Before Charlie Kaufman became the genius screenwriter behind "Being John Malkovich," he was struggling to make it in the entertainment industry. His failures led him to create one of the most unique scripts ever written. The filmmaker would go on to have a storied career, but his big break came from a script he never expected to get made and two scrapped film ideas.
Kaufman began his career as a writer working on a show called "Get a Life." He snagged the job after writing a "very odd spec television show" for series creators Chris Elliot and Adam Resnick, he told Indiewire in 1999. "Adam's scripts were the best thing about 'Get a Life' — and we all tried to write in Adam's voice. That was the job," Kaufman explained to The Guardian.
As much as he admired Resnick, Kaufman was not able to write like him. "It occurred to...
Kaufman began his career as a writer working on a show called "Get a Life." He snagged the job after writing a "very odd spec television show" for series creators Chris Elliot and Adam Resnick, he told Indiewire in 1999. "Adam's scripts were the best thing about 'Get a Life' — and we all tried to write in Adam's voice. That was the job," Kaufman explained to The Guardian.
As much as he admired Resnick, Kaufman was not able to write like him. "It occurred to...
- 9/12/2022
- by Shae Sennett
- Slash Film
The Movie: "Death to Smoochy"
Where you can stream it: Free with ads on YouTube
The pitch: Kids' show host Rainbow Randolph (Robin Williams) finds himself going from the high life to the gutters after he's caught taking bribes from parents to get their kids on his show. It turns out that children's television is rife with criminal activity, and the studio, Kidnet, needs to replace Randolph with someone truly squeaky clean. Enter Sheldon Mopes (Edward Norton), a vegetarian bleeding heart who dresses up as Smoochy the Rhino and performs at bar mitzvahs and the Coney Island Methadone Clinic.
Producer Nora Wells (Catherine Keener) hires Smoochy and helps him become Kidnet's biggest star, but there are a few problems: she both loathes and lusts after Sheldon, his idealism ends up taking a big bite out of Kidnet's bottom line, and Randolph's out for revenge. In fact, after a few failed attempts at humiliating Sheldon,...
Where you can stream it: Free with ads on YouTube
The pitch: Kids' show host Rainbow Randolph (Robin Williams) finds himself going from the high life to the gutters after he's caught taking bribes from parents to get their kids on his show. It turns out that children's television is rife with criminal activity, and the studio, Kidnet, needs to replace Randolph with someone truly squeaky clean. Enter Sheldon Mopes (Edward Norton), a vegetarian bleeding heart who dresses up as Smoochy the Rhino and performs at bar mitzvahs and the Coney Island Methadone Clinic.
Producer Nora Wells (Catherine Keener) hires Smoochy and helps him become Kidnet's biggest star, but there are a few problems: she both loathes and lusts after Sheldon, his idealism ends up taking a big bite out of Kidnet's bottom line, and Randolph's out for revenge. In fact, after a few failed attempts at humiliating Sheldon,...
- 8/13/2022
- by Danielle Ryan
- Slash Film
Updated with Vice statement: More than 75 current and former writers for HBO have signed a petition calling on Vice Media “to sign a strong union contract” with the WGA. The list includes several high-profile scribes including John Oliver, David Simon, Warren Leight, Tom Fontana, Eric Overmyer and Jesse Armstrong.
Read the petition and its signatories below.
Editorial staffers at Vice overwhelmingly ratified their first contract with WGA East in April 2016, a three-year deal that was retroactive to January 1 that year.
“This petition shows what WGA East solidarity looks like,” the guild said in a statement. “Just as our members who craft shows for HBO are expressing support for their brothers and sisters at Vice, the Wgae-represented employees in all parts of Vice are supporting each other in the quest for a good contract. That solidarity has already brought real gains in a number...
Read the petition and its signatories below.
Editorial staffers at Vice overwhelmingly ratified their first contract with WGA East in April 2016, a three-year deal that was retroactive to January 1 that year.
“This petition shows what WGA East solidarity looks like,” the guild said in a statement. “Just as our members who craft shows for HBO are expressing support for their brothers and sisters at Vice, the Wgae-represented employees in all parts of Vice are supporting each other in the quest for a good contract. That solidarity has already brought real gains in a number...
- 11/29/2018
- by Erik Pedersen
- Deadline Film + TV
Lots of festivals are happening around the Austin/Central Texas area over the next week. The 18th annual Cine Las Americas fest got underway last night and will continue through Sunday. Featured films, in categories that include narrative and documentary feature and short films, screen at Marchesa Hall, The Mexican American Cultural Center and at Jones Auditorium on the campus of St. Edward's University. All selected titles either contain English subtitles or screen in English. The festival focuses on work from the Us, Canada, Latin America, and the Iberian Peninsula.
