| WELCOME |
| ABOUT |
| WHAT WE WRITE |
| SPEC SCRIPTS |
| MAGIC TIME |
| THORNFIELD |
| CORE |
| COACHING |
| GIFT SHOP |
| IN THE ZONE |
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MARC'S JOURNAL |
| ELAINE'S JOURNAL |
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"Exceptionally well written, and the 'veracity' is terrific."
KEVIN J. ANDERSON New York Times bestselling author |
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that Marc and Elaine have written.
WRITING FOR SIX FEET UNDER
Once a year, around late April, comes a time known in the television industry as staffing season -- when all the network shows hire their writer-producers for the entire year. Even for producers at our level, it's important to generate new samples that demonstrate a facility with the new hit shows. A couple of years ago at a Writers Guild mountain retreat, we were having a meal with a modest and charming fellow who told us he was a producer on CYBIL and had just finished writing a personal little screenplay that was then being filmed as a movie starring Kevin Spacey, which he didn't think would do any business. Well, that fellow was Alan Ball, and the movie was AMERICAN BEAUTY. Alan went on to create SIX FEET UNDER, which I read in script stage before it was filmed. I thought it was brilliant, moving, funny. So when it came time to write our new spec, we chose to take a crack at Mr. Ball's show. Here it is, hot off the word processor. So far, the response has been hugely positive. We'll let you know how things go...
To read the script, click on the little camera. Scroll down the page to read it. Then click on the X in the upper right corner to close the window. Enjoy....
WRITING FOR HOMICIDE
On REAL STORY (now entitled THORNFIELD), Tom Fontana -- creator and executive producer of OZ -- became our partner for the shooting of the pilot presentation, which starred Armin Shimerman. How that came about began when I decided to write a spec episode of HOMICIDE (which Tom was executive producing at the time).
I spent a good chunk of time hanging with LAPD homicide detectives, dressing like them (suit and tie) and going where they went -- which included a double homicide crime scene, only minutes after the killings. Elaine and I then immersed ourselves in the series and wrote the script. Ultimately, I got an assignment to interview Fontana for SCRIPT Magazine (I'll include that on the site sometime soon). This led to HOMICIDE producer (and authro of the book the series was based on) David Simon reading our spec and loving it. Which led in turn to Fontana taking our pitch on REAL STORY. Within ten minutes, he said, "I'm in." And thus began the adventure.
We thought you might like to have a chance to read the HOMICIDE script that started it all.