In the Trades Today

The TV biz won’t have Sarah Michelle Geller or Joss Whedon to kick around any more.

Geller’s movie THE GRUDGE was a surprise hit this weekend, pulling in $40 million. Anyone who can open a movie that big is officially a movie star. I doubt she’ll be considering any TV series offers now.

And BUFFY creator Joss Whedon, who is currently making a movie version of his short-lived Fox series FIREFLY, announced today that he is getting out of the TV series business.

“Twentieth Century Fox TV has approved Whedon’s request to halt his overall deal at the studio, effectively shuttering his Mutant Enemy production shingle. Besides wanting to focus on his feature career, Whedon said he decided to take a break from TV because, quite simply, he had run out of series ideas.

“I spent a lot of time trying to think what my next series would be,” Whedon said. “I couldn’t think of anything. When that happens, it generally means something is just not working. I didn’t feel like I could come up with anything that the networks would want.”

It’s not surprising that his decision to get out of the TV biz comes while he’s in the midst of writing/directing the movie version of FIREFLY, his only other TV series that wasn’t a BUFFY spin-off. It must be bringing back some unpleasant memories of his dealing with the Fox network. It was a troubled project from the start. The original pilot was scrapped, effectively changing the creative direction of the series…and the series never quite recovered, not that it was given much of a chance. Fox canceled the series after only a handful of episodes. I imagine that experience, as well as the WB’s surprising cancellation of ANGEL, undoubtably had an impact on his decision to stop toiling in TV for a while. That, and the current state of television…

“I have a bitter taste in my mouth with where TV has gone in the past five years,” said Whedon, who called TV’s reality trend “loathsome.”

It used to be that movie stars wouldn’t slum in television…certainly not on a weekly drama series. Those days are long gone. James Spader, Gary Sinise, Sharon Stone, Rebecca DeMornay… those are just a few of the names that have shown up in episodic TV lately. The trend is picking up speed. Variety reports that Glenn Close is joining the regular cast of THE SHIELD.

Marking her first series regular role on primetime television, Glenn Close has joined the cast of FX cop drama “The Shield.” Thesp, who landed an Emmy nomination this year for her portrayal of Eleanor of Aquitaine in Showtime movie “The Lion in Winter,” will appear in every episode of the 13-seg fourth season. Production begins in January. Close will play Monica Rawling, the new captain of the Farmington precinct, who empowers Det. Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) to enforce her controversial community policies.

Could it be that stars have started noticing something viewers did a long time ago… that, by and large, TV shows are better written, produced and directed than most feature films these days? And not just on HBO, either…

The prolific and charming Max Alan Collins is a remarkable writer… effortlessly moving between mediums… graphic novels, comic strips (he wrote “Dick Tracy” for years), mystery novels, movie novelisations, and TV tie-ins (he authors the “CSI” books now), among other things. He wrote the original graphic novel “Road to Perdition,” which became the Tom Hanks movie… and then he wrote the screenplay novelization of the movie based on his graphic novel. I don’t think that has ever been done before. Now he’s taking the idea of the sequel to a whole new level.

Collins has announced that “Road to Purgatory” (hardcover novel, Morrow, a book publishing group of Harper-Collins) and “Road to Perdition 2: On the Road” (graphic novel, DC Comics trade paperback) should begin hitting stores by late November and no later than Dec. 1.

“I don’t believe two sequels to the same work in two different mediums, by the same creator, has ever been done,” said DC Comics vice president Dan DiDio.

“I knew there’d be demand for a sequel,” Collins said.

But he debated as to what form to pursue — prose or graphic novel, a comics style form for which Collins has become nationally recognized. He decided to use both. “Road to Purgatory” follows the son of hitman Michael O’Sullivan into adulthood on his journey to a showdown with Al Capone, whom O’Sullivan’s son blames for the death of his own gangster father. “Road to Perdition 2: On the Road” is a new narrative that takes place within the structure of the original story.

Collins said that it’s too early to tell if there will be a film sequel to “Perdition.” However, he said DreamWorks and 20th Century Fox have expressed “strong interest.”

Variety reports that the surprise success of ABC’s DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES has the networks scrambling to develop “housewife” shows of their own.

In the race to come up with the next big procedural hit (a la “CSI” and “Law & Order”), no one saw the mega-openings of ABC’s new drama hits “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost” coming.

Now, just as they were about to finish buying scripts for next season, drama execs have made a U-turn and added a few more quirky female dramas and big-concept thrillers to the development mix.

“There’s always that Oct. 1 curveball that comes in, when everybody suddenly looks for the opposite of what they had been after,” says 20th Century Fox TV drama chief Jennifer Nicholson Salke.

By October, of course, development execs finally have a chance to digest what’s hot and what’s not. And although procedurals are by no means cold, webheads can’t help but take into account the excitement over “Housewives” and “Lost.”

As a result, nets and studios are taking a second look at projects they may have passed on earlier in the year, hoping to capture some of what made “Housewives” so appealing.

NBC and 20th took it one step further, redeveloping the 7-year-old Todd Holland/John Riggi script “Five Houses,” a single-camera comedy about families living in a Los Angeles cul-de-sac.

