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Posts tagged as “Upfronts”

Pilot Spiral

We continue in our marvelous adventures of pilot picking with ABC, who just greenlit 2 more comedy pilots.

The first, still unnamed, is from Scrubs‘ Tad Quill and centers on two friends, one who just had a baby, the other whom’s wife just left him.

The second pilot is Let It Go by Will & Grace‘s Alex Herschlag, and stars Gilmore Girls‘ Lauren Graham.
Graham plays a self-help guru telling women to move on with their lives as they get dumped, yet when her boyfriend leaves her, she doesn’t follow her own advice. Yet again, Mitch Hurwitz is exec producing this one.

CBS has also ordered 3 pilots, this time dramas, in addition to that NCIS spin-off.

The Unit‘s Frank Military brings a show about a team of federal prosecutors in Manhattan’s U.S. Attorney’s office.

Back revolves around a man reported missing for eight years after 9/11 who comes back home to his family. CSI: Miami‘s Dean Widenmann wrote the pilot.

And last but not least we have a pilot by Criminal Mind‘s Ed Bernero, Jim Clemente & Tim Clemente named Washington Field. As the title indicates, the show centers on the FBI’s Washington Field Office and its elite experts travelling around the globe and dealing with events concerning U.S.A.’s national interest.

Finally, some good news for our advertising friends. The economy’s “death spiral” is not going to affect Upfront Week. The various network presentations should be roughly the same as last year.
This is interesting seeing as last year’s presentations were already “scaled back from previous years”.
Don’t worry, no one wants to buy ad time, but we’ll keep the show going for you guys.

Cash troubles

All FOX-produced shows have been asked to cut 2% off their budget. The shows include 24, Family Guy, Life on Mars and Dollhouse.
Speaking of Dollhouse: there won’t be any webisodes contrary to what was originally planned.
Dollhouse is probably the most doomed show on TV. Ever.

THR has meanwhile announced that three TV writers (Bill Oakley, Mike Rowe, and Patric Verrone) have inked a deal with the Machinima website (based on machinima itself: digital movies made with already existing or new VG animation) to create an online series.
They will be paid upfront fees for pilot-writing and then if the pilots are successful, they will move on to become online series in themselves.
As far as I’m aware this is a first and is not at all guild-covered.
So what gives, Patric Verrone?

I saw this afternoon Seven Pounds. A pretty good movie, although I don’t see why everyone wants to compare it to The Sixth Sense and all the promo is axed around a “twist” at the end.
In my opinion there isn’t any twist in the movie, and if they call what happens at the end a twist, then I sure as hell found that one out less than 30 minutes into the movie. Therefore: crappy twist.
I highly doubt that thought of Smith’s character’s motivation as a “twist” and I am sad to see ads taunting a so-called “secret”. It just downplays the whole emotional drama that emanate from the characters. It’s not a thriller!
As for the actual movie, as I said, it was really good. Will Smith has a wonderful performance in it (he has come a long way from Prince of Bel-Air!).
Oscar nom (win?) anyone?

Also, HBO has picked up to series Hung by The Riches‘ creator Dmitry Lipkin and Colette Burson about a high-school basketball coach in financial trouble finding a way to use his best asset: his giant penis.
I think you can now guess what the title means.