Hollander visit here leads to TV script
From:Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Date:October 10, 2005
By Rob Owen
After CBS canceled "The Guardian" and ABC chose not to go forward earlier this year with his hybrid crime drama-character story "Three Rivers," Pittsburgh native David Hollander has sold another script to CBS.
The network won't decide whether or not to film a pilot of "Storyville" until January, and Hollander admitted he was somewhat surprised by its interest.
"I thought it would end up as an FX show or a TNT show, but they were really eager about it," Hollander said from his Santa Monica, Calif., office this week.
"Storyville" was inspired by Hollander's experience here in August 2004 doing research for the "Three Rivers" script.
The series follows a TV show runner, the writer/executive producer of a program, who tags along with a doctor to get medical stories and a cop to get crime stories for his series. "Storyville" will follow the writer as he gathers material for his scripts and then show parts of the fictional re-creation.
"It's kind of a metaphysical one," Hollander acknowledged.
Although inside-Hollywood shows have flopped more often than they've worked lately (HBO's "The Comeback," most recently), Hollander said "Storyville" will be less a Hollywood story and more the tale of the writer and his technical advisers.
"It's three men in their 30s and 40s who are raising kids, and the common ground is each has a 5-year-old kid," Hollander said. "It's not meant as a gimmicky show; it's meant as an investigation of these three men. It's pretty much cops, doctors and a guy who writes for a living."
"Storyville" is semi-autobiographical; Hollander's son, Nate, is 6, and he trailed former Pittsburgh Police homicide detective Dennis Logan and Post-Gazette reporters Jonathan Silver and Cindi Lash while compiling "Three Rivers" research.
"A lot of this came from my trip to Pittsburgh last year, during which I had a profound experience," Hollander said. He was in town gathering research the night of two shootings in the usually peaceful Squirrel Hill neighborhood. The "Storyville" pilot explores a fictional version of those events.
"I could never let go of that experience," he said. "It became more compelling to me that the show I was writing at the time.
"I happen to love looking at what the impulse behind creativity is," he said, "to be able to investigate that without being narcissistic or boring to my audience."
Other than the inspiration, "Storyville" may have no direct Pittsburgh connection, although he's toying with the idea of having the fictional TV shows set in Pittsburgh.
"That's really a budgetary issue," Hollander said. "But I think it would be an interesting visual to have the Los Angeles world juxtaposed weekly with Pittsburgh, so when the hard cut [from the writer's reality to the fictional show] happens, you're in a different world entirely. But it may be too clever and too expensive for what I'm trying to achieve."
A children's show Hollander hopes to make with WQED remains in development, as does a film, "Personal Effects," which has a completed script and is budgeted to film in Pittsburgh.
"Getting any one of a number of actresses who have expressed interest in it would make it a go," Hollander said. "I'm sitting on the cusp. Four A-list actresses are circling it. I'm hoping against hope I can get this together and shoot it this year."
In addition, Hollander is at work on additional projects, but he said it was too soon to discuss them.
From Pittsburgh Post-Gazette .
Date:October 10, 2005
By Rob Owen
After CBS canceled "The Guardian" and ABC chose not to go forward earlier this year with his hybrid crime drama-character story "Three Rivers," Pittsburgh native David Hollander has sold another script to CBS.
The network won't decide whether or not to film a pilot of "Storyville" until January, and Hollander admitted he was somewhat surprised by its interest.
"I thought it would end up as an FX show or a TNT show, but they were really eager about it," Hollander said from his Santa Monica, Calif., office this week.
"Storyville" was inspired by Hollander's experience here in August 2004 doing research for the "Three Rivers" script.
The series follows a TV show runner, the writer/executive producer of a program, who tags along with a doctor to get medical stories and a cop to get crime stories for his series. "Storyville" will follow the writer as he gathers material for his scripts and then show parts of the fictional re-creation.
"It's kind of a metaphysical one," Hollander acknowledged.
Although inside-Hollywood shows have flopped more often than they've worked lately (HBO's "The Comeback," most recently), Hollander said "Storyville" will be less a Hollywood story and more the tale of the writer and his technical advisers.
"It's three men in their 30s and 40s who are raising kids, and the common ground is each has a 5-year-old kid," Hollander said. "It's not meant as a gimmicky show; it's meant as an investigation of these three men. It's pretty much cops, doctors and a guy who writes for a living."
"Storyville" is semi-autobiographical; Hollander's son, Nate, is 6, and he trailed former Pittsburgh Police homicide detective Dennis Logan and Post-Gazette reporters Jonathan Silver and Cindi Lash while compiling "Three Rivers" research.
"A lot of this came from my trip to Pittsburgh last year, during which I had a profound experience," Hollander said. He was in town gathering research the night of two shootings in the usually peaceful Squirrel Hill neighborhood. The "Storyville" pilot explores a fictional version of those events.
"I could never let go of that experience," he said. "It became more compelling to me that the show I was writing at the time.
"I happen to love looking at what the impulse behind creativity is," he said, "to be able to investigate that without being narcissistic or boring to my audience."
Other than the inspiration, "Storyville" may have no direct Pittsburgh connection, although he's toying with the idea of having the fictional TV shows set in Pittsburgh.
"That's really a budgetary issue," Hollander said. "But I think it would be an interesting visual to have the Los Angeles world juxtaposed weekly with Pittsburgh, so when the hard cut [from the writer's reality to the fictional show] happens, you're in a different world entirely. But it may be too clever and too expensive for what I'm trying to achieve."
A children's show Hollander hopes to make with WQED remains in development, as does a film, "Personal Effects," which has a completed script and is budgeted to film in Pittsburgh.
"Getting any one of a number of actresses who have expressed interest in it would make it a go," Hollander said. "I'm sitting on the cusp. Four A-list actresses are circling it. I'm hoping against hope I can get this together and shoot it this year."
In addition, Hollander is at work on additional projects, but he said it was too soon to discuss them.
From Pittsburgh Post-Gazette .
posted by nikita | 8:25 PM
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