Month: March 2006

Drive to the Big Screen

by

Variety reports that Universal Studios has bought the James Sallis novel DRIVE as a feature film vehicle for Hugh Jackman. This is a coup not only for Sallis, but for Poisoned Pen, the small Phoenix-based press which published the widely-acclaimed novella. Sallis is also the author of the Lew Griffin PI tales set in New Orleans.

In other mystery/thriller book news in the trades today, Paramount Pictures has hired X-MEN scribe David Hayter  to adapt Bob Reiss’ soon-to-be-published novel BLACK MONDAY for the screen.

The Double Life

by

Dm7
Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day…here’s an early peek at the cover of DIAGNOSIS MURDER #7: THE DOUBLE LIFE, which comes out in November (Click on the photo for a larger image).

The Price of Amazon Connect

by

Authors who’ve taken advantage of Amazon’s Blog service need to be careful what they post — because they’re forfeiting any rights to their work. I’ve just been alerted to a troubling clause in the Amazon Connect Terms of Service:

"For all Author Materials that you post or submit in connection with the
Program (including any trademark or similar rights in them), you hereby grant
Amazon a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual and irrevocable right and
license throughout the world in any media to: (1) use, reproduce, publish,
translate, create derivative works from, distribute, and display all of your
Works."

I think the Amazon Blogs have helped publicize me and my books (I’ve seen an uptick in my Amazon sales rankings and in traffic to my website since launching the blog). I’ve been mostly "repurposing" material from this blog over there.  But now I will seriously curtail the kinds of things I’m posting, holding back anything that might have value if compiled into another literary work  (like anecdotes about the TV biz, screenwriting advice, essays on the mystery field, etc.). I don’t want to grant Amazon free rights to my writing. It’s a shame, because the Amazon blog will suffer because of their ridiculous copyright grab.

Another Great Way to Procrastinate

by

Spenser_credit
AOL is offering a bunch of old TV shows from the Warner Brothers vault for free download…among the offerings is the SPENSER FOR HIRE episode "If You Knew Sammy," guest-starring William H. Macy. This is the episode that launched my TV career. It’s the first  script Bill Rabkin and I ever sold… we wrote it on spec and the folks at SPENSER actually bought it and shot it without changing a word (our first TV experience was blessed in a lot of ways). Among the other offerings on AOL Television are episodes of MAVERICK, BABYLON 5, KUNG FU, THE FBI, and THE FUGITIVE, to name a few.

Not So Wonderful Wonder Woman

by

Mark Evanier tells the story behind a five minute WONDER WOMAN demo-pilot that producer William Dozier produced during the 60s heyday of TV’s BATMAN.  You can watch the whole demo on his blog, too.

Why didn’t his version of Wonder Woman sell? Well, watch it and
see. What’s usually the case when a network commissions a brief demo
film instead of a full pilot is either (a) they have so much faith in the premise and creative team that they don’t feel the need to waste the time or money…or (b)they have so little faith in the project that, though they’ve been
pressured into giving it a try before the cameras, they don’t want to
waste the time or money. Guess which was the case this time.

Monk Envy

by

Natalieblog_1
My latest Natalie Blog is now up at the USA Network’s Monk site:

In some ways, I envy Mr. Monk. He has direction in his life. He
knows who he is, what his talents are, what he was put on this earth to do. He’s
known since he was a kid.

Monk was born to be a detective. And he’s brilliant at it.

I’m not sure what I was born to do, what I’m good at, or where my life is
going. I’m sure there are other people like me, but I still feel like the only
one who didn’t arrive with pre-installed software.

When are they going to do the MANIMAL movie?

by

Gabekaplan
First Owen Wilson was in STARSKY AND HUTCH. Then I SPY. Or was it the otherIce
way around? Doesn’t matter. Now his brother Luke Wilson has lined up TV redo of his own. Variety reports Luke is up to play Bobby Ewing in the DALLAS movie. Offers have gone out to John Travolta to play J.R., Jennifer Lopez to play his wife Sue Ellen, and Shirley MacLaine to be Miss Ellie. Meanwhile, Ice Cube is remaking WELCOME BACK KOTTER for the big screen with himself in the title role that was originally played by Gabe Kaplan. Really. I’m not making this stuff up.

The Sopranos Effect

by

TV Critic Chuck Barney talks about the impact THE SOPRANOS has had on TV…and he asked me for my take on things.

"The networks used to be so deeply afraid of offending people that what
they typically turned out was tepid and dull," Goldberg says. "’The
Sopranos’ showed that the audience is smarter and more sophisticated
than what they give them credit for. It proved that you can do a crime
show with more nuance than ‘Matlock.’"

[…]But just how "real" is television willing to get? It’s no
coincidence that most of the complex, rough-edged dramas are still
mainly the province of cable channels, which cater to more niche-type
audiences. Yes, the broadcast networks are taking more risks, but
because they’re obligated to aim for larger audiences and please
advertisers, they still tend to hew to the safe side, according to
Goldberg.

"Just look at James Spader’s character on ‘Boston Legal.’ He started
out as a real scummy type of dirty-dealer, but he’s been softened up,
watered down and made more cuddly," he says. "Even Andy Sipowicz on
‘NYPD Blue’ started out as a despicable boozer and a bigot. But over
time, his edges were so sanded down that he became an animated
character. He might as well have been Scooby-Doo."