The 8th annual Off-Centered Film Festival also kicked off last night. The partnership between Dogfish Head Craft Brewery and Alamo Drafthouse has a theme of "yacht rockin'" this year and they're raising money for The National Wildlife Federation. In addition to the yearly short film competition, they'll be showing the Marx Brothers classic Monkey Business, Joon-ho Bong's The Host...
The 8th annual Off-Centered Film Festival also kicked off last night. The partnership between Dogfish Head Craft Brewery and Alamo Drafthouse has a theme of "yacht rockin'" this year and they're raising money for The National Wildlife Federation. In addition to the yearly short film competition, they'll be showing the Marx Brothers classic Monkey Business, Joon-ho Bong's The Host...
- 4/24/2015
- by Matt Shiverdecker
- Slackerwood
It’s pretty much a well-known fact that there is nothing more difficult than being funny. It’s much harder to make someone laugh than it is to operate on their brain or send them into space. But Adam Resnick has never shied away from hard work — just people. In his new nonfiction book, Will Not Attend: Lively Stories of Detachment and Isolation, the esteemed former Late Night With David Letterman writer and Chris Elliott cohort (Get a Life and Cabin Boy) manages to crack you up on one page and have you in tears the next. And not because it’s sad, either — because you’re chuckling so strenuously. I first met Adam in 1986, when I was interning at Late Night during his long and influential stint there; he and I forged a deep bond over being anxious and constantly sleepy that continues to give us common ground all these years later.
- 5/16/2014
- by Julie Klam
- Vulture
On Friday, comedy fans packed the room at the Bell House in Brooklyn for Tom Scharpling and Ted Leo's "Very Special Hurricane Benefit Show". The lineup included an eclectic mix of comics, musicians and celebrities, including Chris Elliott and Adam Resnick, Brooke Shields, John Hodgman, Andrew Wk, H. Jon Benjamin, Julie Klausner, Titus Andronicus, Kristen Schaal and Chris Gethard. Elliott's comedically-inclined offspring, Abby and Bridey, also attended.
When all was said and done the event raised $30,000. According to producer Marianne Ways, $10,000 of that was raised in auctions led by Hodgman and Schaal. The proceeds will be donated to Occupy Sandy and Staten Island's Siller Foundation Relief Fund.
Photographer Mindy Tucker was on hand to document the event. Check out her gallery below:...
When all was said and done the event raised $30,000. According to producer Marianne Ways, $10,000 of that was raised in auctions led by Hodgman and Schaal. The proceeds will be donated to Occupy Sandy and Staten Island's Siller Foundation Relief Fund.
Photographer Mindy Tucker was on hand to document the event. Check out her gallery below:...
- 12/10/2012
- by Carol Hartsell
- Huffington Post
Exclusive: Ben Stiller is teaming with another comedy multihyphenate, Bonnie Hunt, for a comedy project at ABC that will star the comedienne. Hunt will write the half-hour, titled compliKATEd, with her writing partner and frequent collaborator Don Lake. The ensemble comedy centers on Kate (Hunt), a confidently insecure woman with a complicated life. It is produced by Stiller’s Red Hour Television, Hunt’s Bob & Alice Prods and ABC Studios, where Red Hour TV is under an overall deal. Hunt and Lake will executive produce with Red Hour TV’s Stiller, Debbie Liebling and Stuart Cornfeld. This marks Hunt’s return to ABC and ABC Studios, where she toplined the 2002 comedy series Life With Bonnie, also co-created/executive produced with Lake. The two also co-wrote together the 2006 ABC/ABC Studios comedy pilot Let Go, directed by and starring Hunt. This is the third ABC sale for Red Hour TV in its maiden development season,...
- 10/26/2012
- by NELLIE ANDREEVA
- Deadline TV
Chicago – Charlie Kaufman (“Adaptation,” “Being John Malkovich”) once wrote for a TV sitcom so odd that its network and most of the U.S. had no idea what to make of it. Without question, “Get a Life” was ahead of its time. So much of the twisted comedy of 2012 owes a debt to this true oddity from two decades ago, a unique gem that is finally getting a complete series release years after fans started clamoring for it.
Rating: 4.5/5.0
Was it worth the wait? First and foremost, the show is much funnier than I remembered. As the audio commentary points out (and there’s one on every episode), the series premiere of “Get a Life” was a relatively straightforward comedy about a man-child. It wasn’t nearly as dark and twisted as it would later become. Quickly, “Get a Life” turned more into a show about a demented loner and...
