SOA to FOX

We finished the mix, we're laying in the final music and effects. It goes to FX Thursday. Peter Chernin and the 20th bosses view it on Friday. I'm assuming we'll find out next week if the series lives or dies. People are excited about the show, but I remain neutral in my expectations. The television landscape is so odd and precarious right now, it's impossible to know what motivates a network into picking up a series. No matter how much smoke an executive blows up your ass, no matter how much rhetoric is regurgitated about "out of the box" branding, no matter how inspired the idea, it always comes down to MONEY. The people who hand over the big dough want to be certain that there's a return on every coin. Look, I get it. I have no illusions that it's about art. I try to stay true to my ideas, I do my best work, but whenever I get too high-minded about my show, I'm reminded that the first image transmitted via television was a dollar sign (Farnsworth, 1927). Modern television was invented to sell soap. I'm just one of the clever, well-paid monkeys supplying something entertaining in between the commercials. Generally, I'm very happy with the outcome of the pilot. The actors and the scenes that work, work very well. The ones that don't are absolutely fixable. If the show goes to series we will probably tack on a chunk of pilot reshoots and additional scenes to the front of the production schedule. All modesty aside (the place it usually is with me), I believe that this can be a truly great series. Brutal, outrageous, funny, touching and ultimately, epic in it's serialized arc. We shall see...

SOA UPDATE.

Allen Coulter, the director, turned in his cut and now I am in the thick of my first edit. A bit daunting. Figuring out what the show is -- the look, the pace, the feel. Up to now, "my vision" has been a theoretical and artistic concept. The task at hand is the practical application of all of those ideas that have been swimming around in my shadowy little mind and turning Allen's great footage into a great show. This is the status of the project as of today. I turn in my cut of the pilot at the end of the week, get network and studio notes, then lock picture next week. Do color and sound mixes, then the network screens it for their bosses some time in the middle of April. I will hopefully know by the end of April if it's a go. In the interim, they have ordered three more scripts. So I'll be busy writing while they are making their decision.

SOA. THE FINAL PILOT COLLAGE.