TVSquad

Geez. I guess we know who television's "It" man is these days. J.J. Abrams, creator of Felicity, Lost and Alias and director of Mission: Impossible III, signed new television and film production deals with Warner Bros. and Paramount, totalling approximately $60 million. According to E! online, the deals wrap up some intense negotiating where nearly every Hollywood studio was vying to get the Abrams name on its stuff. There's a funny quote from a Warner Bros. exec in the LA Times, saying, "J.J. is such a unique and extraordinary talent, someone whom I've admired for years." I laugh at that because, if he was so talented, why didn't you bozos sign him years ago instead of now when he's hot? Oh, I think I just answered my own question.

J.J.'s television deal with Warner Bros. gives him $4-$6 million a year and pays $2 million of Bad Robot's overhead costs. The movie deal with Paramount gives him $2.5 million a year over five years, plus costs and $5 million for his first movie. Paramount execs call J.J. "the next Steven Spielberg."

No pressure, J.J.