In the Trades Today

Out of Touch

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070815cover2 Mark Harmon is on the cover of TV Guide, illustrating their story on the "turmoil" behind-the-scenes on NCIS. The article is tepid, out-of-date and hopelessly vague…and laughable to anybody in the TV business. It just goes to show completely out-of-touch and irrelevant the reporting on the entertainment industry is in the mainstream media and even in the trade publications like Daily Variety and the Hollywood Reporter. Most of entertainment industry reporting, and I used the term "reporting" lightly, is driven by press releases. There is no actual reporting going on any more…much less anything approaching "investigative" journalism. This week’s TV Guide story about NCIS is just the latest, obvious example. The fact is that the "turmoil" on NCIS is hardly anything new and has been common knowledge in the TV industry since the show’s first season. Just about every writer/producer but me, it seems, has been on – and quickly off – the show at one time or another. For the last few years, stories about the script woes and costly production problems on the show could be heard at just about any casual gathering of TV writer/producers. Did any of it creep into the press? Nope. And by the time the showdown between Harmon and series creator/showrunner Donald Belisario was reported by the press in a very watered-down form, it was old news and irrelevant to everybody in the TV business. The real story is why CBS allowed the ugly and expensive situation at NCIS to continue for as long as it did…but nobody is going to report that story. It would be too interesting and informative…and embarrassing for the studio and the network. There are several other shows that have had, or are presently experiencing, more turmoil than NCIS was…and we aren’t hearing about it in the press. And we probably won’t.

I’ve been slogging through the four months worth of issues of Daily Variety that accumulated while I was shooting FAST TRACK in Berlin and am shocked by how little useful information there is. I can get the same information – maybe even more – by just browsing the web each day. I am seriously considering dropping my Daily Variety subscription…and I’ve been a subscriber since I was nine years old.

Bond Gets Bold

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Variety reports that  Marc Forster, director of MONSTER’S BALL and FINDING NEVERLAND, has been hired to helm the next James Bond film, which will star Daniel Craig. This is an unusually edgy choice for the  legendarily conservative Bond producers and shows how dedicated  they are to continue redefining 007 for a new generation (these are the same producers who stuck with director John Glenn for several Bond films and  turned  away overtures from the likes of Quentin Tarantino and Steven Spielberg). CASINO ROYALE scriptors Paul Haggis, Neil Purvis & Robert Wade are once again teaming up on the script. Purvis & Wade are Bond veterans… they also wrote the last few Pierce Brosnan 007 films.

The Verdict is In

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Variety reports today that the jury has delivered their verdict in the Clive Cussler SAHARA case. They’ve awarded the author $5 million in damages and ruled that the producers have to pay him $8.5 million for the rights to the second book that they’d originally licensed to film…but that now won’t ever be shot. The jury decided that Cussler is owed the film rights back because, under the terms of his contract,  principal
photography on SAHARA did not start on time.

On the other hand, the jury also determined that Cussler falsely and intentionally miss-represented the sales figures of his books, which means the Judge could throw out the jury’s award for the additional fee for the second book. The Judge will schedule a hearing to deal with that issue.

Naturally, both sides are claiming victory.

"We’re $3.5 million ahead and Clive got his rights back," said
veteran showbiz litigator Bert Fields, who represented Cussler. Fields
added that because of the jury’s finding that Cussler intentionally
misrepresented book sales, he would not rule out an appeal.

Putnam
maintained that Crusader was vindicated because of the findings of
Cussler’s intentional misconduct and the fact that the only damages
definitely awarded at this point were the $5 million to Crusader.

"We
consider it a great victory," Putnam said. He added that the disparity
between the findings of misrepresentation and the damages would make
him consider an appeal, particularly if the court finds Cussler is owed
for the second book.

Cussler, 75, said he was pleased with the verdict but wasn’t ready to gamble again on turning one of his many books into a film.

"There won’t be another Clive Cussler film, at least not during my lifetime," he said.

I’ve Sold 150 Million Copies of My Books

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Saharabk Okay, maybe I haven’t. But according to Clive Cussler, the number doesn’t matter anyway.

