Film and Television

Fast Track Pre-Sales

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FAST TRACK isn’t finished yet but we’ve already scored a few advance sales. Here’s the news from World Screen International.

BERLIN/LOS ANGELES, June 18: …and action! Distribution has sold the English-language action drama Fast Track: No Limits, co-produced by Action Image and ProSieben in Germany, to France’s M6, Japan’s Comstock Group and China’s Beijing Time Entertainment.

Fast Track: No Limits is the first English-language action drama shot in Germany. Set in the world of urban street racing, Fast Track: No Limits is a story of a group of characters that include a rookie cop, a trophy wife, a fugitive getaway driver, and a young female mechanic, who believe that car racing in abandoned industrial areas is the only way to know that they’re alive. Fast Track: No Limits was written and executive produced by the award-winning American showrunner Lee Goldberg.

"M6 is an excellent partner and the perfect channel as it fits exactly with the target audience for Fast Track: No Limits," commented Gavin Reardon, the president of …and action! Distribution. “We are also delighted with our sales to the Comstock Group and Beijing Time Entertainment, especially given the success of automotive-oriented action programming in Asia.”

Flop Playhouse

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Ken Levine fondly remembers the good old days when the networks would burn off their busted pilots during the summer, either sneaking them on unannounced  or as episodes of anthologies with names like "Comedy Theatre" and "CBS Summer Playhouse."  I miss those shows, too. It was those stealth airings of scrapped programs that sparked my love affair with busted pilots when I was a kid and ultimately resulted in my book UNSOLD TELEVISION PILOTS.

Seeing the pilots was a remarkable opportunity to second-guess network programmers and to try to understand their thinking when they crafted their schedules. Most of the time, there was a good reason the pilots didn’t sell…but every now and then, I’d catch a terrific show and feel cheated that it wasn’t picked up.

Watching those flop pilots was  fascinating and a highlight of my summers. I looked forward to it all year (though flop pilots occasionally aired during the regular season, too, usually as TV movies or, near May, as episodes  of existing series).  I used to tape them all on audio cassette (yes, I am a geek) and once video came along, I recorded them all on VHS. Those tapes became the basis for two network specials that I produced — THE GREATEST SHOWS YOU NEVER SAW for CBS and THE BEST SHOWS THAT  NEVER WERE for ABC. Over the last year, I’ve transferred that collection to DVD.

These days, busted pilots are never aired and it’s getting harder and harder even for TV insiders like yours truly to get their hands on screeners. And when you do get one, it feels like you are being slipped stolen property. 

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All Together Now

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Fast_track_day_thirteen_004_5 My family arrived  in Berlin on Thursday and my daughter couldn’t wait to get to the set. She’s made herself right at home, as you can see in the picture.  So far, the response from the studio and the network to the dailies has been very enthusiastic, so I’m optimistic about our chances  to go to series. We wrap production on the pilot at the end of next week, and then I go off to France on vacation before returning to Germany in mid-July to do my cut. After that, I head off  to Lohr for five days to teach another Writer’s Room class  with a major American showrunner (whose name I will  share once  things have been firmed up) and then it’s off  to Munich to present the final cut of the pilot to the network in early August.  But now that my family is here, I’m not in such a big hurry to get back home…

The one thing I am missing is the chance  to go out and promote the hardcover release of MR. MONK AND THE TWO ASSISTANTS. If I wasn’t shooting FAST TRACK, I would have arranged full a schedule of booksignings in July & August.  But I still have MONK work to do… I have to start writinng my outline for my sixth novel.

Eight Shooting Days Left

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_sth8342 We wrapped our tenth day of shooting at about 11:30 on Sunday night, right on schedule. So far, the production has gone very smoothly and we’ve only had to push two scenes to later in the shoot. That’s not to say we haven’t our little crises (an actor dropped out due to illness two days before shooting, one of our cars wasn’t delivered on time, etc.), but overall it has been a pleasure. The dailies are terrific and both the studio and network are very, very pleased…so I’m a  happy man.

Mondays and Tuesdays are our weekends, so after we wrapped on Sunday, half of the crew — including most of the cast, the director, the a.d., the second unit team, the line producer, and myself — went to a bar in Prenzlauer Berg and had an in impromptu little party. I stayed until 4:30 a.m.  but just about everyone else stayed until 6:30 in the morning. I haven’t stayed up that late in a bar since  college (but then, as now, I was drinking only water or Diet Coke). I don’t know if this show is going to rejuvenate me or kill me…but I had a great time. This has got to be the nicest group of people I’ve ever worked with. Not a single jerk in the bunch.

I spent the day… or what was  left of it… on Monday doing domestic chores like laundry, groceryLogo_fast_track_color_2_2  shopping,  and getting my hair cut before meeting the cast in my room in the evening to show them the dailies and share the good feedback from the studio and network. Afterwards, I went on my own for dinner to a tiny little Italian restaurant and then took a long walk, finally winding up back home around 1 a.m.

