Tag: Ryan Murphy

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 4/10/13

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are

  • Graham Gordy & Michael D. Fuller (RECTIFY) are writing the pilot for Cinemax’s QUARRY, based on a series of novels by Max Allan Collins (who, incidentally, is 10 times the writer either of these guys could ever be. RECTIFY? Come on!).
  • Alfonso H. Moreno (NCIS) has sold his spec science fiction drama pilot to Syfy (and it’s about a couple of people on the run cuz, you know, that’s all viewers care about, right?).
  • Ryan Murphy (GLEE) & Lauren Gussis (DEXTER) want some network or other to buy their script for an “exploration of sexuality” (and we, licentious pigs that we are, are right here rooting for that to happen. “Pigs,” “rooting,” get it? Huh?).
  • A couple actors named Steve Carell and James Gandolfini are looking for a writer for BONE WARS, a comedy about rival paleontologists who keep sabotaging each other’s discoveries..and it’s a true story (so get out your samples, kids, and accost Carell and Gandolfini at the next red light, or while they’re eating dinner, or shopping. You can make it happen…go,go,go!).

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 1/8/13

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are

  •  Ben Wexler (COMMUNITY) is writing the pilot for BOB’S NEW HEART SHOW, a medical comedy at Fox. (Produced by Conan O’Brian and paying tribute to Bob Newhart, who isn’t connected to the show in any way.)
  • Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot, a book by none other than Bill O’Reilly (well, maybe there was or will be another writer but no one’s coming out with the names), is being turned into a Ridley Scott directed TV movie on the National Geographic Channel. (We’re guessing this deal wasn’t made because of O’Reilly’s writing, but who knows?)
  • Megan Ganze (COMMUNITY) has looked into the future and officially left the show that scares NBC so much that the network is afraid to schedule it and taken a writing gig on MODERN FAMILY. (And she announced it on Reddit, proving that she’s not only richer than we are but cooler as well.)
  • William Monahan (Oscar winner for THE DEPARTED), is writing the pilot for Starz’ drama series CRIME, described in the press release as “a study of criminal enterprises and scandal across 1960s Britain. (He’s adapting a screenplay by Vanessa Sadler and says “It’s very, very funny.” We aren’t sure if he’s talking about her version or his there, but we’ll see because Starz always shoots and airs its series pilots – mainly because, according to their Big Boss, Chris Albrecht,  they can’t afford not to.)
  • Ryan Murphy (GLEE, AMERICAN HORROR STORY) is adapting Larry Kramer’s play, THE NORMAL HEART into a TV movie for HBO. (It’s about a paraplegic physician in the ’80s working with AIDS patients, so we now one thing for sure: Watching this ain’t a’gonna make us feel good.)

Today’s TV Writing Deals Dept: 10/7/12

Old TV writing joke: “Know why TV writers brag about their deals? Cuz that’s all they have.” Think about it:

  • Tyler Perry (TYLER PERRY’s HOUSE OF PAYNE, MEET THE BROWNS) is writing and producing 2 new shows for OWN, in return for which he now has a very large ownership stake in the net. (Jeeze, nobody ever told us we had to buy our way into TV…and yet it definitely makes sense. Depressing sense, but sense.)
  • Douglas Segal (THREE KINGS) is writing a supernatural drama about a devil trying to save “compromised souls” for the CW. (Let that be a lesson to us all: No compromise! No surrender! Oh, that isn’t what it means?)
  • M. Night Shyamalan (THE SIXTH SENSE) & John Glenn (EAGLE EYE) are writing the pilot for LOST HORIZON for NBC. (Strangely, LOST HORIZON isn’t based on the book of the same name but on MOBY DICK. We figure somebody misread their high school reading list and still hasn’t been corrected.)
  • Ryan Murphy (GLEE, AMERICAN HORROR STORY, THE NEW NORMAL) is writing the pilot for MONTAUK, a conspiracy thriller, for Fox and an unnamed sitcom for NBC. (Yes, it’s true. We don’t even know this guy and we hate him. We really do. And if that isn’t the essence of showbiz, what is?)
  • Charley and Vlas Parlapanides (IMMORTALS) are writing THE CENTURIAN, about a Marine working with the angel of his best friend for CBS. (The way we hear it, the original pitch was about a Marine working with “the agent” of his best friend, but something got lost in the translation and who’s going to argue with a “Yes?”)
  • GIRLS creator Lena Dunham will be getting over $3,500,000 for her book of essays, Not That Kind of Girl, (because she’s got herself a very hot, in, and trendy series and why should she settle for less?)

NBC Shares What “Normal” Is

**This is a review of the Pilot episode of NBC’s “The New Normal”, which debuts on September 11, 2012. You may screen it online early to decide whether it’s good, great, or not quite “normal” enough for you.**

What is normal? read article