UPFRONTS 2013: The Overachievers 
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There is a lot of buzz building for three of the six AMC scripts that took part in the network’s annual pilot script “bake-off” earlier this month: Voyage, The Man With the Golden Ears and The 4th Estate. In the “bake-off,” six scripts identified by AMC brass faced off in a series of elaborate presentations, with the producing team for each project showing a promo reel and each creator pitching in detail the series beyond the pilot, including mapping out the first season. AMC brass are not expected to make a decision until the week of April 4, when they will probably pick up one or two of the scripts to pilots, but three of the six finalists have been getting a lot of buzz.
Voyage, from writer/exec producer John Shiban, is described as a grounded look at human beings’ first contact with extraterrestrial life seen through the eyes of an ambitious female scientist and her team at Jet Propulsion Laboratories. Sony TV and Lynda Obst are producing.
The Man With the Golden Ears is based on the Danish series about a record executive with kids who tries to balance work and family life. Scott Rosenberg is the writer/exec producer for Fox TV Studios.
The 4th Estate, from writer/exec producer Gideon Yago and Landscape/FremantleMedia, centers on Dan Hilton, a respected family man and journalist who, by investigating a major congressional scandal, risks exposing his quest for truth as a lie and that he has a second family in DC.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
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Most of the execs at AMC have been saying THE WRECK, a John Lee Hancock project, is all but certain to go to series. I don’t even know what it’s about, but JLH is awesome and I hear the script by an up-and-coming writing team is fantastic.
Voyage sounds cool. The others…eh.
Surely AMC won’t pass on an opportunity to have a John Hancock Executive produced project set in the world of college football!! But hey, newspapers in San Diego sure sound exciting!! Sounds like classic agency driven hype to me!!
Is that Gideon Yago, mtv VJ Gideon Yago?
If so, Then the “4th Estate” is clearly a roman a clef…
My question too. I hear Jesse Camp has something in the works over at Noggin’.
Well done, sir. Well done.
Rosenberg is one of the great voices.
perf for AMC
How are writers being compensated for their “bake-off” presentations and what does the Guild think of this?
Nowhere does it say these were done on spec. I’m sure the writers were compensated for services rendered while writing/developing these scripts at AMC.
I was thinking the same thing. Seems like a lot of work…
It is a lot of work but (a) what else is new–any working writer these days is having to do a LOT of spec writing of treatments, ‘beat sheets’ and the like and (b) surely the writer(s) had to have done most of it already when they sold their show(s)-at least fleshing out the first season arc. The promo reel presumably was paid for by AMC.
Also unlike the broadcast nets, AMC’s ratio of dev’t to pilot production is tiny, so can’t really blame them for wanting to mitigate some of the risk w/more of a sense of the pilot/show.
I highly DOUBT the writers were compensated AT ALL. The executives and producers expect them to jump through hoops as part of their script fee. I can hear them now,
“Listen, we’ve got a REALLY good chance at a pick-up here. But you have to spend another few weeks working around the clock and putting on the dog and pony show for us to nail this. Arc out the whole first season, give them act break downs for the first 6 episodes, help us get some footage together for a sizzle reel, oh and we’ll need you to be in edit bay the entire time we’re cutting it. Oh and one more thing, one of the female execs is too old to carry her own eggs to term, so they uh, are wondering if you could donate your eggs to her. Yes, I know it sounds a little Rumpelstiltskin, but come on, we might get a SHOW ON THE AIR! And yes, I know it will probably be cancelled after 3 episodes, but please, just 6 or 7 eggs?! It’s not like you’re going to use them!”
Whatever, AMC. You guys are gross. Suck ‘em dry while you can…
I used to love this guy after beautiful girls. But his recent scripts have no flow. His dialogue (or voice, as you call it) lacks authenticity. It always seems like he’s more concerned with dropping some 50-cent word than making sure his story and characters feel real. Hopefully with AMC’s involvement they can help him recapture the magic of his earlier work. Good look to them all.
Voyage sounds like a Contact rip off. Which Obst was a producer before Zemeckis made a great film…sans Obst…
‘Cause Contact was the first story ever, on screen or otherwise, about first contact and of course a simple logline of a few words makes it a rip-off of that specific film.
sounds like Nellie might be off base this time!
I remember about 13 years ago when her book came out seeing L. Obst at a signing declare obnoxiously that “if I only cared about money I’d produce TV shows.”
She’s had quite a few tv shows in development, they just never go anywhere! Linda likes money just as much as the nevt person in this town.
Voyage is the clear frontrunner here. The producer behind “Contact”? This is a no brainer for AMC.
Contact sucked, so does that mean the no brainer is DON’T DO IT?
$170 million worldwide. Nominated for an Oscar and won several other awards. Clearly your perception of what sucks makes no sense.
NOW they want to make a journalism show?! WTF?!
The claims in this article are false. ~Sincerely, AMC
Only Voyage sounds appealing, to the other two you can rename it with “CANCELLED”.
Wga members, you guys sound lazy. Really disrespect the fact that you are unwilling to so things on spec anymore. Don’t forget about all the people that make minimum wage an struggle to get out of poverty yet you want to be paid for everything.
We hate you too… it’s why we don’t respect YOU (insert bitch ass assistants, executives, name-only-producers, agents/managers). Anyone who doesn’t do a lick o’ work…
What about Tom Kelly’s Sandhog pilot “American Made”? Fresh and original take on the working class American stories that keep not getting told in favor of rich-guy-with-a-character-flaw stories. Could bring a new audience to AMC – and Tom Kelly is one of the best guys in the business.
Then wtf is Breaking Bad??
I knew of a Sandhog with the name of Kelly and he is also a hell of a novelist. Is this the guy? I ran across him years ago in a bar room fight where he was helping the barman out of a jam and he could handle his bacon…WOW a Real Guy writing for TV ..What a first…
Chick Fleishman
MtvvideonyGo must be fantastic
Forgot to mention Kevin Spacey’s “House of Cards” that was part of this “bake-off”, then Netflix outbid AMC and picked up 2 yrs worth for $100 million. While AMC ponders over the “winners”, Netflix could buy up the real winners.