UNPRODUCED GOODNESS N' STUFF

Can't seem to get enough Firefly? How about an unproduced script by the show's story editor (and fellow Carl Sautter alumnus) Cheryl Cain?

Firefly: "Dead or Alive"

Hey, how about John August's kick-ass pilot for Ops.

Ops: "Blood and Oil"

Also, this hilarious script that had been making the rounds last year about a group of terrorists that are just diggin' the sweet, sweet infidel life a bit too much.

The Cell: "Pilot"

This kind of goes to a topic Jane Espenson had been talking about recently. The novelty spec script. In her examples, they were mostly reconstructions and deconstructions of classic TV shows. In this case, it's just a damn funny script that no network would have the guts to actually touch, but it got these guys a lot of attention.

I've been trying to decide if I want to potentially waste my time with doing one of these novelty scripts. Yes, it does have the advantage of maybe grabbing the eye of a showrunner looking for something other than Cold Case and Desperate Housewives specs, but there seems to be the split on whether or not it should be some kind of pop culture deconstruction piece or of one should really just nail the show and do a "lost episode" kind of thing.

And then, would I even have the guts to let that script go out when I know I've got perfectly good specs? Or maybe one of the pilots would cover that "something different" angle.

What would I write? I've got it narrowed down to Hogan's Heroes, Moonlighting and Remington Steele.

I'm not doin' it.

Probably.

MEGACON

MegaCon was this weekend.

Not a bad weekend, as far as the SciFi Zone Radio show went. Snagged lots of great guests. Specifically, we got John Schneider of Smallville, comics legends Sal Buscema and George Perez, Mira Furlan from Lost, Howard Chaykin (The Flash, and comics writer and artist), Cirroc Lofton from Deep Space Nine and more recently Invasion and George Lowe the voice of Space Ghost on Space Ghost: Coast to Coast.

Tails to Amaze did some brisk business, but the scheduled panel didn't happen. The only thing that MegaCon doesn't really seem to handle well is panels, because otherwise the whole con seemed to be quite successful and fun. The panels lean heavily toward anime and all are pretty much left to the devices of whoever's panel it is. As such, an packed anime panel got started about a half hour late (and was scheduled to only be a half an hour). While the fine folks behind Half Moose Media will do many things, taking on a bunch of costumed anime...people ain't one of them.

And thanks to the likes of Tommy Castillo (Detective Comics), Rodney Ramos (Transmetropolitan), Raven Gregory (The Gift), Shannon Chenoweth (The Line) and Jamie Yeates (Harry Potter) for joining us at dinner Saturday night. Tommy was certainly the sport as he did sketches on tortilla chips. Behold the Cthulhu Green Lantern.

He said if you ate the chip, you would gain the power of whatever was drawn upon it. He did a lot of Batman. I got a fuckin' Elder God with a power ring.

WAR GAMES

I'm calling upon those who stumble over this and who are possessed of geek tendencies or know those so afflicted.

I have an asssignment from gaming mag Scrye to do a piece on the playing of collectible card games (or games if a similar ilk, mini games, role-playing games even) in Iraq by members of the military. If you know someone stationed in the middle east (with email access) and who gets his geek on flopping down a copy of Serra Angel and doing a little superiority dance in his or her off hours, please contact me (or have them contact me) Email's up in the top of the sidebar.

I'm also after people who may have just returned from duty in the last few months, put played Magic: The Gathering or Vs. or whatever while they were there.

Looking for pics too, if you got 'em.

In the meantime, back to work taping two SciFi Zone shows this weekend and working though the last half of a Medium spec.

DEVELOPMENT TRACKING (updatishness)

From the exceedingly informative Futon Critic

UNTITLED TINA FEY PROJECT (NBC) - Four-time Emmy nominee Alec Baldwin ("Will & Grace") is in final talks to join the cast of the comedy pilot, about the head writer of an "SNL"-esque variety show (Tina Fey) who has to manage her relationships with the show's volatile star and executive producer. Baldwin is believed to be playing said executive producer, Jack Donaghy, who's described in the casting notice as: "45s. Handsome and impeccably dressed. He is the new VP of development for NBC/GE/Universal...etc. He is totally uncensored, saying whatever comes to his mind, and he believes he has everyone figured out. Very corporate."

More at FC.

I'm a big fan of Baldwin and Christopher Walken's repeated appearences on SNL, so how appropriate is this? Can. Not. Wait. Assuming it doesn't get squeezed out by the Sorkin show.

VERONICA MARS SPEC

My Veronica Mars spec netted a semi-finalist spot in the latest round of ScriptapaloozaTV. Not bad. To put that in perspective, that places "Federal Assistance" in the top 15 (though not the top 8) in the one-hour spec field, which consists of a total of 230 scripts. There were also 241 pilots and a mighty 335 sitcoms.

