Updates from the Con

I'm doing live updates from the convention. Follow me in the sidebar with my Twitter account.

It's crazy here. That sums up a lot.

Twitter now enabled

I've set up a Twitter account so I can report on the happenings at Comic-con in real time.

If you want to follow me at the site, look for 'TeelaJBrown'.

Fun begins tomorrow!

My new movieweb column

is up. Chit chat about summer tv. I also have a review of "The Bill Engvall" show up. I laughed a few times, so I will probably tune in to see if the show really finds its legs.

Academy of Television Arts & Sciences

It's Emmy Time.

'Friday Night Lights' doesn't make the cut (boo!)

But Minnie Driver of FX 'The Riches' does (really?) Connie Britton is robbed!

More thoughts later. I have to get to work.

Update: Just saw the writing categories. Wow.

The best 'Lost' episode of the year made it...and BSG gets a nom! (HUGE!)...and three Sopranos episodes. No House. No 24. No Heroes. No Friday Night Lights. No CSI (the finale was really good).

And Boston Legal gets a nom for drama this year?? I mean, it's a good show, but... *sigh*

NBC Press release - fall premiere dates and schedule changes

(I'll be creating the new watch list very soon!)

NBC SHOWCASES FALL PRIMETIME ENTERTAINMENT SERIES BEGINNING WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 24

New Drama "Chuck" Kicks Off Mondays (8-9 p.m. ET) and "Deal or No Deal" Shifts to Fridays (8-9 p.m. ET) Leading into "Friday Night Lights" (9-10 p.m. ET) Followed by "Las Vegas" (10-11 p.m. ET)

"The Biggest Loser" Expands to 90 Minutes on Tuesdays and Shares the Night with Summer Hit "The Singing Bee," New Addition to Fall Lineup

One-hour Episodes of "My Name Is Earl" (8-9 p.m. ET) and "The Office" (9-10 p.m. ET) Premiere on Thursday, September 27

BURBANK – July 16, 2007 – NBC launches its season premieres the week of September 24. The network will adjust its schedule by moving the new comedic spy thriller "Chuck" to Mondays (8-9 p.m. ET) – followed by switching the popular Monday version of "Deal or No Deal" to Fridays (8-9 p.m. ET), and shifting "Friday Night Lights" to an earlier new time of 9-10 p.m. (ET) and " Las Vegas" to 10-11 p.m. (ET).

In addition, NBC will expand "The Biggest Loser" to 90 minutes on Tuesdays (8-9:30 p.m. ET) and will have a special two-hour premiere on Tuesday, Sept. 11. Summer's newest hit, "The Singing Bee" (which premiered earlier this month), will have its Fall premiere on Tuesday, September 25 (9:30-10 p.m. ET).

NBC's premiere week will also feature one-hour episodes each of "My Name Is Earl" (8-9 p.m. ET) and "The Office" (9-10 p.m. ET) on Thursday, September 27 and a two-hour episode premiere of "Las Vegas" on Friday, September 28 (9-11 p.m. ET).

The announcements were made by Ben Silverman, Co-Chairman, NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, and Marc Graboff, Co-Chairman, NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios.

"We can't wait for the new season to begin and we believe that these programming changes will allow for a powerhouse Monday night with 'Chuck,' 'Heroes' and 'Journeyman,'" said Silverman. "On Tuesdays, the 90-minute 'The Biggest Loser' has always performed well and will fit perfectly with our new summer hit 'The Singing Bee.' On Fridays, we can hammock 'Friday Night Lights' between two proven hits – 'Deal or No Deal' and 'Las Vegas,' with new cast member Tom Selleck."

Said Graboff: "We like that we can start our season off strong with hour-long episodes of such comedy favorites as 'Earl' and 'The Office.' Coupled with the dynamo of 'Sunday Night Football,' we will have a very potent fall lineup and these schedule adjustments will only make us stronger."

All of NBC's primetime entertainment series will bow during the week of September 24 with the exception of "The Biggest Loser" (Tuesday, September 11), "30 Rock" (Thursday, October 4), "Friday Night Lights" (Friday, October 5) and "Scrubs" (Thursday, October 25).

In addition, "Deal or No Deal" will premiere on Monday, September 17 (8-9 p.m. ET) -- one final time in its previously announced day and time before moving to Fridays (8-9 p.m. ET) on September 28.

Likewise, "Friday Night Lights" was previously scheduled for Fridays (10-11 p.m. ET) and "Las Vegas" (9-10 p.m. ET) on the same night before swapping time periods.

