Carl Icahn Now Wants ALL Of Lionsgate 
Action Comedy TV: Showrunner Matt Nix 
SAG National Board Approves Joint Bargaining … Here's another of Diane Haithman's TV showrunner interviews:
MATT NIX is creator and showrunner for USA Network’s hit spy show Burn Notice, which just finished the second half of Season 3 this month. He's got a second action series The Good Guys set for FBS this summer. (It previews on May 19th and then resumes June 7th.) An action comedy set in Dallas about a resentful washed-up cop and an ambitious young detective, it stars Bradley Whitford and Colin Hanks. Los Angeles-born and UCLA-educated Nix wrote and directed some forgettable showbiz stuff before he became the "poster boy" for the Writers Guild's Showrunner Training Program. By 2007, he was the quintessential cable guy, happily inhabiting those tighter budgets, narrower target audiences, and lower stakes. Or, to use his word, a more “niche-y” area. Nix's obsession with crime began when he discovered a family friend was a con artist wanted by the FBI ("To me that was awesome") and began reading up on all sorts of swindlers. He has a quirky sense of humor which infuses his work and his characters especially when they are in life-threatening situations. His shows are not so much dramedies as they are non-sequitors. Now, as he moves into network TV at age 38, Nix recommends that the Big Three networks take some tips from cable TV; expresses a surprising respect for the TV executive's role in an increasingly complicated production business; and details his battle with White Collar showrunner Jeff Eastin to attract the most Twitter followers:
DH: I have been charged with reporting to you that Nikki has not missed one of your Burn Notice episodes, ever. She is an obsessed fan, so you should know that.
MN: I love that . . . I would be lying if I said I hadn’t noticed that she has mentioned the show. Read More »
NEW YORK CITY – Television, film, stage, and news headliners are set to take the stage as presenters for the 2010 Writers Guild of America Awards’ New York ceremony. Susie Essman (Curb Your Enthusiasm) will host the 62nd annual Writers Guild Awards, being held on Saturday, February 20, 2010 at the Hudson Theatre.
Award presenters at the New York event include: Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men), Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man), Richard Kind (A Serious Man), Ana Ortiz (Ugly Betty), Fred Armisen (SNL), Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie), Josh Charles (The Good Wife), Wallace Shawn (Gossip Girl), Chris Elliott, Abby Elliott (SNL), Anthony Anderson (Law & Order), Jeremy Sisto (Law & Order), Bob McGrath, Fran Brill and Prairie Dawn (Sesame Street), Stephanie D’Abruzzo (Avenue Q), Don Hastings (As The World Turns), Harry Smith (CBS Early Show), and Nancy Giles (CBS Sunday Morning). Additional presenters are expected to be added to the line-up. In addition:
NEW YORK CITY – Alan Zweibel will receive the Writers Guild of America East’s (WGAE) Ian McLellan Hunter Award for Lifetime Achievement in Writing. The award is given “in honor of a lifetime body of work as a writer in motion pictures or television.” Zweibel will receive his award at the 62nd annual Writers Guild Awards ceremony held on February 20 at New York City’s Hudson Theatre. One of Saturday Night Live’s original writers, Alan Zweibel has won multiple Emmy, Writers Guild, and TV Critics awards for his work in television, which also includes It’s Garry Shandling’s Show (co-creator and executive producer), Monk, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. In film, he co-wrote the screenplays for Dragnet, North, and The Story of Us.
I received several emails this past week pointing out the scarcity of women writers on the recent pilot pickups. At a cursory glance it is easy to jump on the bandwagon decrying the lack of diversity among the “creator” ranks, not to mention showrunners and writing staffs, but this was a subject worth pursuing in a bit more depth. Nikki Finke sent a missile to the broadside of various network heads about what was being called “the worst year in a decade for female writers and showrunners.”
Little wonder Warner Bros' New Line is in love with the Garry Marshall-directed Valentine’s Day because of its formula of cramming more than a dozen stars into a film and keeping the budget below $50 million. Now I'm told there's a sort-of-sequel underway. Valentine’s Day scribe Katherine Fugate has turned in a draft of New Year’s Eve, which Toby Emmerich and Richard Brener are reading this weekend, with Warner Bros bosses to follow shortly.
Invictus screenwriter Anthony Peckham has been named the recipient of the Writers Guild of America, West’s 2010 Paul Selvin Award, recognizing written work which embodies the spirit of constitutional rights and civil liberties. Peckham’s work, along with other Guild honorees, will be recognized at the 2010 Writers Guild Awards’ West Coast ceremony on February 20th. "Anthony Peckham’s screenplay for Invictus perfectly illustrates what the Paul Selvin Award stands for, expertly conveying how only a few men can unite to impact positive change, and have that change resonate around the world,” said WGAW President John Wells.
Whenever I mention Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci to bigtime screenwriters and producers who can't get anything going now, a lot of teeth-gnashing and profanity-spewing ensues. And the last time I wrote about the writing team, the comments section spewed hate about what hacks they are. Because "The Boys Of Summer 2009", as their flack gushes about them, wrote and produced Star Trek, scripted Transformers 1 and 2, and received exec producer credits for The Proposal, and have more movies in development or in production than any other Hollywood writers right now. So let's pour more fuel on this fire. The scripters now have a fat new 3-year overall deal at 20th Century Fox TV. They're already co-creators and consulting producers on Fox's Fringe. So let the ragefest begin... 
According to one Hollywood agency's stats so far this year, 33 comedy pilots have been picked up by CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX. Only 3 are written by women. And 36 drama pilots have been picked up by CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox. Only 6 are written by women. This is being called "the worst year in a decade" for female writers and showrunners. "'Created By' is a credit where the money and power is -- and women are being denied it," one source keeping track tells me. "Nina Tassler, Les Moonves, Christina Davis, Steve McPherson, Susanne Patmore, Channing Dungey, Angela Bromstead, Kevin Reilly, Peter Rice need to comment on why they all gave women the sack this year." 
Los Angeles – Family Guy creator and acclaimed writer-producer Seth MacFarlane is set to host the 2010 Writers Guild Awards’ West Coast ceremony on Saturday, February 20, at the Hyatt Regency Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. MacFarlane also currently serves as co-creator/executive producer/voice actor on the Fox animated series American Dad and The Cleveland Show, which premiered on Fox with exceptional ratings last September.
It was just announced that 17 major television networks and studios and 7 talent agencies today settled 19 of the 23 class action lawsuits filed in 2002 alleging intentional and unintentional age discrimination in the selection and representation of older television writers. The amount of the settlement is $70 million -- the largest-ever settlement in the history of age discrimination litigation. (Today’s settlement, along with the 2 cases that were settled earlier this year for $4.5 millioncluding interest.) All but one of the cases now ends for the Television Writers Age Discrimination Litigation, which named 51 defendants, including the major TV networks, production companies and eleven talent agencies. The lone holdout is the litigation still against Creative Artists Agency (CAA).
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