Lee Goldberg

LAW AND ORDER is everywhere

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Fred We live in a LAW AND ORDER world. First comes news this morning that real-life politician Fred Dalton 28360329a_1 Thomspson, who plays a D.A. on LAW & ORDER , is considering a run for the White House (following in the footsteps of former L&O star Michael Moriarty, who also considered it). Then I stumbled on an article about the trial of media tycoon Conrad Black, which included a picture of the prosecutors, who posed as if they were auditioning for another LAW AND ORDER series. Pretty soon, all family photos will look this way.

A Sweet Guy

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I got this email a couple of weeks ago and My brother Tod got one very much like it from the same guy:

Take
your slanders about me off your blog now, Goldberg.  You thought it was cool
and you could destroy someone with your filth.  Take it off, I beg you.  I don’t
really know what I’m capable of, but this force is getting beyond the inertia
phase, and if you don’t silently retract this shit against me, I might
have to spend a lot of time and money convincing you that this was not a right
transaction.  I don’t know you and don’t want to.  Just take all
reference to me off your blog or I might get the idea to buy some people to make your life difficult.  You had
a good laugh at my expense in cyberspace and you think you can just get away
with it without any consequences but that’s not how it works.  If I have
to come to where you live and beat the shit out of you or hire others to do so,
well, then, what did you expect?  Get this stuff about me off your internet
sites or pay the price.  I’m really fed up with your idiocy and am
convinced that you need to be taught a lesson, asshole.

I didn’t respond to this one. Instead, I called a friend at the LAPD, we filed a police report, and got a restraining order against the guy who, as it turns out, still lives at home with his mother.

As The Crow Flies

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Crow_business_card My friend Bryce Zabel talks about the development of his TV series version of THE CROW, which is about to be released on DVD. It’s fascinating stuff (what’s even more fascinating is that he saved his business card):

What do you do when the incredibly violent film you are asked to adapt to a TV audience is based on cruelty, and the main character is driven by a thirst for revenge?

My answer? You expand the premise to fully explore the nature of life after death, and you change the character quest from revenge to redemption.

And how do you handle the fact that the cult film was made infamous by the horrible on-set death of its star, Brandon Lee?

That was a tougher question because the idea behind the TV series was to use the Eric Draven character, the one who’d been in the comics and that Brandon Lee had played. My take was that, tragic as Lee’s death was, George Reeves’ tragic death did not prevent Christopher Reeve or Dean Cain from playing Superman, and that we would just have to proceed and hope that our own version stood intact on its own.

Writing for The Snake Guy

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From my mailbox this week:

Dear Mr. Goldberg,

I have written a story that would make a great movie. The actor XYZ has read it and he thinks it’s really good. He would love to see it as a screenplay, but here is the problem: I have never done that before and have no experiences in turning a script into a screenplay. Can you please help me with this? You can take the credits for the screenplay, if it is made into a movie. It would mean so much to me. I hope to hear from you soon.

I declined her kind offer and suggested that it probably isn’t a good idea to be pitching movies when you admittedly have no skill as a screenwriter and no experience in movie making.  The actor she mentioned, by the way, is nobody I’ve ever heard of. So I looked him up. His major roles recently include "Short Order Cook," "Instructor," "Snake Guy," and "Trucker #1" in several movies that I also have never heard of. I can see why she’d be excited by his interest in her movie idea.

Scribe Nominees and Grandmaster Announced

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Iamtwlogorgbmedium_1 The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers is pleased to announce the nominees for the first annual Scribe Awards, honoring excellence in licensed tie-in writing for books published in 2006.

Our first annual GRANDMASTER AWARD, honoring career achievement in the field, will go to DONALD BAIN, author of the MURDER SHE WROTE novels and the ghostwriter behind COFFEE, TEA OR ME and other bestsellers.

The 2007 Scribe awards will be given out at a ceremony in late July at Comic-Con in San Diego. The details on the event, and how to attend, will be announced in the near future. Congratulations to all our nominees!

