TV News Thread

[Johnny Unusual]

This is basically in the same vein as Gandolfo's Movie news thread.  Basically a catchall for TV news that doesn't quite fit anywhere and isn't really big enough to have it's own thread.  I started it because I saw this and nearly wet myself.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/showtime-developing-adaptation-of-100-bullets,57836/

I'm a major fan of 100 Bullets and for a long time felt that it would make a fine TV show.  Though I felt the comic ended perfectly (which I won't spoil here), I could easily see the show taking it in another direction.  And since every chapter had me rethinking what every character's grand designs are, I think it's open to a new take.  That said, I certainly wouldn't mind if it was scene per scene the same, simply because while I like David Goyer, dialogue isn't always his strong suit and dialogue is the strong suit of the comic.  I realized that the way language is used in the comic is often the way humour is used in Arrested Development: it plays with it and has fun with it, but usually does something surprisingly intricate with it.  Yes, the dialogue is pretty crazy and over-the-top but it can be surprisingly subtle and it works for that world.

For those not in the know, the basic premise is that a man called Agent Graves (we don't find out what he's an agent of until later) gives people an attache briefcase with 100 bullets (untraceable), a gun, the promise of carte blanche to murder (as long as whatever you did was done with the gun) and irrefutable evidence that they have been horribly wronged.  What is done is up to the person who has the weapon.  It starts off like an anthology, but soon it becomes apparent that each story fits into a much larger tapestry.

Also, this comic has some awesome friggin' covers.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[D.B. Barnes]

That sounds pretty damn cool. And being on Showtime is a major point in its favor.

This caught my eye a while back:

Person of Interest

J.J. Abrams keeps another LOST actor employed! Stars Michael Emerson and Jesus. The pilot was written by Jonathan Nolan, who also created the show and executive produces. I have pretty high expectations given the amount of talent involved. Definitely worth checking out.

Person of Interest is an American television series starring Michael Emerson, Jim Caviezel and Taraji P. Henson. Bad Robot Productions produces the show, which is based on a screenplay by J.J. Abrams and Jonathan Nolan. Abrams, Bryan Burk, Nolan, and Greg Plageman are the executive producers for Warner Bros. Television. The series was officially picked up by CBS on May 13, 2011, and is slated to air on Thursday, 9/8 Central, in the Fall.

Mr. Finch (Michael Emerson) is a mysterious billionaire who has developed a computer program that predicts future crime victims. Finch hires Reese (Jim Caviezel), a former CIA agent presumed to be dead, to help stop those crimes, using Finch's resources and tech savvy and Reese's skills and knowledge.

According to CBS, Person of Interest received the highest test ratings of any drama pilot in 15 years, what one CBS executive called "crazy broad appeal you don’t usually see." The ratings prompted CBS to move CSI, which had occupied that slot for over 10 years, to Wednesday 10/9c to make room for Person of Interest.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1839578/

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/bCM14jNOYcQ?version=3&amp;amp;hl=en_US" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/bCM14jNOYcQ?version=3&amp;amp;hl=en_US</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/gV1vPuVRyGg?version=3&amp;amp;hl=en_US" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/gV1vPuVRyGg?version=3&amp;amp;hl=en_US</a>

[Doctor Who?]

It sounds interesting but since it is on CBS I give it about five weeks before the network turns it into just another versions CSI,that and Two and a half men are the only shows CBS knows how to make.  After all CBS stands for CSI Broadcasting System,mark my words this just going to be another show about people punching buttons on a computer to track killers with DNA.

[k1]

Heh. I just read that CBS is considering pulling the plug on 1 (and possibly 2) of the CSI shows.

[Doctor Who?]

Heh. I just read that CBS is considering pulling the plug on 1 (and possibly 2) of the CSI shows.

I would stand and cheer if they did that(really the first CSI used to be good but they have just been so lazy since the spin offs and shows like Numbers and Five-0 can along and just rehashed what you see on CSI every week),but i don't think they will ever do it.  CSI is CBS's Law and order,they would not have a network with out that show and it's spin offs to film time five nights a week.

[Johnny Unusual]

I'm really looking forward to the CSI series that opens with "Mama's Got a Squeeze Box."

[Tripe]

I'm really looking forward to the CSI series that opens with "Mama's Got a Squeeze Box."

CSI: New Orleans?

