Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 9/6/13

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are

  • Justin Spitzer (THE OFFICE) is writing an NBC pilot for a sitcom about events at a Detroit auto company. (Detroit? The American car biz? Funny? If Justin can pull off he’ll prove what a genius he is!)
  • Jonathan Nolan (PERSON OF INTEREST) is set to adapt Michael Crichton‘s old film WESTWORLD into a series for HBO. (No Yul Brynner scary robot gunslinger stuff here. We hear that the show will dig into what already is PERSON OF INTEREST territory – the beginning of consciousness for artificial intelligence. One trick pony time? We hope not.)
  • Brian Gallivan (THE McCARTHYS) is writing an unnamed sitcom about a guy who takes a long vacation with his family in New Hampshire…(Eh? What? Sorry, we fell asleep just typing that. Sheesh.)
  • Brandon Schwartz (newbie) has written the pilot for an untitled Fox sitcom. (Although Brandon has written a couple of scripts at Nickelodeon, this is his first official network sale. Kudos, dude!)
  • Chris Black has the gig to redevelop SAGA an ABC drama pilot written by Andrew Miller that the network rejected last year. (These are always tough jobs cuz everybody’s expecting the new writer to “save” a project that didn’t come from that writer’s gut.) Good luck, dood.)

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.