Back in town, blogging will resume

Sorry for the radio silence...was on business travel last week.

But now I'm back. Back in Black.

Cloverfield is go!

Woot! Time for giant monster stomping things tonight!

Now that the Cloverfield ARG is wrapping up, I'm starting to follow Find815.com. Yay for LOST!

My review for Cloverfield will be cross-posted at Sistercritics tonight.

Uwe Boll - Violation of the Geneva Convention?

I posted my quasi-film review of the latest horror from Uwe Boll (and no, I don't mean horror film, I mean general horror) at the blog I have with my sister Sistercritics. Her reviews are way better than mine, and yet somehow I'm the writer and she's the producer person.

Go figure.

As for you, Uwe Boll...I won't be repeating this little mistake again.

Updating the Watch List: An exercise in futility

Yeah, I know -- it's horribly out of date. Do you know how difficult it is to hit a moving target?

Shows I think have hit hiatus, actually still have episodes in the can.

Shows I think are airing soon are getting pushed back on the schedule.

And don't even talk to me about what the heck happens after March...

I'll do some real work on it this weekend. Seriously. Because I lurves you.

The fuzzy math of theater owners

So, movie theater owners were surveyed as to which actors brought in the most dough in 2007.

Johnny Depp was cited as the #1 box office draw. While, I concede that at first glance this seems fairly obvious, the theater owners are actually morons if they think Depp's films brought in the most money this year.

That honor goes to Shia LaBeouf.

Depp's two films, "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" and "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (nice long titles, those) have pulled in a collective $340 million.

LaBeouf's films, "Transformers", "Disturbia" and "Surf's Up" pulled in $457 million this year.

Who else made the survey list? Let's look at their box office compared to other names...

Will Smith placed second on the list. His film, "I Am Legend" generated $210 million this year.

George Clooney? $156 million ("Oceans 13" and "Michael Clayton")

Matt Damon - $344 million ("The Bourne Ultimatum" and "Oceans 13")

Denzel Washington - $146 million ("American Gangster" and "The Great Debaters")

Russell Crowe - $182 million ("American Gangster" and "3:10 to Yuma")

Tom Cruise - $15 million ("Lions for Lambs")

Nicolas Cage - $280 million ("Ghost Rider", "Next" and "National Treasure: Book of Secrets")

Will Ferrell - $118 million ("Blades of Glory")

Tom Hanks - $43 million ("Charlie Wilson's War")

Granted, I'm sure that when these theater owners are being surveyed, they don't just think about the previous year, but collective years. Who else in 2007 *really* drove box office? It's hard to say if people show up for the movie or the actor in some cases (I seriously doubt most people thought, "Hmm, I don't know if I want to see that 'Transformers' movie...wait, Shia LeBeouf is in it? Oh, I'm so there!"), but just for the exercise, who else "generated" the most income in 2007?

Eddie Murphy - $418 million ("Shrek 3" and "Norbit")
Seth Rogen - $270 million ("Knocked Up" and "Superbad")
Tobey Maguire - $336 million ("Spiderman 3")
John Travolta - $287 million ("Wild Hogs" and "Hairspray")

And since the theater owners seem to forget women are even in films, I'll just point out a few totals for the leading ladies this year:

Cameron Diaz - $322 million ("Shrek")
Keira Knightley - $312 million ("Pirates" and "Atonement")
Kirsten Dunst - $336 million ("Spiderman 3")

Other notes: Helena Bonham Carter was in 'Harry Potter 5' and 'Sweeney Todd'. Timothy Spall trumps her with appearances in both films AND 'Enchanted'. The costar who wears the box office crown: Jon Voight. If we wanted to be really fair, Jon Voight even beats Shia with his appearances in "Transformers", "National Treasure 2", "September Dawn" AND the BRATZ film for a total of $477 million.

Geekerati Radio tonight

No, it isn't Monday, but Geekerati is on tonight, 7 PM PST/10 PM EST. Here's tonight's show description:

Gareth-Michael Skarka, of Adamant Entertainment, joins the geeks to discuss e-publishing in the modern RPG marketplace. Skarka has made a name for himself as the publisher of the acclaimed THRILLING TALES pulp d20 Modern supplements.

Come listen to us live or subscribe at iTunes to the podcast which goes up after each live show wraps.



If you missed our best show of 2007, our interview with Tim Minear, you can catch that here:

Optioned

So, at long last I got a greenlight from my sister to announce the big secret we've been harboring for months.

As of the end of October, our tv series "The Protector" is optioned by Tig Productions, better known as Kevin Costner's production company.

It is an 18 month option, which we agreed was warranted since the strike was breathing down our collective necks at the time. We are being packaged by a major agency in town...and that's about all I can say.

Of course, the option was signed two days before the strike. This of course means that all of the work from June to October came to a screeching halt.