[D.B. Barnes]

Jason Patric Set To Star In FX's 'Powers'

Jason Patric has been tapped as the male lead in the FX drama pilot Powers. Based on the graphic novel by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming, the project, written by Charles H. Eglee and to be directed by Michael Dinner, is a police procedural set in a world where superpowers are relatively common. It centers on two detectives, Christian Walker (Patric) and Deena Pilgrim (Lucy Punch), in a Homicide department that deals with cases involving "powers" (people with superpowers). Eglee, Dinner, David Engel and Bendis are executive producing for Sony Pictures TV and FX Prods. Filming is slated for mid-summer in Chicago. If Powers goes to series, it will mark Patric's first regular series gig. Last year, he co-starred in the HBO comedy pilot Tilda. In features, Patric, repped by ICM and Untitled, was most recently seen in The Losers.

[Johnny Unusual]

I wonder if it's going to have the same feel as the comic.  It's a good series, but it is a bummer quite often.  Not a lot of happy endings.

[D.B. Barnes]

I wonder if it's going to have the same feel as the comic.  It's a good series, but it is a bummer quite often.  Not a lot of happy endings.

I hope it has the same feel. TV needs more happy endings like Jocelyn Wildenstein needs more plastic surgery.


Ricky Gervais' New BBC Series 'Life's Too Short' To Air On HBO In 2012

Ricky Gervais' latest mockumentary sitcom "Life's Too Short" is set to debut on HBO in 2012, the network announced Wednesday (June 22). The new series -- starring "The Office" co-creator Stephen Merchant and Warwick Davis of "Harry Potter" fame -- will first premiere on BBC Two in the UK later this year. Davis will play a fictionalized version of himself in the single-camera comedy, which follows a fame-hungry "showbiz dwarf" who runs a talent agency for little people, but ends up taking the best roles for himself. Davis' character is taking part in the documentary as a way to scrape his way back into the spotlight and to help pay off a looming tax bill. The 3'6" British actor is best known for his roles in "Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi," "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," "Willow" and all six "Leprechaun" movies. He also plays Filius Flitwick in the "Harry Potter" films.

Gervais describes the show as a cross between "The Office" and Hollywood comedy "Extras," which also aired on HBO. Like "Extras," each episode will feature a celebrity cameo appearance. Steve Carell, Johnny Depp, Jerry Seinfeld and Sting are set to guest star during the first season, which is comprised of seven episodes.

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, who are also writing and executive producing "Life's Too Short," will only appear in minor roles as themselves and will not be featured in front of the camera as much as they were in "Extras.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/136-RUjvkLU?version=3&amp;amp;hl=en_US" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/136-RUjvkLU?version=3&amp;amp;hl=en_US</a>

 

[D.B. Barnes]

Aaron Sorkin and John Krasinski Team Up for HBO Chateau Marmont Mini-Series

Aaron Sorkin and John Krasinski are going into the hotel business together. In a manner of speaking. The "Office" star and the "Social Network" scribe are teaming up to develop a miniseries for HBO about famed Hollywood hotel/hot spot Chateau Marmont, the pay cable outlet confirms to TheWrap. A favorite haunt among fun-loving celebrities, the Chateau has served as the site of John Belushi's death and, more recently, Lindsay Lohan's late-night shenanigans.

Krasinski and Sorkin will co-executive produce, with Krasinski, a habitue of the Marmont, also expected to take an acting role in the project. Based on the 1987 book "Life at the Marmont" by former co-owner Raymond R. Sarlot with Fred E. Basten, the miniseries will tell interconnected stories about Marmont patrons over several generations. The miniseries, which is in early development, is currently untitled. Sorkin is also developing a pilot, tentatively titled "More as the Story Develops," starring Jeff Daniels, Olivia Munn and Sam Waterston, for HBO.

Sorkin = Good (at least in my book it does)

[Johnny Unusual]

Another period piece:  Vinyl

Showtime has purchased the spec script Vinyl, a potential drama series that takes place in the music industry during the A.M. golden days of the 1970s, when the record business was all grooves and easy breezy feelings, instead of ringtones and suicidal thoughts. Written by My Own Worst Enemy’s Jason Smilovic and Tod Katzberg, and with Barry Levinson potentially attached to direct, the show is loosely based on the experiences of executive producers Barry Grieff and Andy Meyer, who worked for A&M Records in the thick of the decade, churning out albums by the likes of Carole King, Supertramp, Styx, and Peter Frampton, and probably doing lots of awesome drugs in the process.

