept P.R. team as above hasn’t said. But to atone for that, this time around we’ll tell you who the featured player in this deal talked about on all the other sites is: Charlize Theron, who’s producing. No comment on her value in that, erm, position.)
  • Thomas Bradshaw (playwright whose work includes THE BEREAVED) is writing a drama pilot for HBO about a black college president. (The Big Gun here is Oprah Winfrey, who’s company is producing. Ask not why her own network isn’t presenting this. The answer, we’re sure, would be, “$$$$,” as in “too much.”)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 10/25/12

“The best-kept secret in show business is that it’s a business.” (Paul Junger Witt, in Larry Brody’s Television Writing from the Inside Out)
  • Dave Goetsch (THE BIG BANG THEORY) is writing the pilot for CBS’ sitcom SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT. (You remember this one. It’s the show that Courtney Love is going to make a shitload off of via lawsuits.)
  • Greg Daniels (THE OFFICE) is writing the pilot for an NBC workplace sitcom about, presumably, things that happen in an office. (We predict Ricky Gervais won’t sue. Unless Courtney love gets to him about it.)
  • Jake Johnson (NEW GIRL) is writing THE B TEAM, a sitcom about “real-life” superheroes for Fox. (How many lawsuits will this one create? Just count the number of films/TV shows that already have done this same thing and then multiply by, oh, let’s say 10 to take into consideration all the writers of scripts entered into online writing competitions with this same premise in the past 4 or 5 years.)
  • Abby Gewanter (PUSHING UP DAISIES) has sold his spec sitcom pilot, DEAR MOM, HERE’S WHY I HATE YOU, to ABC with Jane Fonda set to star. (Watch. Courtney Love’s going to sue because she thinks the show is about her.)
  • Peter Murrieta (WIZARDS OF WAVERLY PLACE) is writing the pilot for an ABC sitcom about a New York handyman and his relationship with a rich young woman. The handyman will be played by Mark Consuelos of Kelly Ripa fame, and the young woman will be played by Kelly Ripa, not coincidentally also of Kelly Ripa fame. (TVWriter™ predicts that by the beginning of Season 2, Murrieta will be filing a lawsuit of his own – trying to get out of this deal.)