Rating: 4.5/5.0
Was it worth the wait? First and foremost, the show is much funnier than I remembered. As the audio commentary points out (and there’s one on every episode), the series premiere of “Get a Life” was a relatively straightforward comedy about a man-child. It wasn’t nearly as dark and twisted as it would later become. Quickly, “Get a Life” turned more into a show about a demented loner and...
- 9/27/2012
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
In its maiden development season, Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Television has sold two single-camera comedies to ABC, Please Knock, written by Kevin Napier, and The Notorious Mollie Flowers, written by Adam Resnick (The Larry Sanders Show). Both are being produced by ABC Studios. Red Hour TV was launched at the end of last year when Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld’s Red Hour Films signed an overall deal with ABC Studios and brought in veteran film and TV executive Debbie Liebling to run the new TV division. Stiller, Cornfeld and Liebling executive produce both ABC comedies, which have received script commitments. Loosely based on Stiller’s life, Please Knock centers on Mitch Fuller, an A-list actor who realizes he’s losing touch with reality and his family, and moves back to the same building he grew up in in New York, where his parents still live. Napier is writing-executive producing.
- 9/22/2012
- by NELLIE ANDREEVA
- Deadline TV
Publisher/editor Mike White is planning a new edition of his classic film zine, Cashiers du Cinemart, and is looking for article submissions. Cashiers has long been the premiere publication on cult movies, interviews with under-appreciated filmmakers, reconsiderations of unloved movies, pop culture analyses of forgotten film classics and other essays about the fringes of cinematic culture.
White characterizes himself as a “fairly harsh editor” and it’s that devotion to publishing quality, well-researched and well-thought-out articles that has made Cashiers du Cinemart such a beloved publication for film buffs over so many decades.
If you’re a film writer who has what it takes, here are the deadlines for article submission:
Idea/pitch of what you want to write about by Feb. 29, 2012
Rough draft by May 31, 2012
Final version by July 4, 2012
Details on how to submit can be found on the Impossible Funky blog.
You can also still buy Cashiers...
White characterizes himself as a “fairly harsh editor” and it’s that devotion to publishing quality, well-researched and well-thought-out articles that has made Cashiers du Cinemart such a beloved publication for film buffs over so many decades.
If you’re a film writer who has what it takes, here are the deadlines for article submission:
Idea/pitch of what you want to write about by Feb. 29, 2012
Rough draft by May 31, 2012
Final version by July 4, 2012
Details on how to submit can be found on the Impossible Funky blog.
You can also still buy Cashiers...
- 2/7/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The cult screenwriter relives his big breakthrough – and offers a few writing tips
My first writing job was on a TV show called Get a Life. The show was mostly in the voice of its creators, Chris Elliott and Adam Resnick, who'd worked on the David Letterman Show. Adam's scripts were the best thing about Get a Life – and we all tried to write in Adam's voice. That was the job.
I was frustrated with the results, but it occurred to me that there was no solution as long as my job was trying to imitate someone else's voice. The obvious solution was to find a situation where I was doing me, not someone else. The major obstacle to this is your deeply seated belief that "you" is not interesting.
When I first got the job, I couldn't talk in the writing room. I was working on a sitcom and I could not talk.
My first writing job was on a TV show called Get a Life. The show was mostly in the voice of its creators, Chris Elliott and Adam Resnick, who'd worked on the David Letterman Show. Adam's scripts were the best thing about Get a Life – and we all tried to write in Adam's voice. That was the job.
I was frustrated with the results, but it occurred to me that there was no solution as long as my job was trying to imitate someone else's voice. The obvious solution was to find a situation where I was doing me, not someone else. The major obstacle to this is your deeply seated belief that "you" is not interesting.
When I first got the job, I couldn't talk in the writing room. I was working on a sitcom and I could not talk.
- 10/4/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
The cult screenwriter relives his big breakthrough – and offers a few writing tips
My first writing job was on a TV show called Get a Life. The show was mostly in the voice of its creators, Chris Elliott and Adam Resnick, who'd worked on the David Letterman Show. Adam's scripts were the best thing about Get a Life – and we all tried to write in Adam's voice. That was the job.
I was frustrated with the results, but it occurred to me that there was no solution as long as my job was trying to imitate someone else's voice. The obvious solution was to find a situation where I was doing me, not someone else. The major obstacle to this is your deeply seated belief that "you" is not interesting.
Continue reading...
