In the Trades Today

Variety reports that BATTLESTAR GALACTICA showrunner Ron Moore has signed a rich deal with NBC/Universal.

Deal calls for Moore, who exec produced the first season of HBO’s "Carnivale"
before joining "Battlestar," to create and develop series, with an emphasis on
sci-fi-themed projects.

He’s already set up the NBC fantasy skein
"Pen and the Sword" and "Warehouse 13," a quirky one-hour for Sci Fi Channel.
Moore also will continue to steer "Battlestar," which kicks off the second half
of season two Jan. 6.

"Pen and the Sword" revolves around a young man at a temp agency who comes to
realize the building he works in is a portal to a sort of medieval alternate
reality. Show will follow the man as he slides between worlds, trying to unravel
the connection between the two — i.e., verbal spats between colleagues in one
dimension are sword fights in the other.

"It’s definitely something different for a broadcast network," Moore said.
"At its heart, ‘Pen and the Sword’ is really the story of this guy and his late
father, who was somehow involved in the office."

For Sci Fi, Moore will oversee "Warehouse 13" from writer Brent Mote. Project
concerns a pair of government officials banished to a storage facility in North
Dakota where they spend their days cataloguing artifacts and other odds and ends
collected by the government over the years. Unbeknownst to them, every item has
a backstory, pulling them into fantastic and supernatural quests each week.

"It’s ‘Northern Exposure’-esque and more comedic than anything else I’ve seen
on Sci Fi," Moore said. "What interested me was that it was a fun concept
anchored by real characters."

 

I didn’t take long for Pierce Brosnan to try renewing his license to kill. Variety reports that Brosnan is slated to star in THE NOVEMBER MAN, based on the 1986  novel "There Are No Spies" by Bill Granger. The book is actually one of a series featuring a spy named Devereaux, aka The November Man (not to be confused with the 1976  novel "The November Man" by Brian Freemantle)

Paramount has signed CSI Creator Anthony Zuiker to another eight-figure, three-year deal. Is this a surprise to anyone? The only morsel of news in this is the acknowledgement from CBS chief Les Moonves that they aren’t planning to do a fourth version of CSI.

Moonves said he doubts Zuiker will create another edition of "CSI," and instead
will likely focus on creating a new series. "I don’t think we should push the
envelope" with a fourth "CSI," exec said.

That’s a shame, because I was really looking forward to CSI: SPOKANE.

Variety today "analyzes" the demise of ALIAS, putting the blame for the cancellation on "the vagaries of television." Well, duh. That’s what passes for probing analysis over at the trades these days.

ABC has announced the end of the line for "Alias," which will conclude its
five-season run in May. Skein,
which stars Jennifer
Garner as CIA agent Bristow, earned critical raves through the
years but struggled this season on Thursday nights.

And that’s all they had to say about those pesky "vagaries" —  great buzz but low ratings. I don’t think I’ve ever read a more revealing, probing analysis of the demise of a show (except, maybe, from those stories about ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, which fell victim to those same pesky "vagaries," and they’ve got bunch of Emmys, too). 

Surely there’s a real story behind the cancellation of ALIAS, one that might actually be interesting and reveal something about how network televison works, but far be it from the so-called reporters  at Daily Variety to bother digging any deeper than the press release.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the trades experimented with some geniune reporting once in a while?

(This isn’t exactly a new rant for me. Check out The Journalistic Integrity of Variety Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3)

Publishers Weekly has a lengthy article in the current issue about the Romance Writers of America, which has 9500 members, only 1600 of whom are actually published authors.

That can make for some uncomfortable moments at the group’s annual conference,
says agent Irene Goodman, who maintains that these aspiring authors "often view
editors and agents as gatekeepers who are the bad guys barring them from their
dream."

The agent, whose clients include bestselling romance writer Debbie Macomber,
continues, "They act as if we’re all part of some semishady, sub-rosa group."
Still, Goodman attends the conferences, wading through "this vast population of
the great unwashed masses of inexperienced, unprofessional people trying to
break in," in search of "a brilliant newcomer."

And there lies the paradox of RWA’s highly democratic (anyone willing to
write a $75 dues check is in) admissions policy. On the one hand, it is the
group’s greatest strength, enabling it to claim the largest membership of any
not-for-profit genre writers’ association in the world. And it creates an
important mission for the group, with a national conference and numerous local
conferences each year that make up a kind of finishing school for romance
writers. But this inclusiveness may also be the group’s biggest weakness,
diluting its clout by making it seem amateurish and, as Goodman points out,
making it harder for agents and editors to discover the truly motivated writer
among the dilettantes.

Still, as the group celebrates its 25-year anniversary, it’s a safe bet those
unpublished—or, as some prefer to call them, "pre-published"—writers will
continue to be welcome in a group that also boasts such big names as Nora
Roberts and Jennifer Crusie. Providing networking and support for aspiring
authors was, after all, the original mission when 37 charter members founded the
association in 1980…

…Crusie, who says everything she knows about the business she learned from
another RWA member, is more than happy to share the group with aspirants. "RWA’s
strength is that it’s got unpublished members. That’s where all the juice comes
from," she says. "I was a wannabe once."

The article makes passing reference to only one of the many embarrassing controversies that have rattled the organization in the past year.

At the annual conference this summer that marked the group’s 25-year
anniversary, some attendees felt less than celebratory after viewing a video
montage with a right-wing bent that was the centerpiece of the awards
presentation. It edited together footage of important political events from the
last 25 years with a pop-tune soundtrack, so that bouncy music played over
sobering images—none of which had anything to do with romance writers. Roberts,
who had been scheduled to serve as emcee, opted out. "I could not and would not
be a part of a ceremony that, rather than honor the organization and the
nominees, took the audience through 25 years of world tragedies," she says in an
e-mail. "I felt, and continue to feel, that it was horribly inappropriate and
offensive."

Crusie, who served on the RWA board for three years in the late 1990s, says,
"there’s always upheaval," but adds, "it’s the same with any organization."

Yeah, but few do it quite so publicly and over such incredibly stupid stuff.

Variety reports that Lifetime has shelled out $1.3 million an episode for MEDIUM reruns, which is interesting, considering the network pays  only a little more than that for new episodes of MISSING, their first-run show about an FBI agent/medium who finds missing persons. In fact, MISSING is their only remaining first-run series. So the question I have for psychics out there, crime-solving and otherwise:…will Lifetime double up on mediums and keep MISSING, or does this pricey rerun deal spell doom for the show?

The beloved, original version of THE NIGHT STALKER lasted for just one season. ABC’s "reimagined" version didn’t even last that long. Variety reports that the show has been cancelled… after only nine episodes were produced. The sad part about this isn’t that the show was cancelled, but the producers missed everything that made the original such a great show…most importantly, the character of Carl Kolchak. Instead, the new NIGHT STALKER was a bland X-FILES retread that captured none of the charm, humor and originality of the classic series that it took its name from. This was a  missed opportunity.