Zwick/Herskovitz: "Confessions of a Contractor" for FOX

[Sascha]

The Hollywood Reporter mentioned a new tv project by our favorite producers:

Fox is mixing My So-Called Life with Desperate Housewives.

The network has picked up Confessions of a Contractor, an hourlong drama project from My So-Called Life producers Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick.

The project, which will be penned by Desperate Housewives writer/executive producer Tom Spezialy, is described as an alternative soap that focuses on what happens when you mix desire, jealousy and home renovation.

Fox has ordered a script with a penalty attached for the 20th Century Fox Television drama, which is based on the Richard Murphy novel of the same name.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-f ... ell-248398

[Greybird]

"[...] a script with a penalty attached"? Anyone know what that means? The producers and writers have a deadline, or they won't be paid? Fox will film the pilot, or they pay extra? A lot of this jargon needs translation.

Citing their past projects doesn't mean this new project will combine them. That's lazy writing on the reporter's part. And "MSCL" is so far above the (now mercifully ending) "DH" in dramatic and comedic qualities as to make it absurd to cite them in the same paragraph.

[Sascha]

"[...] a script with a penalty attached"? Anyone know what that means? [...] Fox will film the pilot, or they pay extra?

Exactly. Networks sometimes do this for scripts they're very interested in. If FOX doesn't pick it up, the studio/producers will receive a financial compensation. Usually, this is the result of a "bidding war" between several networks for a script. But it's still not a guarantee that the show will air, there was also a penalty attached to the original "1/4 life" script which ABC bought back in 2004.

[Natasha (candygirl)]

Citing their past projects doesn't mean this new project will combine them. That's lazy writing on the reporter's part. And "MSCL" is so far above the (now mercifully ending) "DH" in dramatic and comedic qualities as to make it absurd to cite them in the same paragraph.

It's definitely lazy, but that's the way that writers are asked to pitch their scripts - production companies often tell them to describe their projects as X crossed with Y ("It's Fast Times at Ridgemont High crossed with Gone with the Wind"), even when they have no connection to the previous projects being described. I still remember Dawson's Creek being described as "My So-Called Life, but without the life" in Entertainment Weekly before it debuted, which really did not encourage me to watch it.

Anyway, it's even more ridiculous when the projects being mentioned aren't necessarily similar in tone or premise to the writer's/producers' previous shows. If this show somehow ends up being MSCL crossed with DH, then I will eat my words