My first writing job was on a TV show called Get a Life. The show was mostly in the voice of its creators, Chris Elliott and Adam Resnick, who'd worked on the David Letterman Show. Adam's scripts were the best thing about Get a Life – and we all tried to write in Adam's voice. That was the job.
I was frustrated with the results, but it occurred to me that there was no solution as long as my job was trying to imitate someone else's voice. The obvious solution was to find a situation where I was doing me, not someone else. The major obstacle to this is your deeply seated belief that "you" is not interesting.
Continue reading...
- 10/3/2011
- by Charlie Kaufman
- The Guardian - Film News
Cashiers du Cinemart, the legendary cult movie zine that puts all other movie zines to shame, has returned with a brand new print edition that is available in a variety of formats, from an old school photocopied version to a glossy high-end print-on-demand version to an electronic Kindle edition and more.
After a four-year hiatus, publisher and editor Mike White has returned to the printed page as part of a wider “Print Is Not Dead” movement. In typical fashion of it’s earlier print editions, Cashiers du Cinemart #16 is a massive 100-plus page endeavor with contributions from numerous writers, including White himself, riffing on classic cult movies, taking apart mainstream films, analyzing obscure genres, interviewing filmmakers a ton more fun stuff.
This new print zine comes hot on the heels of the hit book Impossibly Funky: A Cashiers du Cinemart Collection, which gathered the best articles from the zine’s previous 15 issues,...
After a four-year hiatus, publisher and editor Mike White has returned to the printed page as part of a wider “Print Is Not Dead” movement. In typical fashion of it’s earlier print editions, Cashiers du Cinemart #16 is a massive 100-plus page endeavor with contributions from numerous writers, including White himself, riffing on classic cult movies, taking apart mainstream films, analyzing obscure genres, interviewing filmmakers a ton more fun stuff.
This new print zine comes hot on the heels of the hit book Impossibly Funky: A Cashiers du Cinemart Collection, which gathered the best articles from the zine’s previous 15 issues,...
- 8/22/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
ScriWriter Justin Malen is sewing up a double bill of gigs.
Paramount has hired Malen to pen its comedy "Time Out," and he's negotiating to write the Media Rights Capital comedy "Trophy Husbands."
Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey of Temple Hill Prods. and Tom Lassally and Michael Rotenberg of 3 Arts Entertainment are producing "Time Out," based on a 2006 New York Times article written by Warren St. John about recent college graduates who get in over their heads when they volunteer to coach a youth-league football team.
Matt Eddy and Billy Eddy previously worked on the screenplay, which originally was set up at Paramount Vantage. Paramount's Geoff Stier is overseeing for the studio.
Ternion Pictures and 3 Arts are producing "Trophy," based on a concept by Ternion's John Altschuler, Dave Krinsky and Mike Judge and writer-director Adam Resnick.
Lassally and Rotenberg are producing for 3 Arts along with Altschuler, Krinsky and Judge for Ternion.
Paramount has hired Malen to pen its comedy "Time Out," and he's negotiating to write the Media Rights Capital comedy "Trophy Husbands."
Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey of Temple Hill Prods. and Tom Lassally and Michael Rotenberg of 3 Arts Entertainment are producing "Time Out," based on a 2006 New York Times article written by Warren St. John about recent college graduates who get in over their heads when they volunteer to coach a youth-league football team.
Matt Eddy and Billy Eddy previously worked on the screenplay, which originally was set up at Paramount Vantage. Paramount's Geoff Stier is overseeing for the studio.
Ternion Pictures and 3 Arts are producing "Trophy," based on a concept by Ternion's John Altschuler, Dave Krinsky and Mike Judge and writer-director Adam Resnick.
Lassally and Rotenberg are producing for 3 Arts along with Altschuler, Krinsky and Judge for Ternion.
- 11/3/2009
- by By Jay A. Fernandez
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Writers Ben Karlin and Stu Zicherman have been hired to translate a 9-year-old boy's musings on seduction.
Fox picked up film rights in December to "How to Talk to Girls," a self-help book written by fourth-grader Alex Greven. Karlin and Zicherman, who paired up to write the spec "A.C.O.D. (Adult Children of Divorce)," will adapt a feature screenplay from Greven's extensive experience on the playa-ground. 21 Laps is producing.
Greven was selling his handwritten pamphlet at his school book fair before HarperCollins published it in November. The youngster apparently was trying to give his peers some tips on communicating with their fairer schoolmates beyond pulling hair and kicking shins.