On September 24, NBC tees up its new season on Mondays (8-9 p.m. ET) with "Chuck," a new hour-long series from executive producer Josh Schwartz ("The O.C.") and executive producer-director McG ("Charlie's Angels," "We Are Marshall"), who deliver a comedic spy thriller about Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi, "Less Than Perfect") -- a computer geek who is catapulted into a new career as the government's most vital secret agent. Then comes the much-anticipated second-season debut of "Heroes" (9-10 p.m. ET) as the epic ensemble drama centers on several ordinary people who possess extraordinary abilities.

Monday, September 24 will also serve as the premiere of the new drama "Journeyman" (10-11 p.m. ET). From Emmy Award-winning writer-producer Kevin Falls ("The West Wing") and Emmy Award-winning director-producer Alex Graves ("The West Wing"), "Journeyman" is a romantic mystery-drama about Dan Vasser (Kevin McKidd, "Rome"), a San Francisco newspaper
reporter and family man who inexplicably begins to travel through time and change people's lives.

Tuesdays mark the beginning of a new season of "The Biggest Loser" (8-10 p.m. ET) starting September 11 as the popular competitive weight-loss series boasts a few new twists. "The Singing Bee," introduced earlier this month, is hosted by Joey Fatone (*NSYNC) as it challenges contestants to not only sing a song – but compels them to sing the words
correctly. The variety-competition series will join the fall lineup on September 25.

The perennial favorite "Deal or No Deal" (8-9 p.m.) jump-starts Wednesdays beginning September 25 with host Howie Mandel, whose provocative series title question: "Deal – or no deal?" – has become a national catchphrase. The new "Bionic Woman" (9-10 p.m. ET) stars Michelle Ryan ("EastEnders") as a young woman whose life is radically altered and empowered after a car crash as it debuts on September 25. Also on the same night, the new drama "Life" (10-11 p.m. ET) features a complex police detective (Damian Lewis, "Band of Brothers") who's given a second chance on the force after serving years in prison for a crime he didn't commit.

"My Name Is Earl" (8-9 p.m. ET) and the Emmy Award-winning "The Office" (9-10 p.m. ET) will break out of the gate in a big way on Thursday, September 27 as each premieres with an hour-long episode. The 14th season debut of "ER" follows (10-11 p.m. ET).

The two-hour premiere of "Las Vegas" (9-11 p.m. ET) will follow the new Friday-night "Deal or No Deal" (8-9 p.m. ET) on September 28.

As it did during last fall, "Football Night in America" (7-8 p.m. ET) and "Sunday Night Football" (8-11 p.m. ET) will dominate on autumn Sundays.

Catching up

If it's Monday, I must be on Geekerati Radio at 7 PM PDT (in about 30 minutes from now)

Why not give us a listen? We're giving dvds away tonight! Details for tonight's show from Christian's blog Cinerati:

Have you ever wondered, "what's so special about DVD special editions?" Well the geeks at Geekerati Radio will be discussing that very question tonight at 7pm Pacific. Joining the Geeks will be film critic David Chute who will be discussing his commentary tracks on KING BOXER and ONE ARMED SWORDSMAN. Chute was joined by Quentin Tarantino in his commentary on KING BOXER.

Come and join in on the conversation, you might even walk away with a free copy of a movie.



Found out today that the short film I co-wrote with my friend Bernie for the 48 Hour Film Festival made the 'Best of L.A.' screening! If you are interested in seeing it and the other 15 films, here are the details for the screening:

"Best of Los Angeles 48HFP"
Screening and Awards Ceremony
Saturday, July 21, 8:30 p.m.
Fine Arts Theatre
8556 Wilshire Blvd.
Beverly Hills, CA 90211

Note: We've made arrangements for $2.00 parking in the basement of the
Flynt building on Wilshire and La Cienega.

Here are the Best Films of Los Angeles 2007:
"Asian Arrow 4: Back from Sheboygan" by All Together Now
"Buddy System" by Genesis Films
"Breakdown" by Tri-County Lawnbowling Association
"Chips" by Zip Quink
"Cookie De Mayo" by Cultural Detritus
"A Homecoming" by The TCS
"Life After Life" by Tickle Party
"Limbo" by Time Lapse Productions
"The Lunch" by Team Plaid
"Mickey & Mike" by Bucks Boys
"Project 96B" by Soapbox
"Serial Dating" by Wilcox Films <--- WE ROCK!! YAY US!!!
"Til Death Does His Part" by White Maria
"Trust" by Jeffrogee
"World Domination for Beginners" by Biscuits & Gravy
"Writers Do It Alone" by Rabid Manatees

I've really started work on a new pilot spec now. And the other pilot is 'out there'. More news when it happens...

Summer TV

A few really great articles about TV over at Variety today.

