EXCLUSIVE: The duo behind hit feature Lee Daniels’ The Butler – writer Danny Strong and director Lee Daniels — are reuniting, this time in television. Strong and Daniels have been brought back together by Brian Grazer for a hip hop drama project that sparked heated bidding among the four major broadcast networks before landing at Fox with a put pilot
commitment. Written by Strong and to be directed by Daniels, the untitled project is described as a unique family drama set in the world of a hip hop empire. 20th Century Fox TV and studio-based Imagine TV are producing, with Strong, Daniels, Grazer and Francie Calfo executive producing. The deal for the TV project comes just as Butler, starring Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey, crossed the $100 million box office mark in North America. It would mark Daniels’ TV debut, while Strong started his writing career in TV with HBO’s Recount and Game Change, earning Emmy nominations for both and winning for Game Change. Imagine has Parenthood on NBC and the rebooted Arrested Development on Netflix as well as upcoming series Gang Related and Those Who Kill on A&E. Strong and Daniels are with CAA, which also reps Imagine.
Fox Lands Hip-Hop Drama From Brian Grazer & ‘Butler’ Team Of Lee Daniels & Danny Strong With Put Pilot Commitment
VH1 Greenlights Drama Pilot ‘Hindsight’
EXCLUSIVE: In the first scripted pickup under new head of development Susan Levison, VH1 has given a pilot order to Hindsight, an hourlong scripted drama from writer Emily Fox (Jane By Design) and Timberman/Beverly. The … Read More »
Discovery Channel’s NFL Two-Parter To Be Produced By NFL
Discovery Channel announced this morning it will air a two-part special, NFL In Season, in which the network goes on the road with the NFL as the Pittsburgh Steelers, Minnesota Vikings, San Francisco 49ers and Jacksonville Jaguars prepare for two “critical regular season games” — in London. It will be produced by NFL Films. The two-part special will premiere Friday, October 4, and Friday, November 1.
In this way the special will book-end PBS’ Frontline special about head injuries sustained by NFL players, League Of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis, which is now scheduled to debut on PBS on October 8. The Frontline project was originally scheduled to debut as a two-parter October 8 and October 15, but that was before ESPN pulled out of that documentary, calling it a “branding” issue. Anonymous sources in August told the New York Times that ESPN, which reportedly pays the NFL upwards of $1 billion a year for Monday Night Football rights, succumbed to pressure from the NFL, which the NFL denied. This morning’s announcement: Read More »
Spike TV Developing King Tut Event Series
EXCLUSIVE: Spike TV, which earlier this year signaled a return to scripted programming through event series, has added another such project to its development slate — a new look at the story of Tutankhamun, aka King Tut (1333 to 1323 BC), the youngest Pharaoh to rule Ancient Egypt. The six-part series, from Canadian production company MUSE Entertainment (The Kennedys), is based on historical facts from recently discovered DNA evidence. It explores
the drama of power, political backstabbing, war and murder and chronicles King Tut’s rise to glory, his efforts to rule a chaotic empire and the enigma surrounding his death. Read More »
Marvel Developing ‘Agent Carter’ TV Series
EXCLUSIVE: The “one shot” short films featured as extras on Marvel movies’ DVD releases are becoming a hotbed for TV series ideas. After one such short, Item 47 on The Avengers DVD about the agents of … Read More »
ABC Nabs Divorce Comedy From Ali Adler And Fake Empire
EXCLUSIVE: In a competitive situation, ABC has landed a single-camera comedy from The New Normal co-creator/executive producer Ali Adler, which will be produced by ABC Studios and Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage’s studio-based Fake Empire. Written by Adler, … Read More »
Live Commercials Coming To ‘Late Night With Jimmy Fallon’
NBCUniversal and Lexus are partnering on a unique advertising campaign — a series of live
commercials that will air during NBC’s Late Night With … Read More »
ABC Developing ‘The Hunchback Of Notre Dame’ Event Series With Evan Daugherty & Mandeville
EXCLUSIVE: Almost two decades after The Hunchback Of Notre Dame animated feature, Disney is revisiting Victor Hugo’s gothic classic, this time in TV. ABC has put in development Esmeralda, a limited/event series written by … Read More »
‘Big Bang’ Co-Stars Mayim Bialik & Melissa Rauch Get Major Salary Bumps As Show Faces License Fee & More Cast Negotiations
EXCLUSIVE: The newest additions to the cast of CBS‘ hit comedy The Big Bang Theory have scored nice salary bumps. I’ve learned that Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch — regulars on Big Bang since fall 2010 having started off as guest starring-turned-recurring players on the popular comedy — have both renegotiated their current salaries, which have been in the $20,000-$30,000 range per episode. No one is commenting but I hear the duo will be making about double that, in the neighborhood of $60,000, this coming season, with their pay steadily increasing every year to reach close to $100,000 an episode by the end of their contracts. As a result of the renegotiation, I hear Bialik and Rauch, who play Sheldon and Howard’s brainy better halves Amy and Bernadette, respectively, also have added a year to their current deals.