Cussler is on the witness stand here in L.A. in a clash of lawsuits over the failure of the movie SAHARA, based on one of his Dirk Pitt novels. He claims the movie-makers breached a contract that gave him total control over the script.  Based on accounts I’ve read of the producer’s testimony, it seems to me that he’s right.

The producers claim he fraudulently inflated the number of books he sold to get more money out of them for the movie rights. Based on Cussler’s testimony, reported today in the L.A. Times, it seems to me that they are probably right, too.

On Friday, Cussler offered myriad explanations for his accounting of the "Sahara" numbers. Asked if he pulled the numbers out of thin air, Cussler said, "Pretty much." He added: "I honestly thought I probably did sell 100 million books. That doesn’t seem out of the ordinary to me."

[…]Cussler previously testified in a deposition that his agent admonished him in the late 1990s never to say how many books he sold because the amount was not known. Instead, Cussler said, he was advised to use the phrase "books in print."

Asked why he continued to use the 100 million estimate anyway, Cussler testified on Friday, "I slipped up…. I forgot."

[…]In June 1999, Cussler described his frustration with the entertainment industry in a handwritten letter. "Over a hundred million books sold worldwide now, and still Hollywood doesn’t get it," he wrote.

In August 2000, Cussler’s website stated that he had sold more than 100 million books. The number was updated to 125 million in April 2003. That same month, Cussler said on a "Sahara" promotional video, "They tell me now they’ve sold over 130 million."

The remark "meant nothing," Cussler testified Friday.

The actual sales of his books from 1973-2000, according to an audit by a forensic accountant, is about 42 million copes. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s a pretty impressive number of books. You’d think Cussler would have been happy trumping that figure…without having to inflate it to 130 million. Then again, according to Cussler, it means nothing. If that’s so, why does he keep jacking up the number?

The reporting on the trial over the last few weeks has been fascinating and informative reading. We’re learning just how much people unapologetically and blatantly lie to each other in the movie business (as if we didn’t know already). We were also treated to a line-by-line dissection of the movie’s budget, right down to how much was spent on bribes.

As far as I’m concerned, both parties are at fault here. The only winners are the public, who are being treated to a trial that’s a lot more entertaining than SAHARA was.

Dueling Marlowes

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Last week, ABC announced they were "updating" Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe as the basis for a possible TV series set in present-day Los Angeles. Now Universal Pictures has announced  that they are developing a new Marlowe movie, a period-piece that will star Brit Clive Owen.

Strike has made a deal with Phil Clymer at U.K.-based Chorion to get
rights to a Chandler mystery series that includes "The Big Sleep" and
"Farewell My Lovely." Strike’s Marc Abraham and Eric Newman will
produce the film, with Owen exec producing. The project is in a nascent
stage — they are courting writers and filmmakers — and they haven’t
decided which title to adapt.

But they sparked to having Owen
narrate the dramas in Chandler’s testosterone-laced prose, something
Owen did well in "Sin City." The plan is to keep the noir spirit of the
Chandler books, and keep the mysteries set in the 1940s in Los Angeles,
with Marlowe continuing to be the hard-drinking, wisecracking gumshoe.

The irony is that the last Marlowe movie starred Robert Mitchum and was set in London. This is sort of the reverse of what Universal has in mind this time.  What I don’t understand is how it’s possible for these dueling projects to exist…has Marlowe slipped into the public domain? If not, there’s probably a very interesting (and very complicated) rights story behind this…

Half-A-Billion Bond

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Nikki Finke reports that CASINO ROYALE has become the biggest grossing Bond film ever, earning more than half-a-billion dollars worldwide ($100 million more than DIE ANOTHER DAY, the previous record holder).

As of Sunday, the new Bond’s estimate is $553.3 mil globally  (int’l $390.7 mil and domestic $162.5 mil). The studio expects Casino Royale to end up with as much as $575 mil theatrically worldwide.

I wonder how all those irate fans (the 007 equivalent of the Colonial Fan Force) who spent months whining all over the web about "the blond Bond," castigating Daniel Craig’s performance (sight unseen), and delighting in his on-set injuries (he broke some teeth in a fight scene) are dealing with this news. 

Novel Twists

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Variety reports that The Weinstein Company has drafted mystery novelists Terrill Lee Lankford and Michael Connelly to script the feature film version of the TV series THE EQUALIZER, to be directed by  Paul McGuigan.