Karlin, who is repped by UTA and 3 Arts Entertainment, has been a writer and executive producer on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report." He has an overall deal at HBO, where he is developing "Women's...
Fox picked up film rights in December to "How to Talk to Girls," a self-help book written by fourth-grader Alex Greven. Karlin and Zicherman, who paired up to write the spec "A.C.O.D. (Adult Children of Divorce)," will adapt a feature screenplay from Greven's extensive experience on the playa-ground. 21 Laps is producing.
Greven was selling his handwritten pamphlet at his school book fair before HarperCollins published it in November. The youngster apparently was trying to give his peers some tips on communicating with their fairer schoolmates beyond pulling hair and kicking shins.
Karlin, who is repped by UTA and 3 Arts Entertainment, has been a writer and executive producer on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report." He has an overall deal at HBO, where he is developing "Women's...
- 6/1/2009
- by By Jay A. Fernandez and Borys Kit
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
While Brett Ratner's next feature project may be a mystery, he's expected to go behind the camera for the Fox comedy pilot "Cop House." According to The Hollywood Reporter, not only will Ratner direct the 20th Century Fox TV comedy about a halfway house for troubled cops, he'll also executive produce along with Adam Resnick, Marty Adelstein and Michael Thorn. Having Ratner ("Rush House 3") at the helm hasn't always been a path to pilot success. He did the pilot for Fox's "Prison Break," which will end its run this spring after four seasons, but his most recent pilot, NBC's "Blue...
- 3/20/2009
- by HitFix Staff
- Hitfix
Brett Ratner has signed on to direct and executive produce Fox's comedy pilot "Cop House," which has added Rachael Harris and Ajay Naidu to its cast.
Christine Baranski has been tapped as a regular and Chris Noth a guest star on CBS' drama pilot "The Good Wife," while David Wilson Barnes has landed a lead on CBS' drama "Eastman's."
20th TV's "House" is set at a halfway house for troubled cops. Harris, repped by UTA and Principato Young, will play the only female cop at the house, sent there for posing nude in Hustler. Naidu will play a cop with a drinking problem. They join previously cast Tony Hale.
Ratner will direct the pilot under his deal with 20th and exec produce alongside writer Adam Resnick, Marty Adelstein and Michael Thorn.
CBS Par's "Wife" centers on a politician's wife (Julianna Margulies) who gets a job as a junior associate at a top law firm.
Christine Baranski has been tapped as a regular and Chris Noth a guest star on CBS' drama pilot "The Good Wife," while David Wilson Barnes has landed a lead on CBS' drama "Eastman's."
20th TV's "House" is set at a halfway house for troubled cops. Harris, repped by UTA and Principato Young, will play the only female cop at the house, sent there for posing nude in Hustler. Naidu will play a cop with a drinking problem. They join previously cast Tony Hale.
Ratner will direct the pilot under his deal with 20th and exec produce alongside writer Adam Resnick, Marty Adelstein and Michael Thorn.
CBS Par's "Wife" centers on a politician's wife (Julianna Margulies) who gets a job as a junior associate at a top law firm.
- 3/19/2009
- by By Nellie Andreeva
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This week, the world of late night television experiences its biggest shakeup in years, as Jimmy Fallon takes the reigns of NBC's "Late Night" from Conan O'Brien, who, at the start of June, will take over "The Tonight Show" from Jay Leno, who moves on to start his own talk show at 10pm. With talk show hosts on our minds these days, it seemed like a good time to look back and see how they've fared on the silver screen.
Qualifications for inclusion were simple: the talk show host in question has to be best known -- and most successful -- in their show business career as a talk show host. Craig Ferguson, current host of CBS' "Late Late Show," carved out a long and successful career as an actor and director of such films as "The Big Tease" before accepting the slot after David Letterman, so he was out.
Qualifications for inclusion were simple: the talk show host in question has to be best known -- and most successful -- in their show business career as a talk show host. Craig Ferguson, current host of CBS' "Late Late Show," carved out a long and successful career as an actor and director of such films as "The Big Tease" before accepting the slot after David Letterman, so he was out.
- 3/3/2009
- by Matt Singer
- ifc.com
Fox is moving into "Cop House."
The network on Thursday handed out a pilot order to a comedy pilot from writer Adam Resnick ("The Larry Sanders Show").
The single-camera project, from 20th TV, is set at a halfway house for troubled cops.
Resnick is executive producing with Marty Adelstein and Michael Thorn.
"Cop House" is the latest off-beat comedy entry at Fox this pilot season.
Also in the running at the network are "Walorsky," about a slacker ex-cop-turned mall security guard in Buffalo and "The Station," about a covert CIA operative instigating a coup in a banana republic.