SPECULATIVE FICTION

BEST NOVEL – ADAPTED

SLAINE: THE EXILE by Steven Savile

SUPERMAN RETURNS by Marv Wolfman

TOXIC AVENGER: THE NOVEL by Lloyd Kaufman & Adam Jahnke

ULTRAVIOLET by Yvonne Navarro

UNDERWORLD: EVOLUTION by Greg Cox

BEST NOVEL – ORIGINAL

STAR TREK CRUCIBLE: McCOY – PROVENANCE OF SHADOWS by David R. George III

STARGATE ATLANTIS: EXOGENESIS by Elizabeth Christensen & Sonny Whitelaw

THIRTY DAYS OF NIGHT: RUMORS OF THE UNDEAD by Jeff Mariotte & Steve Niles

WARHAMMER: FAITH AND FIRE by James Swallow

WARHAMMER: ORC SLAYER by Nathan Long

GENERAL FICTION

BEST NOVEL  – ADAPTED

SNAKES ON A PLANE by Christa Faust

THE PINK PANTHER by Max Allan Collins

BEST NOVEL – ORIGINAL

CSI NEW YORK: BLOOD ON THE SUN by Stuart Kaminsky

LAS VEGAS: HIGH STAKES by Jeff Mariotte

MR. MONK GOES TO HAWAII by Lee Goldberg

OAKDALE CONFIDENTIAL: SECRETS REVEALED by Alina Adams

YOUNG ADULT – ALL GENRES

BEST NOVEL

ALIAS APO: STRATEGIC RESERVE by Christina York

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: PORTAL THROUGH TIME by Alice Henderson

DRAGONLANCE: WARRIOR’S HEART by Stephen Sullivan

KNIGHTS OF THE SILVER DRAGON: PROPHECY OF THE DRAGONS by Matt Forbeck

Me on TV

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You can catch me and criminal defense attorney Thomas Mesereau together on the latest episode of  INSIDER EXCLUSIVE with Steve Murphy on the web and on a cable station near you. Steve is a congenial interviewer and, although he makes a couple errors (he calls me the "creator and host" of MONK on the "USA Today" network), it was a lot of fun to be a guest and I think you’ll enjoy watching. I taped as second episode that day, with another criminal defense attorney, and will share that link with you as soon as I get it.

Go After The Scammers

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I received this email from Phillip R. Dolan, who got the rights to his manuscript and his money back from PublishAmerica. Rather than paraphrase his email, I am reposting it in its entirety:

Some scam publishers can be stopped. Publish
America’s contract has an arbitration clause to prevent authors from suing them.
To me, it seems to be a mistake because lawsuits are expensive and time
consuming. Arbitration under their contract requires that the American
Arbitration Association rules be followed. Those rules are user friendly and
inexpensive, especially when the prevailing party is reimbursed for all fees and
expenses. Even attorney fees if one uses an attorney. Anyone with a high school
education can handle an arbitration if they are so inclined.

Anyway, I filed for arbitration against PA and won. It took
eight months and I did it without an attorney. My contract was rescinded (not
just terminated) to the date it was signed and I received damages and expenses.
I thought this would be but the first of many arbitrations and that PA might be
driven out of business. It cost them quite a bit.

To help other authors complete arbitrations I posted how I
had done it, including my mistakes, at Arbitration And How To Do It (PublishAmerica, Publish
America)

http://p208.ezboard.com/bedandsootswritersguild

I had a forensic accountant examine PA’s sales records and
posted that info. I had an intellectual property attorney analyze the whole
thing and I posted excerpts of that. Together it is a blueprint of how to know
when PA breaches the contract and how to make them pay for it and get author’s
rights returned.

In about six months there have been 4,691 views just of the
accountant’s report so I know a lot of people have looked at the arbitration
material. But not one author, other than me, has filed
for arbitration. Two other anti-scam sites even offered to pay all the costs
attendant to arbitration. Not one PA author took them up on it.

I think that any author who feels they were scammed by
PublishAmerica and refuses to take any action other than complaining is right
where they should be.

Phillip R. Dolan