Tag: TV writing deals

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 11/30/12

Latest News About Writers Doing Better Than We Are

  • Rumors abound that Kevin Costner’s 1995 feature film fiasco, WATERWORLD, is headed for Syfy as a series. No writers have been mentioned, so, hey, now’s the time to put your hat in the ring. (In other words, how long will it take you to write a complete spec science fiction script to prove your genius expertise adequacy?)
  • Chris Cantwell & Chris Rodgers (SHADOW RUNNERS, feature film) are writing HALT & CATCH FIRE, a drama about the PC boom in the early ’80s intended as a series on AMC. (In other words, nerds are in, for which we at TVWriter™ give heartfelt thanks.)
  • Alexander Rose’s book, Washington’s Spies) is the basis for Craig Silverstein’s (NIKITA) AMC pilot, TURN. (In other words, why let a good, descriptive name get in the way of confusing TV viewers, right?)
  • It’s official. DOWNTON ABBEY creator Julian Fellowes will write and produce NBC’s THE GILDED AGE, described by the network as “a sweeping epic in the style of DOWNTON ABBEY. (In other words, the U.S. finally gets its own overly-manipulative soap opera about rich people nobody in the audience will be able to stand. Awesome.)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 11/27/12

Latest News About Writers Doing Better Than We Are (Why Do There Have To Be So Many?)

  • Rob Weiss & Jay Leggett & Blake Leibel (ENTOURAGE) are writing a sitcom about legalized pot for Fox. (Well, not really about pot. More about pot heads because a plant can’t be the star of a series unless it’s on Adult Swim, right?)
  • Spencer Hudnut (newbie!) has joined CBS’ UNFORGETTABLE as a staff writer. (And to think, we knew him when he was just, um, a lawyer. Movin’ up in the world, dood.)
  • Larry Stuckey (LITTLE FOCKERS) has sold a comedy project to ABC, based on his relationship with his brother. (Hey, isn’t everything we write based on some part of our lives? And don’t many of us have brothers? So why is Larry the one getting all the big bucks here?)
  • Talk about making it big. Over 20 years ago a newb writer named Judd Apatow (you name it, Judd wrote/directed/produced it) wrote a spec episode of THE SIMPSONS, and at last the show has bought it. (As Executive Producer Al Jean puts it: “For people who want to know how to write a freelance ‘Simpsons’ episode: Just do it, then have a megamilliondollar movie career and we’ll buy the spec.”)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 11/25/12

Ratings & Demos Note: We’ve been amazed to learn via our own internal ratings system that Luv & $$ is the least read department of TVWriter™. But we’re forging ahead anyway cuz everybody knows ratings are bogus.

  • Jessie Miller & Bennett Wolin (no credits cuz they’re newbies – yay, newbs!) have sold a sitcom pilot script, THE MESSED UPTONS, to NBC. (Hey, didja catch that subtle pun in the title? Not bad, huh?)
  • Neil Tokin (RICHIE RICH) is adapting Kate Braestrup’s novel, Here If You Need Me, as a “spiritual” drama series pilot for CBS. (Whatcha think of that “spiritual” thing? Yeah, we’re pretty meh about it too, even without knowing any details.)
  • Novelist Ayelet Waldman is writing LOCO, a CBS drama about a couple who take in their best friends’ “unusual and gifted” children when said friends are killed. (Askin’ yourself if you coulda sold this idea if it’d been yours? Yeah, us too…and we all know what the answer is, don’t we?)
  • Kenan Thompson (SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE) is writing, producing, and starring in an untitled NBC sitcom about a New Yawk kinda guy who moves into his in-laws’ house in the burbs. (Askin’ yourself if his wife moves in with him? Yeah, us too…but maybe she won’t cuz that way there’s more casting money for, you know, Kenan?)

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 11/22/12

Showbiz Secret Number Three: There is no Showbiz Secret Number Three

  • Nina Colman (DR. DOOLITTLE 3) is writing the pilot for BOOK CLUB, the CW’s adaptation of Hope Harman’s documentary about a young woman who starts a book club in New York (because the CW thinks its teen audience will go gaga over reading? What?).
  • Peter Calloway (BROTHERS & SISTERS) is writing the pilot for MTV’s adaptation of Gwenda Bond’s novel Blackwood, about a bunch of supernatural weirdness (because Kelsey Grammer’s company is producing and supernatural anything is hot now, don’tcha know?).
  • Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick (ZOMBIELAND) are writing the pilot for HBO’s OUR FATHER, a drama about a “powerful pastor” who “fights to rediscover faith and connect with his family” (because God always opens well in middle America, where HBO’s audience is weakest, so…).
  • Ryan Murphy’s (LAST RESORT) adaptation of Larry Kramer’s play The Normal Heart has died as a feature film project but is now at HBO as a miniseries (because dead big screen projects by writers whose most recent series was just cancelled just say “Big Winner” all over ’em, right?).

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 11/15/12

“Of course I write for the love of it. If I wanted money I’d be a #$%! lawyer!” (Anonymous Award-Winning TV Writer Person)

  • Nastaran Dibai (RETIRED AT 35, ACCORDING TO JIM) has taken over as showrunner/head writer of MALIBU COUNTRY, replacing Kevin Abbott, who’s moved on to rehab.
  • It ain’t television, but this is too important to too many TV viewers for us to ignore it: Michael Arndt (LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, TOY STORY 3) is writing the screenplay for Disney’s upcoming STAR WARS: EPISODE VII. Not bad for a guy who started his career as an assistant.
  • This ain’t television either, strictly speaking, but we find it profoundly significant that writer Dan Davison (People’s Pilot 2010 1st Runner-Up with partner Anil Sthankiya) is now followed on Twitter by none other than Mark Cuban ($$$), who quite properly respects Dan’s financial acumen.
  • Henry Colman (THE LOVE BOAT) died November 7th at 89. Our condolences to his family and friends.
  • John Quaintance (WHITNEY) & David Feeney (2 BROKE GIRLS) have been elevated to co-showrunners of BEN AND KATE, replacing Garrett Donovan & Neil Goldman who have left because of “creative differences.” We assume that the entity they differ with is Fox Network, since BEN AND KATE is the lowest-rated of Fox’s Tuesday night comedies.