The network on Thursday handed out a pilot order to a comedy pilot from writer Adam Resnick ("The Larry Sanders Show").
The single-camera project, from 20th TV, is set at a halfway house for troubled cops.
Resnick is executive producing with Marty Adelstein and Michael Thorn.
"Cop House" is the latest off-beat comedy entry at Fox this pilot season.
Also in the running at the network are "Walorsky," about a slacker ex-cop-turned mall security guard in Buffalo and "The Station," about a covert CIA operative instigating a coup in a banana republic.
- 2/12/2009
- by By Nellie Andreeva
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The WB Network has had a change of heart about another midseason series order. The network has withdrawn its six-episode order for a comedy series from Adam Sandler and Jack Giarraputo's Happy Madison Prods. and Sony Pictures TV about a 19-year-old man who finds himself elected mayor of a small town in New Hampshire. Instead, the WB has given Happy Madison and SPT a sizable commitment for a blind put pilot for a new project. Sources said the decision to scrap the project, tentatively dubbed The Mayor, was made by mutual agreement of the principals at Happy Madison, SPT and the network. Preproduction had begun on the show, which was given a midseason order when the WB announced its fall lineup in May, but sources said the network, studio and Happy Madison were unhappy with the creative direction of the series. The WB's reversal on The Mayor follows the decision to table the midseason order for the planned spinoff of its hit dramedy Gilmore Girls. That untitled project was scuttled by budgetary issues when the high cost of shooting the show on location in Venice, Calif. -- as intended by creator Amy Sherman-Palladino -- became prohibitive. Meanwhile, the network picked up Spelling TV's drama Summerland as a summer series with a 13-episode order. The Mayor was one of the first big pilot commitments the WB made last year (HR 10/4). The pilot was penned by Adam Resnick, who was to executive produce the series with Giarraputo and Doug Robinson. Newcomer Ben Feldman had been cast as the lead.
- 9/24/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It's a safe bet that Teri Polo is headed to ABC's upfront presentation in New York next week. Polo's comedy pilot I'm With Her, about a regular guy who suddenly finds himself married to a female celebrity, is high on the list of ABC comedy projects with a strong shot at landing on the 2003-04 schedule that ABC will present to advertisers Tuesday, industry insiders said. In addition to I'm With Her, from Tollin/Robbins Prods. and Warner Bros. TV, pilots on the fast track are said to include the Paramount Network TV/Touchstone TV untitled Flett-Giordano/Ranberg project, about a young married couple from very different backgrounds; Touchstone TV/Industry Entertainment's Kelly Ripa-Faith Ford starrer Hope and Faith; and the untitled Tom Hertz project from 20th Century Fox TV and Brad Grey TV starring Breckin Meyer. Also in the mix are Platonically Incorrect and the untitled Kevin Hart comedy, sources said. On the drama side, where ABC is in dire need of a new hit, the field is said to be wide open, with Universal Network TV/Jersey TV's Karen Sisco rumored for the Wednesday 10 p.m. slot. Spelling TV/Touchstone TV's Danny Nucci-toplined police drama 10-8, Warner Bros. TV's Steven Weber starrer The DA and Touchstone TV's The Street Lawyer and The Partners all are considered serious contenders. The Warner Bros. TV-Tollin/Robbins Prods. family drama Better Days also is in the mix. Meanwhile, things were looking up Wednesday for a possible return of David E. Kelley's veteran legal drama The Practice, which has suffered steep ratings declines and time-slot shifts this season. Also, Dick Wolf is said to be mounting a major lobbying effort with ABC brass to secure a pickup for his midseason drama Dragnet. Over at the WB Network, which also presents its lineup Tuesday, Warner Bros. TV's Tarzan and Jane is expected to swing onto the fall schedule, possibly on Sunday. One Tree Hill, a drama from WBTV and Tollin/Robbins Prods., also looks like a contender, possibly in a Wednesday berth, while WBTV's Gilmore Girls spinoff also is considered likely to get a pickup. In the comedy field, the WB is said to have the hots for WBTV's All About the Andersons and Sony Pictures TV's untitled Adam Resnick project about a 19-year-old small-town mayor, with both eyed for Thursday slots, sources said. The WB's freshman comedy What I Like About You and third-year drama Angel are both said to be likely for renewal. ABC and the WB declined comment.