And indeed, the series would delve into some of those sleazier corners, promising to “explore every aspect of the music business through multiple vantage points—from the record executives and rock stars to the drug pushers and the prostitutes, from the stage to the boardroom to the DJ booth.” Hey, what about the bedroom? We’re guessing there’s also a bedroom, or this wouldn't be on Showtime. Anyway, if it gets picked up, Vinyl could end up being a pay-cable rival to HBO’s own in-development music industry saga, its adaptation of A Visit From The Goon Squad. But only one of these will have funny clothes.

[D.B. Barnes]

New 'Tales From The Crypt' Series In Works

EXCLUSIVE: Fifteen years after horror anthology Tales from the Crypt ended its seven-year-run on HBO, a new TV series based on the popular and controversial 1950s EC Comics anthology is in the works with Gil Adler, producer on the HBO Crypt series, and Andrew Cosby, co-creator of Syfy hit Eureka and co-founder of comic book publisher BOOM! Studios. The new hourlong series will neither be anthological nor related to the HBO show. "It will be an ongoing series that uses characters from the comic books in a more modern context," Cosby said. "It's all about continually elevating the genre, for both existing fans of the source material and mainstream audiences." Cosby and Adler first started discussing reviving the franchise on TV and then approached Joel Eisenberg, whose company with Timothy Owens EMO Films had partnered with William M. Gaines Agent, Inc., the rightsholder of all EC-related properties, which is run by he late Crypt creator Gaines' daughter Cathy Gaines Mifsud, to exploit those properties. After a lengthy legal process to make sure that all rights have been properly secured, the TV series project is now moving forward with William M. Gaines Agent and EMO on board. Producing are Adler, Cosby and Steven Sawalich of Articulus Entertainment. Eisenberg will executive produce, while William Gaines' grandson Corey Mifsud will be credited as associate producer.

A detailed pitch and a bible for the new Crypt series have been completed, with producers expected to take the project out shortly. It will be pitched to broadcast networks as part of the current development cycle as well as to cable outlets. (There had been some rumblings about potential interest from HBO sister channel Cinemax, which has returned to original programming.) The producers are considering both a traditional network model and non-traditional route for the project, including fully financing the series, probably as an international co-production, before taking it to U.S. nets.

This could be cool. I hope it gets picked up by a premium channel so there can be lots of potty mouth and naughty bits.

[Johnny Unusual]

Ooh, I love EC comics, so I'm really hopeful for this.  Let's hope that they bring John Kashir and his hideous puppet back.

[D.B. Barnes]

Excellent news all around! 

FX Renews 'Wilfred', 'Louie' & 'Sunny', Inks $50 Million Deal With 'Sunny' Creators

FX has renewed three comedy series. Elijah Wood starrer Wilfred, which has become the highest-rated first-season comedy on the network with a cumulative 5 million viewers a week, has been picked up a second season of 13 episodes. Louie, which just landed an Emmy nomination for star Louis CK and has averaged 3 million viewers a week, has been renewed for a third season of 13 episodes. Meanwhile, veteran It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia has been renewed for two more seasons -- Seasons 8 and 9 -- to become the longest-running live-action comedy on basic cable. The network also has an option for a 10th season, FX president John Landgraf said, adding that the show seems to have gotten a second wind in Season 7. Additionally, FX Prods. has signed a three-year exclusive deal with RCG, the production company of Sunny masterminds Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day and Glenn Howerton. I hear the deal is worth $40 million-$50 million for all services. "With Sunny, FX and FX Prods. and RCG reinvented the production model for television comedies," Landgraf said. "In embracing a low‑cost production model and taking less money upfront, Rob, Glenn, and Charlie were afforded more creative freedom, a true financial partnership, and less pressure on ratings so there was time to let the show find an audience. Sunny not only became a hit, but the cornerstone of FX's successful comedy brand, establishing a production model that has become favored by many in the creative community and has led to Archer, Louie, The League and Wilfred." In addition to Sunny, RCG is involved in the new CBS comedy series How To Be a Gentleman, created by and starring Sunny player David Hornsby, and has two comedy projects in the works: Fox's Living Loaded and FX's animated Townies.