It started in June when I finished writing the pilot. My sister Julie is credited as co-creator on the series with me. We sent the script out to a couple of people who had shown interest at management companies. As a strange coincidence, she happened to meet up with the producers of our project that night and casually mentioned that we had sent out the script in an effort to get me representation. They expressed interest in us coming in to pitch.

We didn't think they were serious. They were.

So, we pitched. Left them the bible and the script. We had prepared our seven minute pitch, but they wanted a casual meeting and we ended up chatting about the show for an hour. The told us they were very interested in working with us, and on the whole I felt lucky to just have an opportunity to pitch a project as *practice*.

A week later they wanted us to go to Big Agency #1 to pitch our project to the head of the TV Lit Department. The producers had a couple of other projects they were working on with this agency and thought it would be good to have us in to talk specifically about ours.

We freaked out a little bit, yes.

Then in August we met with Kevin and got his notes. Yes, that was weird and I'll supply details at some date in the future.

Finally, we pitched to a packaging agent at BIG AGENCY #2 which Tig was talking to. And by October we were optioned.

And now we wait. But this is what I've been alternately stressing and giddy about for the last half of the year.

Now I hope that 2008 will be THE YEAR for us to really make some headway.

My favorite TV of the year

Trying to decide which hours of TV to love is like picking your favorite child. Still, decisions have to be made. Here are the episodes (and their WRITERS, which I promise to add later once I can look them all up) that really hit it out of the park for me this year. (In no particular order -- I can pick the children, I don't have to rank them)

LOST "Through the Looking Glass" This one is still on the DVR, but now that I've got the 3rd season on DVD I can watch this one over and over again in anticipation of what is to come in one month's time. Truly awesome TV fun.

HOUSE "Airborne" House may have seemed stale by the end of Season 3 (and it has had some juice pumped back in Season 4) but this episode stands out to me for a) taking House out of his element and b) giving every major cast member some meaty stuff to do. Putting House and Cuddy on an airplane to do a differential was just icing on the cake.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA "Crossroads, pt 2" Since "Exodus" technically aired in 2006, I'll pick the 3rd season finale for my fave of 2007. While I found "Razor" fascinating it was the completely unexpected revelations about Tigh, Anders, Tyrol and Tory and the end of Baltar's trial that really packed the punch for the series. We await the Season 4 open with baited breath...

CHUCK "Chuck vs. the Truth" Not just for really moving the story forward be revealing what had been up to that point character 'secrets' but also for the fast paced and breezy interplay of the characters, the show really hit its stride, showing what awesome TV it could be. Best line goes to Zac Levi: "Casey, your jaw was chiseled by Michelangelo himself." I know, not as great taken out of context, but man it floored me. Especially Adam Baldwin's reaction. Classic. Oh, and did I mention that our dear Marshall J. Flinkman (aka Kevin Weisman) is in it?

THE SOPRANOS "Kennedy and Heidi" Okay, I hate that the Sopranos wins like every award there is for this season, but dang, this was a pretty bitchin' episode. I mean, Christifuh dies at the hands of Tony! And Pauly is out of control funny.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS (tie) "Pilot" and "State" - the bookends to an example of a perfect season of TV. Even if it hadn't had a second season granted, this would go down in my book as one of the most overall satisfying shows of the year.

VERONICA MARS "The Unaired Season 4 Preview" This look at what a 4th season of VM would have been like is something that pains me. It was sooo good, so fresh and so what I wanted. I curse the CW for their poor decision making.

LIFE "Dig a Hole" and "Fill it Up" Sure, continue to ignore this show, but you do so at your peril. This two-parter was great TV, the revelation of who committed the murder that Charlie Cruse had been wrongfully convicted and sent to prison for. Even better, there's still the mystery as to who orchestrated the whole thing (and why). I hope I get to find out...

FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS "Bowie" For making me laugh for almost 30 minutes straight. Actually, I could say that about almost all of the 'Conchords' episodes...

STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP "K&R" pts 1-3 and "What Kind of Day Has it Been" I know, crazy to have this on the list, but when I watched the last four episodes in one sitting, I was floored at how good they were. It was as if knowing that their doom was imminent Sorkin, Schlamme and company pulled out all the stops and put on a good show. Really reminded me of the first couple of years of 'The West Wing' that just pushed me closer to becoming a writer. I was humbled.

Okay, I will place one hour of TV above all the others (and yes, I know I've left off a lot of awesomely wonderful TV from the list...sue me).

DOCTOR WHO "Blink" A singular achievement. Steven Moffat has my undying love and devotion after I watched this. Terrifying and creepy (rare to honestly ascribe those terms to much TV today) I could not help but sit back on my couch and say "wow" once it was over. Also the ONLY TV episode this year I was compelled to watch again immediately upon viewing it the first time. If you haven't seen this, you haven't really watched TV as it should be.

Next post I'll detail some of the WORST Hours of TV of 2007 and some of my honorable mentions (I.E. stuff I forgot while I was writing this post)

Waking up to the future

So, while I remain somewhat secretive about some of my projects, I've decided that for my latest foray into entertaining the masses I will blog extensively on my efforts.