Andy Richter has been cast opposite Monica Potter in CBS' comedy pilot The Lunchbox Chronicles, while Spy Kids star Carla Gugino has been tapped to play the title character in the ABC drama pilot Karen Sisco, based on the character played by Jennifer Lopez in Steven Soderbergh's 1998 movie Out of Sight. In other pilot news, Samantha Mathis has been cast as the female lead in an untitled Jay Scherick/David Ronn comedy, which has moved from NBC to ABC; Diane Farr has been cast as the female lead in the NBC comedy The Ripples; Catherine Taylor has been tapped as the lead in the CBS comedy Harry's Girl; and Maggie Lawson has been cast as the female lead in ABC's untitled Ann Flett-Giordano/Chuck Ranberg comedy. Other pilot cast additions include D.B. Woodside, who has joined CBS' untitled Danny Glover drama pilot; newcomer Ben Feldman, who has been tapped as the central character in the WB Network's untitled Adam Resnick comedy; and Moira Kelly, who has been added to the WB's drama pilot Ravens.
The WB Network is getting a head start on its fall 2003 development with an early production commitment to a comedy pilot from producer Adam Sandler, writer Adam Resnick and Sony Pictures Television. The project -- sought by several networks, including ABC and Fox -- centers on a 19-year-old mayor of a small Northeastern town. Written by Resnick (Cabin Boy), the show is being produced by Sandler and Jack Giarraputo's Happy Madison Prods. and Resnick's 490 Inc. in association with SPT. Sandler, Giarraputo, Resnick and Doug Robinson, who oversees Happy Madison's TV department, are executive producing the project, which falls under Happy Madison's overall deal with SPT (HR 9/6).
- 10/4/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
"Lucky Numbers" is about as funny as an all-day hangover. Several sharp and usually witty people contributed to this misguided comedy, which is more than a little inspired by "Fargo". But their nearly complete failure only underscores the Coen brothers' achievement in making droll comedy out of a regional crime wave perpetuated by misfits hapless in their delinquency.
The potent boxoffice combination of John Travolta and Lisa Kudrow, along with the reteaming of Travolta and his "Michael" director, Nora Ephron, should ensure a solid opening for Paramount. But any success beyond the first week will be a tribute to those names and not the wobbly vehicle.
The major problem in the screenplay by Adam Resnick is the thoroughly off-putting nature of his entire motley crew of characters. The story takes place in Harrisburg, Pa., a city made famous by the Three Mile Island disaster. Perhaps Resnick feels that that incident vastly diminished the brain cells of local residents because none of his characters are dealt a full mental deck.
Travolta plays a cloyingly chirpy, half-witted TV weatherman whose financial troubles lead him to pursue criminal activity with increasingly disastrous results. Kudrow is a ruthlessly avarice and promiscuous TV lotto ball girl with whom Travolta schemes to rig the Pennsylvania State Lottery.
Ed O'Neill plays the unethical and equally greedy station manager, who uncovers the scheme and wants in on the action. Bill Pullman, the laziest cop in Christendom, reluctantly investigates the murder these schemes lead to. Tim Roth and Michael Rapaport play criminal vermin who continually lead all these dumbbells astray.
Of this lawless lot, only Kudrow and journalist-filmmaker Michael Moore, who turns up as Kudrow's onanistic cousin, manage to salvage any amusing moments from a comedy that mistakes leaden jokes for deadpan humor.
While the script is a mess, most of the blame must rest squarely with Ephron. The normally astute director never establishes a necessary tone for such dark humor. Gags hit with sledgehammer heaviness and most of them mock the movie's own characters so relentlessly -- and mirthlessly -- that one winces rather than laughs.
Her direction also underlines the schematic nature of Resnick's story. Audiences will quickly recognize that whatever can go wrong will go wrong -- and this always happens in highly predictable ways.
Travolta's performance is one of complete miscalculation. Strain shows in his every gesture. His character's own frantic haplessness mirrors Travolta's own desperate attempt to win laughs for his character without losing audience empathy for a thickheaded jerk.
Kudrow takes a more casual approach, underplaying her character's rapacious venality to sometimes humorous effect. To her warped mind, sex, larceny and murder are legitimate means to economic ends, and she's determined to be a successful career girl. Moore plays the country bumpkin with hidden depths of smarts to the hilt, a kind of left-handed tribute to the self-consciously guileless persona he effects in his documentaries.