Today played tourist, visiting the  Berlin Wall museum at Bernauer Strasse, then heading out to Lake Wannsee for a drive and a long walk. Tonight I got together again with the cast for dinner and nice walk through Mitte.

Tomorrow we start shooting again. This is going to be a big  week for me. On Thursday, my family finally arrives…and not a moment too soon. Two months is way too long  for me to be away from them. It hurts too much. I can’t wait to have my daughter on the set with me on Friday!

(The photo on the upper left is me with  two of our stars, Andrew Walker and Alexia Barlier, with Soccx, who perform one of their songs, "Scream Out Loud," in a sequence in FAST TRACK: NO LIMITS. On the upper right is one version of our new, improved  logo. You can click on the images for larger views).

What It’s Like

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339_chair Writer/producer Lisa Klink has launched a new blog about breaking  into television and how to stay in once you’ve done it:

There are already plenty of books, websites and blogs about TV writing. So why read this particular blog? If you’re like I was when I was trying to break into TV, you’re an advice junkie, seeking as much guidance as possible from as many sources as you can. I’m hoping you’ll find it useful to hear from someone who’s currently working in the business – not at the top, not at the very beginning, but somewhere in the middle of her career.

It doesn’t matter where you are in the business, Lisa’s blog is sure to be a fun and fascinating read.

Fast Track Day Seven

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Today was our seventh day of shooting and it was spent in an empty building that’s doubling as our police station set. This was our first day without any action or driving sequences, just pure dialogue scenes in a clean, interior location (as opposed to warehouses). And in comparison to the previous six days of production, it almost felt  like a vacation, though we had to cram a lot of scenes into 11 1/2 hours of work. The crew is exhausted  and so am I, but their enthusiasm hasn’t waned. Everyone seems to have a smile on their face…between yawns! It’s 1 a.m. but I still have  work to do. For one thing, I have to sort through 511 publicity shots and pick my favorites…   

Beauty Shot

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Lee_on_set Today we shot near one of Berlin’s most popular landmarks…but you won’t see it in our movie. We’ve been careful NOT to include the landmarks you’d see in a tourist’s home movies. We’re shooting the modern city of Berlin, the exciting  architectural mix of old and new…but staying away from things like Brandenburg Gate, etc.It was the perfect day for location shooting and we got some terrific footage. (You can click on the photo for a larger image).

Hollywood, Berlin

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We wrapped our fifth day of shooting at about 1:30 Monday morning and it was  past 3 am by the time I got back to my hotel. I woke up at about 11 am and spent a couple of hours doing laundry in the basement of my hotel, where I also ran into one of our actors and several crew members from SPEED RACER, which is also shooting in Berlin. Ah, the glamor.

After the excitement of washing my underwear and buying groceries, I went to a cafe and met Ute,  the leader of the German Diagnosis Murder fan club, and her adorable son Florian. We chatted for an hour or so, I signed some copies of THE LAST WORD, then hurried away to more  FAST TRACK meetings before taking a two-hour nap. I ended my day with a long dinner with a German movie director, answered what seemed like 10,000 emails, and went to bed around 2 am.

Today was supposed to be a day off, but I ended up working, of course. I started my day at 10 at the post-production facility to see dailies, which looked even better than I thought they would. I can’t believe the production value we are getting  for our Euros. The racing/stunts/action are terrific but, having seen what Action Concept’s stunt team, drivers, and second unit director Roland Busch can do, I was not surprised by that. And, of course, I thought our actors were fantastic. Am I using enough superlatives? Oh, wait, I forgot the say how awesome the fifty cars looked…I owe a big thanks to all the "tuners" who came from all over the country to share their beautifully pimped cars and SUVs with us.

After watching dailies, I spent the rest of the day on an emergency location scout with our director, line producer, assistant  director, production  designer, and construction chief because we abruptly lost previously "locked" locations thanks  to the G-8 conference. Another reason to hate Bush.

The shoot has gone remarkably well. That’s not to say we haven’t had our troubles — besides losing those locations, the weather has been schizophrenic and a supporting actor took ill with a terrible skin ailment two days before  he was supposed to shoot, which forced us to hurriedly recast  — but these things always happen on a production. You have to expect the unexpected and roll with it.

As you can probably guess, I couldn’t be happier with the movie. It’s shaping up very much like I imagined it…and where it differs, it’s for the better. The four days of rehearsals with the cast before shooting  has made a huge difference on the set and has allowed us to move very fast without sacrificing the quality of the performances. I love our young, gorgeous, and incredibly talented cast…and although I tell them I am focusing only on delivering a great movie/pilot, the truth is that I will probably be heart-broken if this doesn’t go to series.

Ah, but I am getting ahead of myself. Tomorrow at 7 am we  begin day six, shooting on the streets of Mitte, right in the heart of Berlin…and a block from my hotel. I’ve never been able to walk from my front door to the set before, so this will be a first…