Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 8/8/14

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
by munchman

  • Joe Wengert (newbie) is developing BIG KIDS, a comedy about a big brother who just plain tries too hard, for NBC.  (And, hey, it’s about a blue collar family, so the big munch – i.e. me – already loves it.)
  • Richard Price (CRIMINAL JUSTICE) is developing an untitled new crime drama for Fox TV. (Cuz he’s Richard fucking Price and this is a crime fucking drama, and, well, dood’s got the kinda cred I’d commit a crime or two to have. Good luck, Richard! Um, that’s not too big of a suck-up, is it? Huh?)
  • Rachel Carey‘s novel, Debt, described as “a satire of the 2008 financial meltdown in New York, is comilng to ABC Family. (Cuz ABC Family ain’t a family channel anymore and, more importantly, cuz GREY’S ANATOMY star Ellen Pompeo wants to play the lead, so what the hell. Oh, and no writer is attached, so if you know Ellen or Rachel, time to give ’em a call.)
  • Scott Peterson & Joshua Pruett (PHINEAS AND FERB) are developing HAUNTED MANSION as a special (read “backdoor pilot) as an animated Disney Channel project. (Sorry, but try as I may, your munchman just can’t get into this one. I think it’s cuz I absolutely can’t stand the Entity You May Now Prostrate Yourselves Before And Hail As Disney. Then again, it could just be my constipation. Ciao!)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 8/6/14

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
by munchman

  • Nat Faxon & Jim Rash (THE DESCENDANTS) have a new overall deal to develop series for Sony Pictures TV. (Welcome, Oscar-winning brothers! Yer friendly neighborhood munchman is thrilled that you’ve taken shelter from the storms that are feature films in the, erm, storms that are TV. Oh well, it’s good for TV anyway.)
  • Kurt Sutter (SONS OF ANARCHY) has a new “first-look” deal with 20th Century Fox TV. (Which isn’t as good as it sounds cuz a first look is far from the same as a “must buy.” But at least Kurt will get paid for all his brainstorming, right? Right? Hey, Fox, munchie’s talking to you.)
  • Jishnu Pablo Dey (newbie) has won the first place prize for third grade in the national PBS Kids Writers Contest with his poetry (and mixed media illustration) book, A Humble Book of Poems (With a Little Seasoning), and muncho’s here to tell you that the title just blows me away. Congrats, Jishnu. Here’s hoping one of your next mixed media is TV cuz there’s no place anywhere that can use your originality and creativity more. And to think, when I was in third grade all I cared about was my GI Joe figures.)
  • Meghan Lyvers and Brianna Bennett (they’re network suits, kids) are the new Senior VP and VP, respectively, of Drama Development at CBS. (You know the drill. If you know either of these two fine peeps and are pretty sure they don’t hate you, give ’em a call and congratulate them. Take ’em to lunch! Tell ole munchberger here where and when you’re doing it so I can kinda pop in and, you know, strug me stuff!)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 7/31/14

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
by munchman

  • Frank Spotnitz (THE X-FILES) is adapting Phil Dick‘s mucho-kudo’ed masterpiece of fiction, The Man in the High Castle into a pilot for an Amazon Studios series. (There is so much wonderfulness in that sentence that I just have to sit back and taste it for a beat. If this comes anywhere near yer friendly neighborhood muncher’s expectations, I promise to stop mocking Amazon and except it as, oh, almost a genuine, professional studio-network-whatever. And who knows? Maybe I’ll toss out the “almost” bit too.)
  • Warren Ellis (currently a big deal comic book writer, don’tcha know?) has a deal with Universal Cable Productions to write an as-yet-untitled pilot about an as-yet-unspecified bunch of characters engaged in as-yet-unspecified, um, stuff. (I can hear the Warren Ellis fans celebrating already. As well that should.)
  • Taylor Elmore (JUSTIFIED) has a new overall deal with CBS TV Studios to develop and write and produce and all that good stuff that we all want to do. (And while I’m not a member of the JUSTIFIED Rave Society, I wish the Tayman all the luck and success in the world. Cuz I just can’t help meself. Y’all know how positive a nature the munchman has.)
  • Charlie Kaufman‘s (INSIDE JOHN MALKOVICH) FX pilot isn’t going to series after all. (Proving that even the A+ listers can get crapped on. Sorry, Charlie – and believe me, I mean it. Cuz if they can reject Charlie Kaufman, what chance do the rest of us writerly types have?)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 7/28/14

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
by munchman

  • Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi & Bruce Campbell (if you don’t know at least 2 our of these 3 names you shouldn’t be reading this anyway) are writing-developing a TV series based on the EVIL DEAD series of films. (And if that isn’t the most interesting thing the San Diego Comic Con has to offer so far, then what is? Huh? Huh? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Ha!)
  • Robert Kirkman (THE WALKING DEAD) is adapting his comic book Outcast for a Cinemax series. (And if that isn’t good news for exorcism lovers everywhere, then what is? Huh? Huh?)
  • Big deal best-selling novelist James Patterson is adapting his thriller, Zoo, into a series for CBS. No pilot necessary on this one. It’s going straight to series. (And if that isn’t the the most exciting news any novelist with a few notches on his belt ever heard, than…well, you know the drill. As the munchman’s dear old daddy used to say, “Success brings success, kid, so keep on sucking!” Yeah, he was clever that way, he is.)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 7/25/14

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
by munchman

  • Billy Eichner (BILLY ON THE STREET) has a deal to write an untitled “comedic take on Hollywood and pop culture…as a book for Hachette Book Group. (Hachette, you may recall, is the publishing house that Amazon’s been slugging it out with. Congratulations, Billy, on getting your big writing op with a book that nobody will be able to buy from the world’s largest bookseller. Oh, dear, that didn’t come out quite right, did it?)
  • Dustin Lance Black (MILK) is adapting A. Scott Berg‘s Pulitzer Prize winning bio, Lindberg, into a limited TV series to be produced by Paramount TV.  (Cuz Nazi sympathizing one-shot wonder manly man flyers are the kind of thing the TV audience just loves to eat up. My munched-up self can’t help but think that this ain’t gonna be the hit somebody’s thinking it will. But what do I know?)
  • Cris Cole (UK’s MAD DOGS) has written the pilot for a U.S. version of the series for Amazon Studios. (Cuz why make crappy $$$ writing for the best TV system in the world when you can make slightly less crappy $$$ writing for what yer friendly neighborhood munchman would bet his soul on – if I had one – will end up the worst?)