Tag: Josh Friedman

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 10/21/13

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are

  • Cathy Yuspa & Josh Goldsmith (THE KING OF QUEENS) are writing MORE TIME WITH FAMILY, a CBS comedy pilot that sounds, well, it sounds remarkably like the old Danny Thomas show MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY. (Attention, Tony Thomas, it’s time to tell your lawyers to sharpen their knives.)
  • Josh Friedman (THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES) is writing the pilot for NBC’s LIGHTHOUSE, a drama about a mysterious hotel for time travelers. (We’ll watch it if the Doctor checks in, okay, NBC?)
  • Deborah Pratt (QUANTUM LEAP) is also writing a time travel pilot. Hers is called TIMELESS, and is about a woman time traveler in love with two different men from two different times. (We can promise you that neither of those men will be Josh Friedman cuz you can bet NBC has no intention of putting both series on the air, which doesn’t exactly make for close friendship between the two writers.)
  • Sheila Callaghan (SHAMELESS) is adapting the best-selling Bright Young Things books by Anna Godberson into a drama series for ABC. (We have no idea what the books are about but would absolutely watch the hell out of any show in which the hero’s name was Godberson. Or, better yet, God Person. But maybe that’s just us.)
  • Marc Lawrence (FAMILY TIES) is writing the pilot for an unnamed series about a sweet former big-deal editor who goes back to work – for her former intern. (Yeah, it doesn’t sound like much to us either, but it has Meg Ryan attached so…wait, Meg Ryan?)
  • Jason Fuchs (ICE AGE: CONTINENTAL DRIFT) is writing the pilot for EXCALIBUR, an ABC series about a modern reincarnation of, aw,  you guessed it, King Arthur. (Which is really weird cuz it’s common knowledge that contemporary variations of the Arthurian legend comprise the single most frequently pitched ideas in the history of television – and they almost never get made. Good luck, Jason! We really hope you crack it.)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 5/18/13

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are

  • Tom Fontana (HOMICIDE) is developing a limited series about everybody’s favorite gunslinger, BILLY THE KID, for Fox. (Which means it might actually be about more than the shootin’ but the shootin’ definitely will be there.)
  • Robert Rodriguez (SPY KIDS) is turning his and Quentin Tarantino’s 1996 feature film FROM DUSK TO DAWN into a series for the new El Ray Network, co-founded by Rodriguez with Univision. (Yes, the station will be English-language, which is too bad in the case of the its other commissioned series, which will be written by Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci (STAR TREK et al), AKA the two luckiest writers on the face of the earth.)
  • Tad Quill (SCRUBS, SPIN CITY) has a new overall deal with CBS to write, produce and generally raise creative havoc. (His first assignment is on a new series called WE ARE MEN, about friends living in Oakwood Gardens…where some genuine creativity definitely is needed.)
  • Aron Eli Coleite (HEROES) is rewriting the CW’s attempt to get a new Wonder Woman series off the ground. (This one’s called AMAZON and considering how badly all attempts to re-boot WW have gone, it’s pretty likely that none of us will ever see it on the air.)
  • Josh Friedman (THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES) will be a writer-producer on NBC’s upcoming pirate “drama,” CROSSBONES as part of a new overall deal at Universal Television. (Where they love to apply big holding deal salaries to shows already bulging with capable staffs. Hey, it’s the way they do business, you know?)

Big Writer Deals! Big Writer Deals! Big…Oh, You know!

Today’s dose of other people’s successes: (…sigh…)

  • Max Landis (CHRONICLE) will write the pilot for VIGILANT, a superhero show featuring a “a smart 20-year-old woman who happens to be a social outcast” for Fox. (Hmm, does Fox really want to glorify the kind of person its executives would never set up a meeting with?)
  • Jason Dean Hall (PARANOIA) is writing an unnamed pilot about a Steve Jobs-like tech billionaire who funds a hospital so its Best-of-Everything staff can heal him – and others as well – for CBS. (Hmm, hmm – this is the second announcement in a row about a writer whose credits we’re unfamiliar with…wonder what that means.)
  • Chad Hodge (THE PLAYBOY CLUB) is adapting Alice in Wonderland into a series called WUNDERLAND, for the CW. It’s about a female detective in modern-day L.A. who discovers an underground world. (Because a literal interpretation of Alice is all the CW thinks its viewers will understand? Or because that’s all the CW understands. Now there’s something to worry about.)
  • Richard Price (NYC 22, THE WANDERERS, etc.) is writing the pilot for CRIMINAL JUSTICE for HBO. The show is based on the BBC of the same name about a lawyer who defends people accused of murder and will star James Gandolfini, who also produces. (What? You heard us yawn? Sorry. We’ll be quieter next time.)
  • Matt Reeves (FELICITY, CLOVERFIELD) has signed a deal with 20th Century-Fox TV to create, write, direct and supervise new drama shows. (So we won’t be reading about him doing a U.S. version of any BBC shows, right? Whew.)
  • Screenwriting god John August is writing the pilot for CHOSEN for ABC and says, “We’re keeping the logline under wraps, but it centers around a family facing unusual circumstances.” John’s partner on this deal is Josh Friedman of THE (late, lamented) SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES.

Wait, that’s it. It’s all about the partners. Well not all, but the answer to the burning question of how did Max Landis and Jason Dean Hall set up their deals, considering their credits, is that they both have Big Producer Partners. Working with Max is Howard Gordon of HOMELAND. Working with Jason is Peter Lenkov of HAWAII FIVE-0. Don’t you love it when a mystery is solved?