#1 New York Times Bestselling Author & TV Producer
Emmy-winning writer-producer Ken Levine talks today about the time a cat held him up for a higher salary.
I said as much as we too loved working with Charlie and greatly admired
his many talents, I would hate to stand in the way of his feature
career so I passed on his offer.Unbelievably, we somehow managed to find another gray cat that could sit in a chair.
Bill Crider has put together a slide-show of Harry Whittington’s wonderfully lurid paperback covers. Don’t be fooled by the covers, though — the books aren’t trash. Whittington is one of the best noir writers ever.
It seems like everybody is apologizing lately for not keeping up their blogs. Author Duane Swierczynski, for instance, blames the book he’s working on and Tess Gerritsen blames the beautiful Maine weather. Me, I’m just brain dead. I finished my 8th DIAGNOSIS MURDER novel last week and it feels lke my brain has been wrung out and left dry of any ideas, even for a blog post. So, in lieu of coming up with anything clever for my blog today, I’ll steal some cleverness from others.
My brother Tod found a novel way of dealing with some hate mail, Ken Levine has some good advice for industry outsiders with pilot ideas, and it’s nice to see one of my favorite authors, Daniel Woodrell, is finally getting some attention (my friend Denise Hamilton also gave his latest book a rave in Sunday’s LA Times Book Review).
Variety reports that the web is becoming a haven for busted TV pilots:
In recent weeks, at least four failed pilots
from the 2005-06 development season have ended up online on services
such as YouTube and Break.com. Inspired by the saga of "Nobody’s
Watching" — the year-old WB pilot that found new life after popping up
on YouTube (Daily Variety, July 21) — interested parties seem intent on getting their work out to viewers, one way or another.That
has sent studios scrambling, forcing them to quickly decide whether to
let the shows live online, where they might build a cult following, or
ask the services to yank them. For the most part, studios seem to be
choosing the latter option.
While the studios pretend that these pilots "mysteriously" show up on the net, and that their lawyers are furious about it, they almost always give up the act (or at least delay taking action) after the pilots begin getting some buzz and wracking up hits.
Studio insiders warn that producers or talent who leak pilots could face penalties.
But
it seems unlikely studios will risk alienating creators, especially
since most pilots simply die after they’re rejected by networks. If
anything, having consumers respond positively to a show rejected by a
network only serves to validate the studio’s decision to take a risk on
a project.And while "Nobody’s Watching" has generated much hype
for its YouTube resurrection, it’s hardly the first pilot to find a
life on the service.Conan O’Brien and Robert Smigel’s cult
classic "Lookwell" has been seen more than 50,000 times, while
"Awesometown" — the Fox sketch comedy pilot starring "Saturday Night
Live’s" Andy Samberg — has been streamed over 225,000 times.
Robert B. Parker has launched his own Amazon blog. His most recent post is full of interesting TV & movie news:
In October will come Hundred Dollar Baby
(Spenser), in the Spring will appear a Young Adult novel called The
Edenville Owls (my first try at this), and in the fall of 07 will come
Jesse Stone again (High Profile). We start shooting the next Jesse
Stone movie, Seachase (Tom Selleck as Jesse), this October, and it
will be on CBS sometime during the 06/07 season. When I know, I’ll tell
you. Incidentally I think Tom has absolutely nailed the role. Ed Harris
is developing my western novel, Appaloosa for a feature film. He plans
to star (as Virgil Cole) and to direct. So far he has Viggo Mortenson
attached (Everett Hitch) and Diane Lane (Allie). I’m very pleased with
the casting choices, and have a lot of confidence that Harris will get
the movie made (as you may know, most movies don’t get made). He should
be wonderful in the role. I’ve seen the script and it seems flawless.
Stay tuned.
Three more bloggers have given MR. MONK GOES TO HAWAII kudos. Gerald So says:
Mr, Monk Goes to Hawaii is an
ideal summer read, a rambling tale to match an exotic setting. Several
side mysteries show Monk’s quirks as seen by the more practical
Natalie, yet Goldberg keeps a confident hand on the story, eventually
putting every strand in place just as Monk and his fans would have it.
Meanwhile, the folks over at MyShelf enjoy seeing things from Natalie’s POV:
Natalie’s point of view provides an unexpected and delightful twist. Goldberg nails Monk’s intriguing and complex character. Natalie and Monk’s interactions are laugh-out-loud funny. Find
Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii and take a humorous trip through murder and deceit!
Cynthia Clark at Future Mystery Magazine says:
You don’t have to be a fan of MONK or to have ever watched an episode
on television to enjoy this fast paced, witty, quirky, yet charming suspense.
Mr. Goldberg has once again captured the nuances and idiosyncrasies of
Mr. Monk and of OC (obsessive compulsive) sufferers. Mr. Goldberg makes
us laugh as he takes us on Monk’s wild Hawaiian ride solving numerous
crimes. Only Monk could find a paradise like Hawaii to be a health risk,
and barbaric — roasting a pig in the ground? Mr. Goldberg gives us just
enough clues to let us be MONK if we dare….I read this book in one sitting
and loved every moment of it. I felt the tug of heart strings with Mitch
and Trudy. I laughed, I was sad, I plotted who done it, but mostly, I
loved it! An excellent escape, a great read.
Variety reports that Kevin Smith is out and SCRUBS showrunner Bill Lawrence is in to write and direct a movie version of FLETCH WON, from the novel by Gregory McDonald. FLETCH WON is a prequel to the original FLETCH novel, which was adapted in 1985 as a lousy Chevy Chase movie and inspired a even worse sequel film, FLETCH LIVES.
Variety reports that Christian Bale is returning to play Batman in THE DARK KNIGHT, which will feature Heath Ledger as The Joker (quite a turn from Jack Nicholson). Christopher Nolan will direct the movie, which will be written by his brother Jonah (from a story by David Goyer and Christopher Nolan). The movie is already set for release in May 2008, up against the so-far-untitled 22nd Bond movie and IRON MAN.
Ken Levine writes today about the worst script he and his partner ever wrote.
In 1993 my writing partner, David Isaacs and I did a short run series
for CBS called BIG WAVE DAVE’S starring Adam Arkin and David Morse. It
ran that summer, got 19 shares, kept 100% of MURPHY BROWN’S audience
and was cancelled. At the time CBS had starring vehicles in the wings
for Peter Scolari, Bronson Pinchot, and the always hilarious Faye
Dunaway so they didn’t need us.We were given a production order
of six with three back-up scripts. We assigned the first two back-ups
to our staff and planned on writing the third ourselves. When the show
was cancelled we put in to CBS to get paid for the additional scripts.
They said fine, but we had to turn in the completed scripts. Gulp!
Bill Rabkin and I had almost the exact same experience on SEAQUEST. We’d already turned in the outline for for episode 14 when we got cancelled. But in order to get paid for the teleplay, we had to write it. We did it in one day, while we were packing up our office. I still live in fear that some sf fan will stumble on a bootleg draft at a scifi convention, post it on the net, and people will think we actually write that bad. I’m in Germany now, or I’d post an excerpt. I’ll try to remember to do it when I return.
Variety reports that DreamWorks Pictures is developing a feature film version of my friend Thomas Perry’s novel NIGHT LIFE, which will be written by Ehren Kruger (THE RING) and produced by Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci (ALIAS, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 3). The book is about a female serial killer who changes her identity after every murder and is pursued by a female detective.
In other book-to-film news, Ed Conlon’s book BLUE BLOOD is the basis for a new Fox TV pilot, to be written by Neil Tolkin and directed by Brett Ratner. The proposed series will be about a Harvard grad who becomes a rookie NYPD police officer.