In particular, read this one about the embarrassment of riches in cable, but how the strategies could mean a lot of good shows ending up on the trash heap, due to too much competition in the summer. TNT, TBS and USA have always been pretty similar -- now it's downright impossible to tell the nets apart (at least for me).

Cloverfield

The viral marketing begins.

Hollywood Reporter article

More news and speculations (and links)

Keep an eye on this one...

Is Nathan a 'Desperate' Housewife, er husband?

Dana Delaney and Nathan Fillion are in talks to join the cast of "Desperate Houswives" next season.

This, by the way, may be the ONLY news which would make me watch the show. *sigh*

Save me!

I'm very concerned about a problem I've identified recently with my appearance (besides extra weight)



I'm getting Paris Hilton's lazy eye!!!



Now, I don't know what I've done in the last couple of years, but I noticed it in this picture and then went back to look at other pictures -- this condition seems to have started a couple of years ago, possibly coinciding with the release of Paris's performance in "House of Wax". Or my laser eye surgery. More likely the former.

What does this mean? Am I supposed to become a skinny, skanky blonde celebutante? I'd take the money in a heartbeat, but I'm not sure I can handle all the other requirements.

All because of a lazy eye. My days are numbered.

Blog you need to start reading

Especially if you are into TV writing. What It's Like.

48 hours of horror

Let me preface this story with, I had a great time and it was a wonderful experience (the writing and filmmaking, that is).

Having said that, this may have been one of the most stressful weekends I've ever had.

It all started with a Friday deadline...

My sister and I have over the course of the last two years been developing a tv series idea. She and I wrote the bible and mapped out the series together, and I finished the spec pilot script a few months back. The last three months or so have been spent refining and rewriting that script. Two weeks ago, we threw down the marker. We had someone interested in reading it at a management/prodco and the plan was to send it to them on Friday afternoon. We sent the script out for some last minute reads over the course of the week, just to make sure I didn't have any stupid mistakes (I did) in the draft. Then, a BIG NOTE came in. At 4:30 in the afternoon. ON FRIDAY. And I was nearly beside myself.

I had stopped being precious about the script ages ago. I had thrown my ego away and only worked on the script with the thought of making the material great and servicing the story in the best possible way. My sister and I were on the phone together, trying to decide what we should do. Do we heed the note and postpone getting the script out? Do we press on? Meanwhile, I'm less than 3 hours from starting the 48 hour film project, and thinking about this note and this script is honestly, the LAST thing I want to be doing right before I'm about to throw myself into the maelstrom.

Then, as if to ease our troubled minds, another reader emails my sister -- the script is great. She's making a call to the company we are sending it to essentially to tell them to read the darn thing because she liked it that much. Needless to say, we were relieved, and after a couple of quick fixes, the script went OUT.

I took a 45 minute nap. Then the world changed.

I drove over to my writing partner Bernie's apartment. Bernie and I have been great friends the past 2 years, and we love to meet at the cafe' across the street from where he lives to write together...that is to say, we write our own things, but sit across from each other at the table staring into space, with only a rare interruption to bounce ideas or have the other read a fresh scene. Seeing as we get on so well, he asked if I would like to co-write and co-produce a short film for the 48 hour film project. I'd never attempted anything like this before and eager to get more production experience, I accepted the invite.

On my way to Bernie's he calls me. The genre draw has begun early! I arrive, *just* as we learn what the genre for our film will be (the director was at the event site, drawing our genre at random).

Horror.

Bernie and I had thought about which genres we could write well. We are both plot fiends and logic Nazis, so we were jazzed about writing a mystery/detective story or even a western...heck, we were even up for attempting a musical. The list of genres was more or less agreeable, with the worst genres for this type of contest in the 'wild card' category. Every team is allowed a re-draw, but the re-draw occurs from this wild card grouping. Here's some of what we could have faced had we rejected our first draw:

Children's Film
Animal Film
Silent Film
Mystery
War Movie
Period/Historical Film

See Mystery stuck in the middle there? We had a 1 in 8 chance of pulling that one from the awful choices.

Okay, I hear you. You're asking 'what's wrong with horror?' Well, nothing, I suppose.

Except it is extraordinarily difficult to write a horror film and make it genuinely frightening in this kind of competition. None of us were thrilled with the prospect of writing something which, if we attempted to do it straight up serious, would come across as unintentionally comical.

So we made it macabre and intentionally comical instead.

The writing went fast, and Bernie and I were feeling really great about our story. It had a beginning, middle and end. It was a good way to approach the genre, and it would allow our musical genius to score the hell out of it. We had a draft finished in about 3 hours and we spent another couple of hours tweaking it, though we knew there would be a great deal more to tweak once we got to set in the morning.

