Reuters reports that "Little Miss Sunshine", a film that cost only an estimated $8 million to make, has become one of the more profitable movies this summer tallying $23 million and counting since debuting at the end of July. In contrast, heavily marketed movies such as "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" experience a now expected big dip in box office after their initial week of release. "Little Miss Sunshine" is a comedy following a middle-class American family and their misadventures in a road trip gone awry.

Read more here >>

Posted by Keith Loh at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

"South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone gave a master class at the Edinburgh TV Festival this week describing their weekly routine when producing episodes of their hit TV show.

"It's changed somewhat, but what's remained constant is that we write, direct and produce every single episode and do all the voices."

They went on to say that each episode is dreamed up the week leading up to the show's Wednesday night broadcast. It usually starts with a brainstorm session Thursday night and by the following Wednesday morning they sometimes don't even have an ending.

"A week before the show airs, we don't even know what the show is going to be - which is cool because we can do exactly what is happening that week. It's also really stressful. It keeps it exciting."

On the web:
More secrets on the BBC Website

Posted by Mike Laverdiere at 12:10 PM | Permalink

The makers of the upcoming drama/comedy about a network sketch comedy show on the edge of cancellation have made an early draft of the pilot episode available online. Studio 60 is the latest effort of West Wing creators Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme.

The episode:

As NBS's successful sketch comedy Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip celebrates its 20th season on the air, the show's executive producer, Wes Mendell (Judd Hirsch), is growing increasingly frustrated with the network. When he is forced to remove a sketch that the network fears will offend Christians, it's the final straw for Wes. Interrupting the show's live screening, he launches into a tirade, leaving NBS and Studio 60 in the midst of a PR disaster. To save the show, the newly appointed NBS president Jordan McDeere (Amanda Peet) must somehow convince former writers Matt Albie (Matthew Perry) and Danny Tripp (Bradley Whitford) to return to Studio 60 and take the wheel.

Go to the Studio 60 site here and download to your heart's content.

Posted by Keith Loh at 4:19 PM | Permalink

The website MySpace.com has given Earl of "My Name Is Earl" his own space. Through a collaboration with 20th Century Fox Television serves to anchor a collection of sneak previews, merchandising and community activities. Through Sept. 5, MySpace users can log onto the social networking site and submit their photo on a special "My Name Is Earl" profile page. Each week, five photos will be selected at random to be featured on the page. Then for three straight weeks, one MySpace winner will appear in executive producer Greg Garcia's production company logo, fittingly dubbed "Amigos de Garcia" (Friends of Garcia). The first winner will appear on the show's season premiere Sept. 21.

Posted by Mike Laverdiere at 5:29 PM | Permalink

Accompanied by dozens of supporters, the 12 writer-producers on the hit reality series "America's Next Top Model" have gone on strike to protest executive producer Ken Mok's refusal to let them sign with the WGA West and be represented by the union in a collective bargaining negotiation. The staffers on the modeling competition hosted and executive produced by Tyra Banks marched Friday morning in front of the show's production offices in West Los Angeles. They wore red T-shirts with the WGA logo and carried signs with such slogans as "Top Model means top $. Top Model writers don't have health care," "Reality needs a rewrite" and "Tyra is union. Why not me?" At a rally on the picket line, the show's writers received support from WGA West interim executive director David Young, SAG president Alan Rosenberg, California Assemblyman Paul Koretz, WGA West board member Phil Alden Robinson and a representative of the janitors working at Hollywood studios who also are trying to get unionized.

Posted by Mike Laverdiere at 5:23 PM | Permalink

C/Net had this bit of amusing / horrifying news earlier this summer. A screenwriter sued the telephone company SBC when one of its employees deleted copies of his screenplay from his hard drive when installing SBC's DSL software.

Police blotter: SBC sued over deleted screenplay

What: An aspiring writer sues SBC (now AT&T) after a technician installing a DSL link allegedly deleted three screenplays from his computer.

When: A California appeals court ruled on July 5.

Outcome: Screenwriter basically gets no money.

What happened, according to court documents:
When Nicholas Boyd asked SBC to install a digital subscriber line (DSL), he got more than he bargained for.

More on news.com >>

I have two responses to this:

Learn how to use your computer. When you do, you realize never to allow any minimum-wage earning telephone employee anywhere near your computer.

Also BACK UP. You will be crying whether it is your fault or someone else's fault that you overwrote, mis-named, corrupted the only copy of your screenplay. For godsakes, burn them to a DVD/CD and store them in another location. Do this today!

Posted by Keith Loh at 8:37 AM | Permalink