SONS of ANARCHY

In my excitation about our pilot pick up, I mentioned a few things off the record to a Variety reporter -- which were then printed. Apparently, I mistakenly assumed off the record actually meant off the record. Lesson learned. Shut my big fucking mouth. In the piece, there were references to a specific northern Cali motorcycle club. Shortly after the article hit the AP, we received a cease and desist notice from that organization. They claimed our title, "Forever Sam Crow" was a copyright infringement of one of their slogans. As a show of good faith, and not wanting antagonize the very community I'm trying to honor, we changed the name of the show and extracted that slogan from our ficticious world. The name of the club is Sons of Anarchy. As of today, that is also the title of the show. On the record, I'll say that the motorcycle club was not modeled or based on any specific organization. It's a result of research, both real world and academic. It's a fine line. I want to to represent this world as realistically as possible, honestly capture the life style, the mindset, the drama. And yet, those parallels can't be too close or so accurate that people and groups feel like their civil liberties are being exploited. So we move forward, with a desire to do the right thing. Eyes open and lawyers at hand.

WRITER'S STRIKE/TRICKY VOODOO

Crazy time in Hollywood now. So much fear and panic. That's what happens when people feel out of control. In a town that's based on development and filling the pipeline, "not knowing" is the worst kind of boogieman. I'm not a very political cat. Don't go to WGA functions, never marched a picket line. I do however support my union, pay a shitload of dues and vote. I voted for the strike as did most of the writers I know. Truth is, we've been posturing so much this last month, waving the walkout flag in management's face, if we don't strike we'll look like a bunch of fucking pussies. Today the studios took the residual revamp off the table in a "show of good faith". This is such a jerkoff. The revamp was an absurd and obvious powerplay -- a big "fuck you, now who's a bitch?" We all knew what the game was and the studios played it exactly as planned -- taking it off the table a couple weeks before the contract deadline so they would look like the fair and equitable ones. Not very creative. But I guess that's not their job. Look, I don't think the studios are demons. They're businessmen protecting their bottomline. In this economic climate, that's a brutal and unforgiving process. The working man always takes the hit. The biggest stumbling block for writers and studios is history. We're like a bitter divorced couple, every time we sit down to talk about today, we can't help dipping into the past. We both feel abused and misunderstood. The writers are desperately negotiating to make up for the deficits of the past by trying to predict the windfalls of the future. This, my friends, is tricky voodoo. Often ending in a headless chicken and a pool of blood. Hopefully we will make some headway in the next two weeks. This gesture today, albeit bogus, may at least get us talking. Or not.

FOREVER SAM CROW

FX greenlit my pilot this week. It's my hope to blog the experience -- from pre-production through post. The script is currently out to agents and we hope to lock down a director in the next week. From there, we'll have a sense of timing and the rest will follow accordingly. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117973752.html?categoryid=14&cs=1