Tag: Chris Collins

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 11/24/14

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Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are=&0=& (THE GAME PLAN) are writing the pilot for PARIAHS, a legal drama in development at ABC. (In other words, since TV will never give leading roles to characters who are genuine pariahs – cuz by definition they’re outcasts to everyone in society including the viewers – this one’s gonna feature some misunderstood ex-cons who now are practicing law. See how reading this column improves your life?) Chris Collins (SONS OF ANARCHY) and Marc Abrams (PINKERTONS) are the new showrunners of RAIN, a cable series starring and produced by a dude named Keanu Reeves. (Have our people call their people pronto cuz Chris and Marc should be staffing. Although inasmuch as the announcement doesn’t mention any network, this whole project could be JPBS. As in Just Plain Bull Shit. Who the hell knows?) =&1=& (THE ASSETS) is writing the pilot for ABC’s MKULTRA, a historical spy drama about, um historical spying. (Great name, though. I mean really great name. Yep, kids, back during the Cold War our ever-lovin’ CIA was creative as all get out when it came to labeling its secret ops. But, since they were secret, why?) =&2=& (LARA CROFT TOMB RAIDER) is writing LAS REINAS, a drama about the Miami Police Department. (And, we assume, its Spanish speaking employees, of whom there must be one or two. Cuz the title, you know? As a major fan of MIAMI VICE – saw it in reruns cuz, you know, my full name is munchman millennial – you’d better believe that yer friendly neighborhood muncharooni will have his eyes on this ball. )

That’s it for now. Write in and tell munchilito what you’ve sold today. TVWriter™ can’t wait to brag to all your friends. (And, more importantly, enemies. Hehehe….)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 11/3/13

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are

  • Chris Collins (SONS OF ANARCHY) has sold ANONYMOUS, a drama about “an ex-special ops soldier who discovers a global coverup that forces him to go off the grid to help those who cannot help themselves,” to TNT. (Yeppers, we’ve heard this all before, but still…remember when PERSON OF INTEREST was just two guys doing good, before they expanded it to the 8,051 person team it now is? Wouldn’t it be cool if that’s what ANONYMOUS turned out to be?)
  • Nina Fiore & John Herrera (ALPHAS) are writing the pilot for PLAYERS, a drama about Bad Hollywood back in the 1930s, for The CW. (Nothing really wrong about any of this except…The CW? This mean we’ll be seeing beautiful teenage Hollywood back in the days when everyone running a studio was a middle-aged white man who looked even older than that?)
  • Chris Collins is back, this time with MOST WANTED, a Starz series tracing the rise and fall of a ’70s bank robber. (Cuz BONNIE AND CLYDE are already taken, we guess, and setting a show only 30 years ago instead of 80 should be cheaper to shoot. Less time travel involved, after all.)
  • Ian Goldberg (ONCE UPON A TIME) & Jessica Borsiczky have sold GRAND AVENUE, a sort of UPSTAIRS/DOWNSTAIRS drama set in 1910 L.A. to Amazon Studios. (We admit to being just a tad dubious about anything Amazon is doing cuz…production values? But we’d love to see something set in this particular way-back work, if for no other reason than we’ve never seen that time period on TV before that we can remember.)
  • John Ridley (12 YEARS A SLAVE) is writing the pilot for AMERICAN CRIME, an ABC drama that examines race relations as they pertain to a sensational murder. (If it’s presented with even one-eighth the sincerity and style of 12 YEARS A SLAVE we’re in. Assuming, that is, that Oprah isn’t involved. Cuz…Oprah?)
  • Kelly Oxford (rejoice, newbies, becuz Kelly’s background is nothing more nor less than a popular Twitter feed) is writing a Fox comedy pilot set in a senior center. (We’re intrigued by this one simply cuz it breaks the most basic TV development rule: “Thou shalt never create a TV series about old people lest ye turn off the young audience that buys our sacred sponsors’ products.” And if conventional wisdom is correct, that seems like a really risky rule to break.)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 5/02/13

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are

  • 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.)