We had two complications which could not really be avoided. One, we wrote a large amount of action to occur at night (since it is naturally creepier), which meant pushing our call time to noon. When you have so few hours to make a movie, you usually want to start as early as possible to try to finish by a decent hour. We were already handicapping our ability to run ahead of schedule by making the bulk of the work take place at night.

The other complication was even trickier. We only had one location -- the director's house -- which required very careful cast and crew around freshly painted walls and new furniture. Let's just say, our horror film ended up being somewhat bloodless, due to the location and other variables.

Saturday morning Bernie, the director and I are up early, discussing the script. We work through some conflicting opinions on the ending and smooth out the issues. Then we make a run to buy printer paper and DV tapes. I hauled my printer to set so I could continue working on the script and printing new pages throughout the day.

At least, that was the plan...

Except for some reason, I couldn't get my printer to work with my laptop. I spent an hour in the hot sun (and have the sunburn on one arm to prove it) wrestling with my laptop and my printer. Finally we got one of Bernie's laptops to work with the printer, but it was no surprise to me when later in the day our drafts got out of synch. As I made changes on my laptop, I'd copy the file to a USB jump drive and move the file to his laptop to print it. This got tedious pretty quickly.

We finally got our first shot off at 1:30 PM. Not horrible, considering call time was noon (and we had some late comers). Things seemed to be rolling along pretty smoothly.

Then, my sister phoned me.

I just woke up from a nap, she tells me, and there's water coming through our ceiling and down the walls of our living room and YOUR bedroom.

I don't swear much on my blog but... SHIT. I raced home to survey the damage. Fortunately, my sister managed to catch this problem in time to cover some of the furniture and save ourselves from major damage to our belongings. Still, water was seeping through the ceiling of our living room and dripping down the walls of my bedroom. Not exactly good.

I went back to set while plumbers and mold specialists were called (at 8 o'clock Saturday night). Verdict: broken pipe in 3rd floor wall/our ceiling. This is the third broken pipe in our building this month. The last one cost us over $20,000 in plumbing work to fix. At this point, a bake sale to cover the enormous repair bills the HOA is racking up won't quite do it. We'll need to take out a building loan to pay for repairs now.

Back on set, it's finally gotten dark, and so the major scenes are being shot. While I was gone there were some line changes I wasn't privy to, but the co-writer was so, I guess I have to be ok with that. Score one mark for wanting more creative control in the future.

We wrapped at 2:00 AM, at which time the editor was already logging tapes...

To Be Continued...

Contest deadlines looming

Austin Film Festival has already passed, but other teleplay competitions deadlines are coming up fast. A quick recap:

ABC/Disney Fellowship: The big kahuna of teleplay competitions, the program selects somewhere between 10-15 fellows in the feature, drama and sitcom categories combined for the one year program. Deadline: July 1st

Screenwriting Expo: Believe it or not, I actually had some pull on getting this one started. Several people (including myself) annoyed the contest organizers to add a teleplay competition for this year. They have heard our whining and come through for us. Top prize is $1000 for both half hour and one hour categories. Don't let me down, guys. Enter!! Early Bird Deadline: July 1st, Regular Deadline: July 31st, Midnight Oil: August 14th

Warner Brothers Writers Workshop: The program is being 'revamped'. Website should have updates by July 1st.

Slamdance: fox21 sponsored pilot competition (half hour $30 and full hour costs $40). They also have options for coverage and multiple readers for the contest (costs extra). Grand prize is a blind script deal to develop a tv series. Early Deadline: June 25th, Regular Deadline: August 21st

In case you are keeping score at home...

Fun Joel - WRITING ASSIGNMENT

Kira - STAFFED

Sal (blog taken down) - STAFFED

New Yorker in Hollywood (blog defunct) - STAFFED

Shawn (Agents are Evil blog now gone) - AGENT, not yet staffed.

Hmm. Most of these people don't have blogs anymore. Maybe there's something to that...

Summertime

Wow, has it gotten slow on the interwebs.

I finished the pilot! Again! Rewrite number 1458653286 is finished and the script is GOING OUT this week! Of course, this is just round one, but I'm glad to *finally* be getting something 'out there'.

Contest deadlines are approaching. I am working on a post with all the pertinent contest deadlines so you can follow along at home.

I'm back working on Movieweb.com.

Monday nights you can find me at BlogtalkRadio talking TV, films and other geek stuff. This week we talked Viral marketing. Next week there's an interview with a sci-fi/fantasy author and she and I will be talking Battlestar.

This weekend I'm doing the 48 Hour Film Project with a gaggle of other insane people.