The success of LOST hasn’t been, um, lost on them either…

“The word right now is ‘eventize,’ ” says ICM’s Matt Solo. “People want pitches and projects that can be turned into events, and promoted as being really different.”

ABC Entertainment exec VP Francie Calfo says it’s clear everyone is now looking for the next show in the vein of “Lost” — even her own net.

There’s a rumor being reported by Billboard that Neil Diamond and Barbara Streisand will be teaming up for a nationwide concert tour.

A planned tour by Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond could set a new record for high ticket prices, Billboard reported Thursday. The duo has been guaranteed approximately $3.5 million per show, putting estimates for tickets to be $300 to $400 on the low end, an unidentified source told Billboard magazine.

VIP packages could sell for $3,000 or more, some industry executives said.

Streisand and Diamond, who collaborated on the 1978 No. 1 hit “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” reunited for the first time in 24 years last June for a fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

Diamond’s last tour, in 2001-2002, grossed $80 million.

Streisand is credited with breaking the $300 ticket barrier in the early 1990s and reportedly has charged as much as $750 per ticket in recent years.

The diva grossed $18.2 million for two 1999 New Year’s Eve shows to ring in the new millennium at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Insiders predict the proposed tour will be successful.

“Streisand and Diamond is the ultimate 60-year-old show,” an unidentified industry executive said.

I’m not 60, but I’ll be there. Considering I write Diagnosis Murder novels, this admission can’t come as a big surprise to anyone. I also wear Depends… for the comfort.

Variety reports that Fox has greenlit a one-hour pilot called PRISON BREAK…

“Prison Break” revolves around a man who robs a bank and waits around for the police to arrive, in order to be arrested and sent to prison. Once there, he relies on one of his tattoos — which doubles as a map of the facility — to escape with his brother, a death-row inmate, in tow.

Eventually, the prisoners break free — and it becomes a story about fugitives on the lam.

“It was one of those things where we heard the pitch and said, ‘God, that’s a great idea,’ ” said Fox execexec VP Craig Erwich. “It just feels like a signature Fox show.”

I don’t know if it will be any good, or if it can sustain itself as a series (without becoming another rehash of “The Fugitive”), but at least it’s not another version of CSI or LAW AND ORDER…or a thinly-veiled ripoff of those shows… or yet another series about cops investigating homicides. You have to applaud Fox for being willing to try unconventional formats for series…even though they often stumble after an intriguing pilot (remember JOHN DOE?)

By the way, I worked with Craig Erwich many years ago when he was a devleopment exec at Cannell Productions and I was toiling on a bad syndicated series for the studio called COBRA.

Variety reports that former LAW & ORDER producer Michael Chernuchin has struck an unusual pilot deal at ABC. Not only has he landed a script order for “Expert Witness,” but a publishing contract, too.

“Expert Witness” is a sort of legal “CSI” that revolves around Roger Cleary, a thirtysomething coroner-turned-professional freelance forensic witness who works for both prosecution and defense cases. Cleary’s dad is in jail for killing his mom, and that crime inspires his career.

Interestingly, even before ABC decides whether to greenlightgreenlight the project to pilot, Chernuchin has already sealed a deal with book packager Alloy to write a series of novels based on the lead character in “Expert Witness.” Indeed, the book deal predated the ABC pactpact.

“We sold the project to TV faster than we thought,” he quipped.

This may be the first time where the “TV tie-in” novel was sold before the TV series. Chernuchin is also adapting the hit BBC series “Judge Deed” for NBC.

“Deed” focuses on a federal court justice in Washington, D.C., who is “totally moral in the courtroom by not so moral on the outside,” Chernuchin said.

“We’ve seen legal stories through almost everyone’s point of view but the judge’s,” he said. “When you see a judge on TV they’re usually just saying ‘sustained’ and ‘overruled.’ This gives me a whole different way to think about cases.”

I guess he doesn’t watch JUDGING AMY, either. And he missed THE COURT, FIRST MONDAY, and QUEENS SUPREME… just like most of America.

Variety reports that Sony is acquiring MGM/UA… which adds an interesting new twist to the Bond saga.

Years ago, long before DR. NO, writer/producer John McClory collaborated with 007 author Ian Fleming on an original Bond screenplay entitled THUNDERBALL. When the movie went nowhere, Fleming adapted it into a novel of the same name… which eventually became the basis for the fourth 007 movie…and thus began a long legal battle between MGM/UA and McClory, who claimed the right to make his own Bond movies. After decades of wrangling, McClory produced NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN, a remake of THUNDERBALL, for Warner Brothers starring Sean Connery. After that, McClory periodically announced new Bond pictures, none of which ever came to fruition.

A few years ago, McClory struck a deal with Sony, which announced a new, rival series of Bond movies to be produced by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich. That sparked a new legal war between MGM/UA and Sony. The conflict was settled when MGM agreed to buy NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN and all rights to the movie from Sony… thus ending any chance of a rival 007 series.

The End is Never The End in this saga (Hey, that sounds like the title of a Bond movie, doesn’t it?) Now Sony not only gets back NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN but, it seems, the entire Bond franchise as well.