I would like to congratulate some fellow Slamdance finalists, all of whom I had the opportunity to meet last January. Joshua Rimes' Lost spec placed very well and Almost Normal by Erick Pausz & Eric Alan Stran won second place in the pilot category.

DEVELOPMENT TRACKING (parte the seconde)

Mr. & Mrs. Smith was set-up as a pilot by Fox. This came to pass a few weeks ago, but it has been very much on my mind (and not just because my King Vs. Queen pilot script would make a fantastic read for whoever the showrunner on this might be...heh).

This was easily one of my favorite films of 2005, and I enjoyed the article Simon Kinberg wrote for scr(i)pt on writing it. He had originally developed it for television (it was also his thesis project at Columbia) and one of the main points of that article was struggling to make the unique story (a metaphor for marriage as a concept) work for the big screen. Kinberg and film director Doug Liman are both involved in the pilot as writer and director, respectively, so I think an excellent product can be expected. Because Kinberg did think this up as a TV series, I think, bodes well. I imagine a lot of the mental hopscotch in setting this up for the small (and I think superior) screen has likely been done to a degree.

I can see this airing in one of two ways.

Either it ignores the movie and starts essentially from scratch. That could be at any point. The pilot could go from when they first met or from the honeymoon and work toward events similar to what transpires in the film, eventually moving past them. It could even begin at the point which they discover each other's true nature and go from there.

The other option might follow up on the ending of the film. They've already gone through the woes of discovering each other's secrets and are still hunted by their respective former employers. Not diggin' that one.

I prefer the first option. Specifically, I'd start on the day of their wedding. That's just me. (Ye Gods, do I want to be staffed on this series!)

While Fox is getting this thing set up (along with New Regency), Liman has a first-look deal with NBC (who are doing Heist, of which he is an executive producer). Though the initial reports say that this is part of ABC's pilot crop. Good. ABC seems to have a better track record with more unusual series of late. And NBC's idea of an adventure show this year is E-Ring, which features exciting montages of generals signing orders and cheap mostly off-screen secret ops.

Liman has also said that he'll be searching high and low for the next Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie to take over the lead roles, though I can think of several more well-known types who might be right in the roles and can make them their own. I think going with unknowns can be pretty damn risky in this case. Or even just semi-knowns. Many people attribute the success of the film the fucking Brangelina phenomenon, and they are two extremely electric actors, but underneath all that, there was an interesting film (and a premise that I think will ultimately work better as an episodic drama). Casting could kill this show right out of the gate.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith is being positioned as a mid-season replacement for 2006-2007. So, there may be some time to get my shit together. I'm such a wannabe.

This will be the second series called Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

GOD SAVE THE TV FIRST, THEN THE QUEEN

I caught the first two episodes of Eleventh Hour (ITV) starring Patrick Stewart and created and written by Stephen Gallagher (who I know next to nothing about).

Stewart plays Ian Hood, a special government science advisor. Ashley Jensen also stars as Rachel Young, his special branch liaison and bodyguard. There series is a little bit of CSI, a little bit of X-Files and maybe just a tad bit of Bones. Each episode sees Hood investigating some kind of science-related crime or catastrophe.

In the first episode, "Resurrection," the subject is human cloning, as Hood investigates the discovery of 27 human fetuses, all with the same genetic profile. There is some balance (politically speaking) as Hood speaks of cloning gone wrong, but also expressing concern that these crimes could be used to quash the pro-stem cell movement. Ultimately, (and I'll be doing a bit of spoiling in saying this so continue at your own risk), the man behind the clonings is a guy desperate to get his dead son back, and damned be all that stand in his way, be it money, science or logic.

"Containment," the second episode, follows the outbreak of a new strain of small pox as Hood tracks down those who may be carrying it and figuring out exactly where it came from in the first place.

The actual investigations lack enough flash to be really interesting (to my U.S. TV-addled mind) and the show is paced at such a leisurely pace that it never really feels like it's getting a whole lot of momentum.



As I watched the first episode and thought that it wasn't very exciting, I found a lot of the character beats to be very interesting. There is a little bit of a babysitter relationship between Hood and Rachel. Hood, for instance, carries a "panic button" that he fails to use when he should and has a tendency to set off at the most inopportune times. And while obviously being a super-genius, he's kinda just a regular guy who can't necessarily work his computer right and can make dumb mistakes, especially in the heat of a tense moment.

When I set forth upon watching the second one, I was looking forward to these character bits, but there weren't nearly as many as in the first one. The ones that were there were pretty good though, such as when Hood asks Rachel to interrupt a meeting in which he has to justify his spending and a bit at the end regarding a robot toy.

