Tag: Richard Price

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!)

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?