Connelly acknowledged in a statement that "times have certainly changed
since the days of the television show" but said he and his co-scribe
"plan to build a character that is of these times but to also keep the
heart and soul of the show intact."

It’s highly unusual for studios to turn to novelists to adapt anything, especially something as tricky as turning a TV series into a feature film…so this is a big deal. Lee and Michael must have made a hell of a pitch and knowing them as I do, you can bet it’s going to be a great script.

Meanwhile, ABC has greenlit production on MARLOWE, a pilot that’s a "contemporary update" of Raymond Chandler’s classic LA private eye. Greg Pruss and Carol
Wolper are writing and producing (Anyone remember the last "update" of Marlowe starring Robert Mitchum…and set in London!?)

Kiss Up Television

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According to a column today in the New York Times, all the CBS dramas share an unusual similarity:

They showcase an omniscient, workaholic and male boss on the dark
side of 50 who is surrounded by young, eager-to-please acolytes.

The template is so unvarying that Bill Carter of The New York Times and
other television writers subscribe to a man-in-the-Moonves theory of
programming: Leslie Moonves,
the 57-year-old chief executive of CBS, has an Ozymandian hold on his
network that ensures that its top shows pay subliminal homage to his
leadership.

(Thanks to Paul Levine for the heads-up)

AMC Taken Prisoner

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Variety reports that AMC will air six episodes of the UK’s new TV version of the 60s cult classic THE PRISONER…which is not to be confused with the movie verison being done at Universal by director Christopher Nolan  from a script by Janet & David Peoples. Universal has the film rights to the Patrick McGoohan series while Granada has the TV rights.  The series, which will be written by Bill Gallagher, will begin production in the Spring and will debut here and in the UK in January 2008.

AMC
execs were tightlipped regarding details of the updated version but
said it will similarly involve themes of paranoia and deal with
sociopolitical issues. What the new show won’t be is an exact replica of the original.

"The
show isn’t just a re-creation," said Rob Sorcher, AMC exec veep of
programming and production. "What we’re doing is an entirely new
reinterpretation that stays true to the components of the McGoohan
(show)’s vision."

The new series will revolve around a man who awakes in the Village with no
memory of how he arrived. Episodes will follow how he tries to make
sense of his new environment, in which inhabitants are under constant
surveillance, identified by number and sans any recollection of how
they got to the island.

Psychedelic Dorothy

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Variety is full of interesting movies-to-TV series  and TV series -to-movies news today.

First off comes word that NBC is developing a TV series version of the movie THANK YOU FOR SMOKING, which was based on the Christopher Buckley novel of the same name about a lobbyist for the tobacco industry.

Peacock version of "Smoking" is being developed as a single-camera
laffer focusing on Nick Naylor, the superstar spin doctor who, as
played by Aaron Eckhart in the movie, did PR for big tobacco. TV take
will pick up where the feature left off, with Naylor running his own
firm.

The SciFi Channel is doing a new, six-hour mini-series version of THE WIZARD OF OZ, only this time as a dark, science fiction tale called TIN MAN from writers Steve Mitchell & Craig Van Sickle (THE PRETENDER), with whom I worked long ago on the Cannell series COBRA.

"Our goal is to take ‘Wizard of Oz’ to the next level and make it
relevant, modern and fresh to a new generation," said Dave Howe,
general manager of Sci Fi Channel. The producer is Robert Halmi’s RHI
Entertainment, which produced a previous mini for Sci Fi, the 2004
"Legend of Earthsea."

[…]Using adjectives such as psychedelic, twisted and bizarre to describe
"Tin Man," Sci Fi said the mini turns Dorothy into a young woman named
DG, who finds herself plunged into a netherworld called the Outer Zone.
Other celebrated characters are reimagined in "Tin Man": the cowardly
lion as a wolverine-like creature without backbone, the wicked witch as
a sorceress called Azkadellia and the wizard as a larger-than-life
figure called the Mystic Man.

And, finally, Steve Carell is on board as Maxwell Smart and Anne Hathaway has signed on as Agent 99 in Warner Bros’ big-screen version of GET SMART, which Peter Segal will direct in March.