My latest project is a web series. I'm co-writing the series with my good friend Bernie Su. He and I believe that we can make a quality entertaining product specific to the web (at least to start).

While I won't be spilling the story details as yet, here's our basic construct for the series.

We've written a "pilot" episode which introduces our main characters and concept, but is (at least for now) not directly related to the main plot of the 8-episode series.

Each episode will be 5-6 minutes in length, and we hope to clock the total project in at 44 minutes.

We are still working on distribution and I am bringing aboard a producer I think will get us on the right track as we move toward ramping up the writing on the other episodes.

I fully intend for this to see the light of day by the end of April 2008.

Oh, and yes, it will have its own website and viral marketing elements. It should be fun.

Not your traditional Christmas films...

Cloverfield Awesomeness

Helpful Holiday Tip

DO NOT BUY A NINTENDO WII ON EBAY!!!

Ahem.

There is this option now as well.

So, down with the Ebay scalpers!

The D Rocks it out at the Reality Rally

I feel a great disturbance in the Force...

According to Jane, Disney has already been interviewing people for the Fellowship next year. I had been under the impression that the interviews were on hold, but apparently no. This is three strikes and out for my "Medium" spec.

On to the next one...

New features coming to this blog

Starting in January I'll be starting a weekly feature called "Meet the Scribosphere". I plan to highlight a screen-blogger each week, asking questions, some of which may come from the readership, and highlighting what they emphasize in their blogging -- do they provide writing tips? review films and tv? talk about their lunch? Whatever it is, you'll learn about it and perhaps meet a blogger or two you haven't visited before.

Also, I'm going to start doing reviews of new shows. I'm working on increasing the number of screeners I am sent, and hopefully that will allow me to post reviews in a timely manner. To kick off this feature I'll be reviewing two shows next week -- the Dec. 10 episode of "Saving Grace" and the 2nd season premiere of "10 Items or Less". We'll see how it goes from there.

Opinions? Suggestions? Lay 'em on me.

Attention WGA -- come negotiate with...me!

Brett brought a really interesting article to my attention via his blog.

I had heard some mutterings about this before, but this is the first time I've really seen this spelled out so clearly.

I was a business administration major in college. Reading an article about collusion gave me flashbacks to my business law class. And now, I have had an epiphany.

I would like to become a "new" WGA signatory. Here's my deal. I'll give writers, directors, actors and the unionized crews a fair profit sharing deal in exchange for their services on films. Oh, I need some venture capital for this, any takers?

Screw the AMPTP, long live the SBPRC (Shawna Benson Producers Replacement Corporation)! **

** now taking on producing partners with money.

I blame Liz.

It's all her fault. She's been laying out her total A game on her blog...being all smart and revealing and funny and interesting and just...sublime.

I got jealous.

First, go visit her and show her love. That means leave a comment. She's putting out lots of words for you to read, the least you can do is toss a few back her way.

Second, I'm seriously asking her to take me on as a Padawan. She has much juju which I desire to know.

2007 has been a decent year for me...okay, actually it kinda kicked ass until November. 2008 needs to step up and really represent. I need the WGA contract issues to be resolved. I need to sell my flippin show. I need to shoot my web series. I need to finish 3 pilot specs. I need a new episode spec too.

I need a new computer. I need to lose 15-20 pounds.

By the way, current creative writing endeavors taking place with my sister over at a new blog we started -- Sistercritics.

CBS renews Moonlight, Big Bang Theory

12/6 UPDATE I spoke to an "insider" at MOONLIGHT last night -- they have not had official word from CBS on the renewal. My source was aware of the Mediaweek article and was encouraged by it, but was just as perplexed as everyone else as to what it means. For all the Moonlight fans checking in on this blog for news, I will bring you updates as quickly as I can get them.

CBS announced that it has picked up "Moonlight" and "The Big Bang Theory" for another season. These are the first new network shows to be ordered for an additional season (yes, the story says "renewed" not just a back nine pickup). CBS has also stated that if the writers strike isn't over by the new year, they may start airing shows from sister cable outlet Showtime, most notably "Dexter."

It looks like the sitcom writers definitely have a new spec opportunity. I think Moonlight as a spec is a little iffy, but we'll see...

Link: CBS to Air Showtime's Dexter; Will Renew Big Bang, Moonlight

NBC gives full season order to "Chuck" and "Life"

No word yet on the fates of "The Bionic Woman" and "Journeyman".

Link: Hollywood Reporter

I'm pleased that both of these shows are being picked up, since I'm still watching and enjoying them.

Watch List will be updated...

Get yer writer's strike news here

There's a good Facebook group for people who want to keep up with strike news.

Check out Facebook's Writers' Strike News Central group and join it if you are on facebook.

Also, a shout out to Jumptheshark.com for being awesome.