WGA West members rallied in LA's Pan Pacific Park in an effort to drive home the message to reality TV producers that the guild plans to organize reality TV writers.

Reality writer-producers have considered unionizing in recent months because of long work hours, no benefits and lower non-union wages. Networks have generally been apathetic to their cause.

Among those addressing the crowd in the park, Marc Cherry ("Desperate Housewives") and Shawn Ryan ("The Shield").

"The truth of quote-unquote reality shows is that some of them require people to write them," Cherry told a reporter. "I know the networks would like to avoid that reality because it costs them money. But to me, it's just a simple matter of fairness."

The rally eventually moved to CBS' nearby LA headquarters where the march represented a demand for support for organizing "America's Next Top Model." Twelve of the show's writer-producers have been on strike as of late and Wednesday was the season premiere of the reality show on the CW network - co-owned by CBS and Warner.

Many industry insiders suggest that the WGA and other guilds are intensifying organizing efforts of reality shows to keep the networks from using cheaper reality programming to fill primetime schedules during a strike. The current WGA film and TV contract expires in October 2007 and the SAG and DGA pacts are up for negotiation the following year.

But management-side sources say that any aggressive campaign to organize reality show employees would be futile as networks have embraces reality TV largely because of it's lower production costs.

Read the FULL STORY in The Hollywood Reporter

Posted by Mike Laverdiere at 11:02 AM | Permalink

HBO's novelistic gritty urban drama "The Wire" has been renewed for a final season after TV critics showered praise on the current fourth season. Despite marginal ratings, "The Wire" has been called the best drama on television by some. Produced by Ed Burns and featuring such writers as Richard Price and George Pelecanos, the Baltimore-set series delves into the social environment of the inner city while following the careers of a team of drug enforcement police and the street lives of their drug-dealing opponents. Each season has focused on one aspect of Baltimore from the rise of business-wise criminals, to the effects of a recessionary economy on blue-collar workers, and last season's focus on inner city politics. The fourth season, which premiered this Sunday, follows a quartet of school-age boys as they navigate the rough and tumble streets and the decaying school system.

More in the Baltimore Sun >>

Posted by Keith Loh at 9:30 AM | Permalink

Two weeks after their master tapes were stolen in Hungary, producers of the BBC mini-series "Robin Hood" say they have been located by police.

Hungarian Police say two suspects were arrested Friday.

The production company, Tiger Aspect, which leased a film studio in the town of Flot, near Budapest, said it was "delighted." But, they would not comment further on the Hungarian investigation.

The company said in a statement, "Obviously investigations are not complete and therefore we do not wish to make any further comment about an ongoing Hungarian enquiry."

The BBC described the news as "very positive."

Filmed in HD and the £8 million ($17 million) budget partly funded by BBC America, stars Irish-born actor Jonas Armstrong. The 13-part drama will be screened on Saturday evenings on the BBC starting in October. At it's launch in London, the show's stars revealed they had been reshooting scenes on location.

On The Web:
Full Story on the BBC News site

Posted by Mike Laverdiere at 3:48 AM | Permalink

Political blogs and pundits are up in arms over the upcoming ABC docudrama on the events leading up to the September 11th terrorist attacks. At issue in the two-part five hour "The Path to 9/11" are portions that appear to put the blame on not sweeping up Osama bin Laden prior to the attacks on the Clinton administration while appearing to downplay the lack of readiness of the Bush administration. Concerns were raised at a National Press Club screening late August when a member of the 9/11 panel rose to denounce a key scene which depicts a dithering group of Clinton officials unwilling to provide authorization for a strike on bin Laden while a CIA agent - played by Donnie Wahlberg - begs for permission to attack.

A Reuters review describes it:

The most negative chatter and consternation has been leveled at a scene during Part 1 of "Path to 9/11" that finds bin Laden surrounded by Northern Alliance and U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 1998. They were waiting for the final go-ahead to snatch their quarry. But it never comes. We see Clinton administration figures wussing out over fear of fallout should things go wrong, and the president too enmeshed in the Monica Lewinsky scandal to care. It's agreed that this specific event never actually took place. As ABC said in its statement, "for dramatic and narrative purposes, the movie contains fictionalized scenes, composite and representative characters and dialogue."

Newsweek as two clips on MSNBC >>

What do you think? Does a docu-drama owe it to the audience to stick to the actual events or do writers have to cut corners in order to tell a story?

Posted by Keith Loh at 8:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The Vancouver International Film Festival preview guide was released yesterday. Pedro Almodóvar's Volver, Darren Aranofsky's The Fountain are among the best known of the initial offerings.

Read it here >> (.pdf)

Posted by Keith Loh at 9:06 AM | Permalink