The Bialik/Rauch deal is the first in what is going to be a big season behind-the-scenes at Big Bang, which, six years into its run, is firing on all cylinders creatively and commercially. Over the next eight months, Big Bang faces license fee negotiations as the series is currently renewed by CBS through this season, as well as contract negotiations with the entire original cast, whose deals also are all up at the end of this season. With the series doing so well and eying a potential strong showing at the Emmys this weekend, none of these is going to be easy. Like the salary renegotiations in 2010, leads Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons and Kaley Cuoco are expected to negotiate in one group and Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar in another. Observers expect Galecki, Parsons and Cuoco, currently at $350,000 an episode, to land north of $500,000 when it’s all said and done. Read More »
NBC Buys Gay-Straight Sibling Comedy Produced By Will Gluck With Penalty
Could this be NBC‘s next Will & Grace? NBC has put in development G’Uncle, a comedy project from writer Billy Finnegan (Don’t Trust The B—-), Sony Pictures TV and Will Gluck‘s studio-based Olive Bridge, … Read More »
Anthony Zuiker To Produce Bounty Drama For ABC
ABC has bought The Bounty, a drama project from CSI creator Anthony E. Zuiker and Brillstein Entertainment Partners. Written by South Beach creator/executive producer Matt Cirulnick, The Bounty centers around one victim’s quest for justice … Read More »
Fox Buys Comedy From Creators Of ‘Women Of LA’ Video With Aaron Kaplan Producing
Jamie Abrams and DJ Lubel‘s Women Of LA short video went viral earlier this year, amassing more than 1.2 million views on YouTube … Read More »
Zoo Prods.’ Barry Poznick Launches Company, Partners With Electus
Barry Poznick, co-founder and co-CEO of Zoo Prods, is going out on his own, launching Barracuda Television Prods. The new production company has entered a partnership with Electus to develop and produce unscripted programming. Poznick spent the last two decades at Zoo Prods., which he co-founded with … Read More »
Hulu Back In Action With BBC Deal For ‘Sherlock’, ‘Doctor Who’ & More
In what is its biggest content deal since it was taken off the auction block, Hulu has partnered with BBC Worldwide North America to bring some iconic TV shows to the service. Included in … Read More »
NBC To Adapt Novel ‘Never Look Away’ As Drama Project
NBC has put in development an untitled thriller/family drama based on Linwood Barclay’s novel Never Look Away. Written by Matt Venne (A&E’s Bag Of Bones) and produced by Sony Pictures TV and Sheldon … Read More »
ABC Family Preps Horror Drama With Jamie Lee Curtis Attached To Star, Steve Miner To Helm
EXCLUSIVE: ABC Family has closed a deal for a high-profile horror spec script by writer Jeff Dixon, which has Jamie Lee Curtis attached to star and Steve Miner to direct and executive produce if the project goes to pilot. That would mark a reunion and return to the horror genre for the Halloween H2O star Curtis and its
director Miner. While there is no green light yet for the project, I hear it is being put on a fast track. Titled The Final Girls, the drama revolves around a group of girls who have, in essence, survived their own personal horror stories and are brought together by a mysterious older woman (Curtis) to channel the stress and scars of their experience for some greater good. Horror launched Curtis’ feature career with the Halloween movies, starting with the original 1978 franchise-starter Halloween. Miner also helmed the second and third installment of another popular horror movie franchise, Friday The 13. Read More »
Mark Gordon Co. Sells Detective Drama To ABC
UPDATED: The Mark Gordon Co. has set up an untitled drama project at ABC with writers Kathryn Price and Nichole Millard (Fallen). While the project was originally announced as being half-hour — a throwback to the … Read More »
Jonathan Groff Ensemble Comedy From ABC Studios Lands At CBS As Put Pilot
EXCLUSIVE: For his first writing effort since the end of Happy Endings, the series’ showrunner Jonathan Groff is taking on another single-camera comedy about a group a friends. CBS has given a put pilot commitment to The 40s, which explores the trials and tribulations of that special time in life for a group of friends living on the same street. Groff is writing and executive producing for ABC Studios where he is under an overall deal. This is the second put pilot commitment at CBS for ABC Studios, which has been very aggressive in selling to outside networks this season, along with a multi-camera comedy from Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky and Danny Chun. Read More »
Syfy Acquires Werewolf Drama Series ‘Bitten’ From eOne
Syfy has acquired the 13-episode first season of new Canadian scripted series Bitten from
Entertainment One. It’s set to premiere in 2014. Based … Read More »
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