Overall, the writing isn't working for me, but I'll watch more just because of those moments are because Patrick Stewart rawks. Hard.

And in revisiting Life on Mars, (BBC1) it's still approaching it's premise of 2006 cop displaced to 1973 very subtly. It's at its best when he's trying to use 2006 methodology in the face of 1973 hunches and beatings. One great scene sees his boss say, as they're approaching a bunch of union guys waiting around outside a murder scene, "The golden rule in all these cases is the first one to speak did it."



The intrusion and/or conflict between his life in 1973 and his apparent coma in the present rears its head, but not in as strong a way as I would like. In the third episode, they walk through a union shop/murder scene as Sam lays out how the place will be turned into flats in 30 years. When he comes upon the body, he realizes it is in his kitchen. I am going to keep with it and get caught up to see if that conflict becomes more prominent. Even if it doesn't, it's still kind of interesting to see an early 70's cop show with a modern sensibility.

Waiting patiently for new Doctor Who...

DEVELOPMENT TRACKING (parte the first)

The first in a series in which I run down the stuff in development that interests me.

Studio 7 on the Sunset Strip (which I understand should be getting a more managable title) should be damn good. Anything created and written by Aaron Sorkin is an automatic for me and Sorkin alumni Matthew Perry and Timothy Busfield have been cast. So far, so good.

I've had the chance to study a version of the pilot script (set backstage at a live sketch-comedy television show not unlike Saturday Night Live) and it is everything you expect from a Sorkin show. Fast-paced, some "inside baseball" but not too much (for me, anyway). Enough that it helps shape things. It really comes off like the second coming of Sports Night. As it should be.

And following the film law of parallel development (I cite volcano flicks, comet-hitting-the-Earth movies, Janis Joplin biopics, and even the bizarre case of the two Slamdance finalists titled Bunker Hill with similar premises among others), there is a very similar show in the works. In most cases, I would likely expect the other one to suck harder than a hooker with a ShopVac and that it would fall by the wayside.

Not this time. The other such program is currently untitled, but let me give you two words.



I'll get in line for anything Tina Fey writes, and doubly so if she's in it. And I have. She got me to see a Lindsay Lohan/teenage girl flick. Judge not a film by it's genre. Fey's Mean Girls script is smart, unpredictable and funny. Not intestinal-distress funny, but funny.

Allow me to get all tangenty. If you're one of those people who excludes things on the basis of genre, you're just missing some good shit. You lock out science fiction and fantasy and you're missing some of the best writing to hit TV in the last ten years, like anything from Joss Whedon. You're also missing out on Battlestar Galactica. The fact that The X-Files won a much-deserved writing award for "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" seems to be a severe abboration. Whedon didn't get so much as a nod for such excellent Buffy episodes as "The Body" and "Hush" and (blasphemy to ensue) The Sopranos just isn't so good that it needs to virtually lock up the writing category. Especially that last season of theirs.

Same goes for "chick flick" type stuff. One of my favorite shows currently on the air is, without a doubt, Gilmore Girls. I look forward to it every week, my DVD's get a work out (play all) and act four from this last episode ("Friday Night's Alright For Fighting") was one of the greatest things I've seen this season. Maybe Veronica Mars fits this category, but it's a massive genre-buster. And let me also mention Jessica Bendinger's Bring It On. Admittedly, I saw this because Eliza Dushku + cheerleading uniform = good times, but it actually turned out to be a fun movie with great dialogue and a solid plot.

Anyways...

Mean Girls and Fey's SNL work leads me to expect good stuff from this show, which has already cast actual SNL-types Tracy Morgan and Rachel Dratch .

I'm guessing this will mean she'll leave SNL, but that's fine with me. I'd rather have a more solid Fey show than what gets through on SNL (which, by the way, it's okay to say it doesn't suck, because it doesn't. SNL has been hit-or-miss from sketch to sketch ever since it first aired. It's always easier to remember the hits than the misses, so whatever form SNL takes at present, people will always say it's no good. I care not what you say, Astronaut Jones kicks moon-bitch ass).

Both are being developed for NBC. Here's hoping that NBC doesn't think this has to be a zero-sum kinda of thing and that both shows can't exist on the same network. Hell, put 'em on back-to-back and make a block out of it.

UPDATE: Thanks to commenter and sometimes employer Avitable for info on the title change and casting breakdown, current as of 2/3/06. Amanda Peet has been cast (in a The Whole Nine Yards mini reunion) as the president of UBS, who seems to be based a little bit on Jamie Tarses (the character was originally named Jamie in the script).