Posts with tag Million Dollar Baby
Posted Feb 26th 2008 10:38AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, The Shield, Cable/Satellite, Pickups and Renewals, Life
Starz, the cable network, is getting into original production and their first project will be based on the 2005 Best Picture Oscar-winning film
Crash. Glen Mazzara, whose credits include
Life, The Shield, Stand-Off and
Nash Bridges,
has been named executive producer/showrunner for the drama series. Lionsgate TV will co-produce with Starz, and they've greenlighted 13 episodes.
The controversial film, which dealt with the intersecting lives of a myriad of people living in Los Angeles in just 48 hours, centers on the character of Detective Graham Waters. Waters, a police detective, is struggling with his career, his drug addict mother and a criminal brother. The role was played by Don Cheadle (
Picket Fences), who was also one of the film's producers. He is expected to reprise the part in the Starz production and may even direct a few episodes. In addition, director/co-writer/producer Paul Haggis and others from the film are also on board for Starz.
Continue reading Starz first series will be Crash
Posted May 27th 2006 8:45AM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Watercooler Talk, Celebrities
Back in January, the lovely and talented Anna Johns reported that Oscar-winning actress Hilary Swank and husband Chad Lowe had agreed to separate, but were willing to get through the tough time and come out a stronger couple. Apparently this didn't happen exactly as planned.
According to a spokeswoman for Swank, she and Lowe have decided to initiate divorce proceedings after eight years of wedded bliss. A lawyer for the couple said Swank and Lowe have made a joint decision to divorce and that they still remain friends and have the utmost respect for each other.
Ms. Swank, who has won Oscars for performances in the movies Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby was a regular on Beverly Hills, 90210 back in the late 1990's. Mr. Lowe, brother of actor Rob Lowe, played the AIDS-infected Jesse McKenna on ABC's Life Goes On back in the mid 1980's and has had appeared in many other TV series since, including ER, Without a Trace and Law & Order: SVU.
Posted Feb 7th 2006 10:27AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, ABC, NBC, CBS, Cable, Programming, Numb3rs, Monk
If you're going to pitch a
pilot to television network execs in L.A., one key word is 'patience'. Another is 'persistence'.
Here
is an interesting article about a handful of pilots that are finally getting picked up by the networks, after their
creators have re-worked and re-tooled them for years. One example is
Numb3rs, which didn't make the cut the
first time around. The creators went back to the drawing board, pitched it the next year, and now it's a successful
series. Another example is
Monk, which was originally created for ABC but never got off the ground. A network
exec moved from ABC to USA, where
Monk found a following.
One of the most extreme cases comes this
year. For eight years, writer Paul Haggis (
Crash &
Million Dollar Baby) has been trying to get
the series,
The Truth About Joey Ice Cream on the air. It's a show about four Irish brothers who keep finding
themselves tangled up in the mob. Sound familiar? It should. We
reported on it last
month, when NBC finally picked it up as
The Black Donnellys. I actually kind-of prefer the original title
because it's quirky. Did the show really change that much or is it just because Haggis is hot right now? Probably the
latter. It's the same for Shonda Rhimes, the creator of the very-hot-right-now
Grey's Anatomy. She developed a
journalism-themed series one year before
Grey's and now has been asked to re-develop it.
Posted Jan 23rd 2006 9:45AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, NBC, Programming
NBC is banking on gritty writer Paul Haggis for one of its new fall dramas, called
The Black Donnellys.
Haggis wrote the screenplays for
Million Dollar Baby and
Crash, and has also won two Emmys for his
writing on
Thirtysomething. The new series, created by Haggis and Bobby Moresco, is about four Irish brothers
in New York's Hell's Kitchen and their lives in organized crime. It's one of those "they keep pullin' me back
in" kind of things. The series will actually be shot in New York.
With
The Sopranos
concluding next year, NBC must be hoping that we'll still want our violent mobster fix.
Posted Jan 12th 2006 2:37PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming
NBC has another live episode of Will and Grace at 8pm. It's followed by
new eps of Four Kings, My Name Is Earl, The Office, and ER.- ABC has a 90 minute Dancing With The Stars at 8, followed by the debut of Fred Savage's new sitcom
Crumbs, and then a new Primetime.
- CBS, for some reason, has all repeats tonight: CSI: Miami, CSI, and Without A
Trace.
- FOX has a new That 70s Show at 8, followed by a repeat That 70s Show and a new The
O.C.
- The WB has a new Smallville, followed by a new Beauty and the Geek.
- UPN has all repeats too: Everybody Hates Chris at 8, and then Love, Inc, Eve,
and Cuts.
- AMC has Timothy Dalton as 007 in The Living Daylights. It's on at 8.
- Also at 8: a repeat Emeril Live has the chef cooking old-fashioned fruit desserts. On the Food
Network.
- I've never seen the game show MXC, but there's a new ep on Spike at 9 (followed by a
repeat).
- HBO has The Grudge at 9, while HBO2 has Million Dollar Baby.
- At 10, A&E has a new episode of Dallas SWAT, while HGTV has a new House Hunters.
- MTV has a new episode of True Life titled "I'm on Steroids."
- Also at 10: some westerns on American Life: Sugarfoot, Kung Fu, and then
Maverick.
- Some 10pm movies: WE has Janeane Garofalo in The Truth About Cats and Dogs, while TCM has
Castle in the Sky.
- At 11, some goodies for cartoon fans on Cartoon Network: repeats of Family Guy, Aqua Teen
Hunger Force, and Futurama.
- Some people love him, some don't, but you can catch two repeat eps of The Andy Milonakis
Show on MTV2 at 11.
- On the Sundance Channel at 11, Brian Grazer interviews Sumner Redstone on Iconoclasts.
- At midnight, ESPN2 has the State Farm U.S. Championships figure skating.
Posted Jan 10th 2006 1:32PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Talent
Another Hollywood split-up. This time it's Hilary Swank and Chad Lowe. The two have been married for eight years, but
it's not final. While they're splitting up, they aren't getting divorced. The official statement says, "Hilary and
Chad have decided to separate, but they are hopeful they'll be able to get through this tough time." The two
reportedly split sometime last year.
While we all know Hilary from her Oscar wins for
Boys Don't
Cry and
Million Dollar Baby, Chad has been an actor in tv land for a long time. Who can forget him as
Jesse on
Life Goes On? And, more recently, his turn as John Denver in the made-for-tv movie in 2000. Let's
hope these kids work things out.
Giveaways reminder: Office, Eli Stone, Supernatural, South Park
Giveaway Thursday: Tickets to the New York Television Festival ... all of it!
I miss the media-friendly John McCain - VIDEOS
