by Dennis O’Neil
Splat! Splibble! Ghosh!
Uh oh, here comes another one.
KLATLAM!
Tag: People’s Pilot Contest
Interview with HAP AND LEONARD Co-Creator Jim Mickle
Ever wonder how novel adaptations end up on our television screens? Here’s the story of one of them, Sundance Channel’s interesting new series HAP AND LEONARD:
by Fred Topel
Jim Mickle’s movie Cold in July brought Joe R. Lansdale’s writing back to the big screen. The only previous movie adaptation was the horror comedy Bubba Ho-Tep, but Mickle, along with cowriter Nick Damici, captured Lansdale’s hard boiled southern crime thriller. Now that team is bringing Lansdale to series television with Sundance Channel’s Hap and Leonard.
James Purefoy plays Hap Collins and Michael K. Williams plays Leonard Pine, two out-of-work men in the ’80s. When Hap’s ex Trudy (Christina Hendricks) brings them the location to a sunken stash, Hap and Leonard agree to help her find it. And everything goes according to plan and they part as friends, right? We sat down with Mickle before Hap and Leonard’s panel for the Television Critics Association to discuss the new show, which premieres this week on SundanceTV.
Things to Consider Before You Go Freelance
It’s checklist time, kids, so listen up. No, wait, we mean, start reading. Yeah, that’s the ticket:
by Matt McCue
Chucking the corporate life for the freedom of working independently is the fantasy of many a cubicle monkey. But before you make the jump, ask yourself some hard questions to make sure that you can operate from a position of strength while on your own.
Before I joined 99U last fall, I freelanced full-time for five years in New York City, writing for places like ESPN The Magazine, Fast Company, and New York. While I was ultimately able to thrive on my own, the first year was rough. My life was a constant cycle of eeking out enough money to pay my monthly bills, relishing that accomplishment for about as long as it took me to sip a celebratory glass of whiskey and then realizing: This month nearly killed me. How in the world am I going to make it next month?
If I were to go back and do it all over again, I’d make one major change to vet the decision to freelance from the perspective of an entrepreneur, and not solely weigh it against my creative ambitions. While it feels clinical to think of your art as a “product”and asking yourself questions about money makes you feel vulnerable, this approach can help you make a decision informed by both creative desires and shrewd business sense. This combiniation pushes you to pinpoint why you really want to work independently, highlight your shortcomings and hopefully allows you to firm up any weaknesses so you make the move when you’re truly ready.
Lessons From Late ‘60s TV
by Dawn McElligott
When I was a little girl, “I Dream of Jeannie” was THE show to watch. It had been conjured up as a competitor to ‘Bewitched” on ABC. But it was more fun. Jeannie was single, whereas Samantha was weighed down with motherly concerns. Jeannie was lively and enthusiastic. If her roommate, Major Nelson yelled at her she could turn into smoke and escape into her bottle. I loved her bottle. She felt safe there. The décor was exotic and uniquely her own.
The imaginative show inspired me to be a writer so I watched TV actively. I was always looking to see how shows were made in contrast to the children at school. They had lunchboxes advertising TV shows that I assumed they watched passively.
As soon as I learned to read I scanned the credits of “I Dream of Jeannie” and saw that it had been created by Sidney Sheldon. I inferred that for Sheldon’s name to be in the credits he had to have done much more than mutter “Why not a show about a genie?”
Native American TV writers lab calling for script submissions
A cause dear to TVWriter™’s collective heart:
by LA Skins Fest
The LA Skins Fest, a Native American film festival, in partnership with NBCUniversal, CBS Entertainment Diversity and HBO announced today they are accepting applications for the inaugural the NATIVE AMERICAN TV WRITERS LAB.
“CBS Entertainment Diversity is proud to continue our long partnership with the LA Skins Fest. The NATIVE AMERICAN TV WRITERS LAB will provide another point of entry for emerging writers that we look forward to getting to know,” said Tiffany Smith-Anoa’i, CBS, EVP Diversity, Inclusion & Communications.