LUCKY NUMBERS
Paramount Pictures
Paramount and Studio Canal present
a Jonathan D. Krane and Mad Chance production
in association with Alphaville
Producers: Andrew Lazar, Jonathan D. Krane,
Sean Daniel
Director: Nora Ephron
Screenwriter: Adam Resnick
Executive producer: G. Mac Brown
Director of photography: John Lindley
Production designer: Dan Davis
Music: George Fenton
Costume designer: Albert Wolsky
Editor: Barry Malkin
Color/stereo
Cast:
Russ Richards: John Travolta
Crystal Latroy: Lisa Kudrow
Gig: Tim Roth
Dick: Ed O'Neill
Dale: Michael Rapaport
Chambers: Daryl Mitchell
Walter: Michael Moore
Larry: Michael Weston
Lakewood: Bill Pullman
Running time - 105 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
The potent boxoffice combination of John Travolta and Lisa Kudrow, along with the reteaming of Travolta and his "Michael" director, Nora Ephron, should ensure a solid opening for Paramount. But any success beyond the first week will be a tribute to those names and not the wobbly vehicle.
The major problem in the screenplay by Adam Resnick is the thoroughly off-putting nature of his entire motley crew of characters. The story takes place in Harrisburg, Pa., a city made famous by the Three Mile Island disaster. Perhaps Resnick feels that that incident vastly diminished the brain cells of local residents because none of his characters are dealt a full mental deck.
Travolta plays a cloyingly chirpy, half-witted TV weatherman whose financial troubles lead him to pursue criminal activity with increasingly disastrous results. Kudrow is a ruthlessly avarice and promiscuous TV lotto ball girl with whom Travolta schemes to rig the Pennsylvania State Lottery.
Ed O'Neill plays the unethical and equally greedy station manager, who uncovers the scheme and wants in on the action. Bill Pullman, the laziest cop in Christendom, reluctantly investigates the murder these schemes lead to. Tim Roth and Michael Rapaport play criminal vermin who continually lead all these dumbbells astray.
Of this lawless lot, only Kudrow and journalist-filmmaker Michael Moore, who turns up as Kudrow's onanistic cousin, manage to salvage any amusing moments from a comedy that mistakes leaden jokes for deadpan humor.
While the script is a mess, most of the blame must rest squarely with Ephron. The normally astute director never establishes a necessary tone for such dark humor. Gags hit with sledgehammer heaviness and most of them mock the movie's own characters so relentlessly -- and mirthlessly -- that one winces rather than laughs.
Her direction also underlines the schematic nature of Resnick's story. Audiences will quickly recognize that whatever can go wrong will go wrong -- and this always happens in highly predictable ways.
Travolta's performance is one of complete miscalculation. Strain shows in his every gesture. His character's own frantic haplessness mirrors Travolta's own desperate attempt to win laughs for his character without losing audience empathy for a thickheaded jerk.
Kudrow takes a more casual approach, underplaying her character's rapacious venality to sometimes humorous effect. To her warped mind, sex, larceny and murder are legitimate means to economic ends, and she's determined to be a successful career girl. Moore plays the country bumpkin with hidden depths of smarts to the hilt, a kind of left-handed tribute to the self-consciously guileless persona he effects in his documentaries.
LUCKY NUMBERS
Paramount Pictures
Paramount and Studio Canal present
a Jonathan D. Krane and Mad Chance production
in association with Alphaville
Producers: Andrew Lazar, Jonathan D. Krane,
Sean Daniel
Director: Nora Ephron
Screenwriter: Adam Resnick
Executive producer: G. Mac Brown
Director of photography: John Lindley
Production designer: Dan Davis
Music: George Fenton
Costume designer: Albert Wolsky
Editor: Barry Malkin
Color/stereo
Cast:
Russ Richards: John Travolta
Crystal Latroy: Lisa Kudrow
Gig: Tim Roth
Dick: Ed O'Neill
Dale: Michael Rapaport
Chambers: Daryl Mitchell
Walter: Michael Moore
Larry: Michael Weston
Lakewood: Bill Pullman
Running time - 105 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 10/23/2000
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Hollywood funnyman Robin Williams is set to star in Death to Smoochie, a Warner Brothers comedy that will be directed by Danny DeVito. Williams will play Rainbow Randolph, a Barney-like costumed TV star fired for taking bribes and replaced by the clean-cut title character, a blue rhinoceros. Randolph then plots to kill his rhino rival, or actually the clean-cut guy under the fuzzy suit. DeVito will also star in the film. The project, scripted by Adam Resnick, has been a high-profile number since Jim Carrey seriously considered playing the title role before choosing the Frank Darabont project Bijou. Warner Brothers is keen on Edward Norton to fill the rhino suit - a possibility now that the actor became free after exiting the MGM film Hart's War (2001). Filming is set to begin in January.
- 10/6/2000
- WENN
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