Hooray For Us!

This just in from the Guardian:

Being Human, the flatshare-with-monsters show that I raved about along with Oli, Jason, Rob, and David has been commissioned to series.

Not only does this prove that we are all gentlemen of exquisite taste, but also that quality genre series have a home on British TV, and that willing something to happen really hard can make it occur.

For the next demonstration of my psychic powers, not only will I get scripts for a new TV series of Blake’s 7 commissioned, I will make it happen yesterday.

[concentrates REALLY HARD]

There.

Rogers Moore

John Rogers is a rather fine screenwriter. His works include the vastly under-rated The Core, and a pilot for a Global Frequency TV show (which, sadly, wasn’t picked up).

He also wrote one of the drafts of Catwoman, and was unfortunate enough to have his name on the finished product. But he’s really sorry about that.

Anyhoo, he and Dean Devlin have received a 13-episode order for new series Leverage from TNT.

Nice.

But the best bit is this: not only is he blogging right now about the nitty-gritty of running a writers room, he’ll also answer questions left in the comments section.

And for another perspective on what goes on in a writers room, check out showrunner Ron Moore’s podcasts for Battlestar Galactica. Not only does he do commentaries on all the episodes, occasionally he’ll take the recorder into the writers room and you can hear the writers break the episode.

I tell you, the Internet is full of goodness.

Letters from America: Introduction

Gah. Haven’t posted a thing on the blog for a couple of weeks. This must stop.

Lest Stuart Perry decide that it’s Karma Payback Time and swing by for a drive-by commenting, I have a new plan.

Reprints.

As popularised by Danny Stack, the plan is a simple one. Should I not have anything interesting to write about, or be stuck behind a rapidly approaching deadline, or just be having too much fun elsewhere to write a full blog post, I’ll reprint stuff I’ve written before.

Odds are that it’ll be new to you though.

I spent most of a year living the dream in Los Angeles. I had some redundancy money, enough to support me comfortably for six months, and had decided that it was time to shit or get off the pot and spend some time trying to make it as a writer.

Having done the sums, I calculated the cost-of-living for LA versus London.

They were the same.

So I got a visa, and off I went.

I took with me the following:

  • A backpack half-filled with clothes and half-filled with screenwriting books
  • A toothbrush
  • My wallet
  • Nothing else

And I had a hostel on Hollywood Boulevard booked for the first week after I arrived.

I was in Los Angeles for most of a year. And every few weeks, I’d email how it was going to whoever had asked to be kept updated.

So, that’s the background. Next time I’m feeling lazy or overworked, expect to see a reprint of the emails I sent instead of an introduction.

Because as a way of not having to write a blog entry, this one would have to be counted as a bit of a failure.