I'm ramping up on writing 2 new pilot specs. One I'll be writing in Tom Blomquist's Pilot class starting next month at UCLA Extension. This is my 3rd class with Tom. Clearly I like the guy.

Oh yes, I'll be at Comic-con. Big surprise there, I'm sure.

So, what are you guys up to this summer?

Does anyone work in this town?

...apparently TV writers do.

Usually they get a nice long break before being called back to 'The Room', round mid-July.

They're already writing now.

Why? Possible writer's strike silly! All the productions have sped up to accommodate what everyone threatens is the nuclear option for writers. And of course, writers have no choice but to go along with it.

I've noticed job openings at Prodcos are at a shortage. I happen to know a very (very) qualified CE who is looking for a new position somewhere. If anyone knows of any leads, drop me a line. Maybe I can take you to lunch if it pans out!

The Uprising

The fans of Jericho have succeeded. The NUTS campaign (which reportedly sent 20 TONS of nuts to CBS) convinced the network to give Jericho a second season order for seven episodes (expect some characters to disappear or die suddenly when it returns -- they had to cut budget in order to do this).

Now, watching the success of this campaign, some Veronica Mars fans are emboldened. Introducing the Mars for Mars campaign! $1.79 will get you a Mars bar sent to the CW (and right now it's free shipping).

This news comes from Aint It Cool News. The poster of this story muses that if each fan gave $2 upfront to pay for an episode, (with supposedly at least 1 million viewers) they could have $2 million per episode budget. I talked about this kind of subscription model during the Geekerati show on Monday night. I don't think the timing is right for this yet, but I wouldn't be surprised to see some lower budget indie-type show financed in this way.

There is one big difference between Jericho and Veronica Mars -- Jericho had at least 7 million viewers when it pulled the plug. The first six or seven episodes had at least 10 million. Veronica Mars season high of viewers: 3 million. It's a steeper hill to climb to convince CW to renew Mars. The only promising news I can give you is that Rob Thomas had a concept for a 'reboot' of the show for another season, and the CW is pretty hard up for content right now.

This is all very interesting. Some shows have been saved before through the sheer devotion of fans, but this strikes me as a potential paradigm shift. The fans are going to need to do more than send nuts or candy bars to support their show, however. A show needs viewers. These fans are going to need to find a way to recruit new viewers (or reenlist old ones) to keep the show's ratings from sinking again. That requires a lot more commitment than clicking a 'buy' button at an internet store.

Will a viral campaign from fans work? Time will tell.

Same old song

I hate when I hit a lull like this. It happens every June just after the frenzy of upfronts. For a week, I am firing on all cylinders, posting three or more times a day, keeping up with the news. It's heady and fun. My web traffic spikes to levels I never see the rest of the year (well, unless some show like 'Smith' gets cancelled, and brings me three thousand people looking to find out why).

And then...nothing. Summer movies, which I generally don't have any energy to blog about. Besides, what else can I say?

And that question then starts to apply to everything. What am I adding? What value does my voice have? Am I just a broken record? Sound and fury signifying nothing? White noise?

I come back to WHY I STARTED. I started an online journal on my old website (still up and running though more a place holder than anything useful) because I just had to vent. Then I felt like I had nothing else to say. So I stopped.

I started this blog nearly three years ago (3 years next month in fact) at first to start venting about random stuff, and then just to warm up for my screenwriting. Then it evolved into TV news, writing links and other randomness.

At some point I took my soul out of the blog. Part of the reason may be that I already feel that there is far more information about me on the web than should really be there. I suppose I feel like keeping some of who I am out of public eye.

Again, I don't know what I'm adding to the conversation. Would you really want to hear about what I do when I'm not writing (day job, watching too much TV, playing Guitar Hero, or finding reasons not to go to the gym). And really, what more is there?

I guess I feel a little like Tony Soprano these days... "is this all there is?"

I need a nap.

News for my parents (and other Jericho fans)

Several sources are reporting that the campaign to save Jericho may have actually had an impact. Apparently CBS received THOUSANDS of pounds of nuts sent from fans (and having talked to someone inside CBS, I can confirm that it was A LOT of nuts, most of which got donated to charities). Sources (starting with TVGuide.com and TVWeek, linked above) say that CBS is close to a deal to bring back Jericho as a midseason replacement, starting with an 8-episode commitment.

If true, this is a monumental achievement for the fans. Stay tuned.

John Mayer at Hollywood Bowl on Saturday

I have an extra ticket to the Saturday concert. If you are interested, contact me through email and I will let you know where it is and how much. Definitely less that those tickets on craigslist. Probably upper levels.