paul haggis

It appears that NBC's experiment with Netflix last summer was a success. Back then, the network made DVDs of the pilots of Studio 60 and Kidnapped for Netflix members to preview before the shows premiered on the network in September. This winter, NBC is giving that gimmick another shot. This time the NBC DVD has a Heroes recap, a preview of the pilot for The Black Donnellys and a sneak peek at Raines. The DVD is available to rent only through Netflix from now until January 15th.

The Black Donnellys is a crime drama based in New York and it's being produced by Crash and Million Dollar Baby writer Paul Haggis. It's about a group of brothers, some of whom are wrapped up in crime, who will do anything to protect each other. Raines stars Jeff Goldblum as a cop who has visions of crime victims. Donnellys doesn't have a premiere date yet but Raines is set to take over Las Vegas' timeslot in March. Although, NBC recently reduced its episode order for Raines-- not a good sign.

While the upfronts are still a few weeks away, NBC has placed early orders for two new dramas, Kidnapped and The Black Donnellys. Kidnapped stars Dana Delany and Timothy Hutton as parents whose son is abducted. The show is in the same style as FOX's Prison Break, where it's meant to stretch out only one season. It will be told from three views: the family, the FBI agents, and the kidnappers.

Perhaps Crash's win at the Academy awards solidified NBC's love for The Black Donnellys. It is written and created by Crash screenwriters Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco. The Black Donnellys is about four Irish-American brothers involved in the Irish mob.

Each drama received a 13-episode order from NBC.

If you're going to pitch a pilot to television network execs in L.A., one key word is 'patience'. Another is 'persistence'. Here is an interesting article about a handful of pilots that are finally getting picked up by the networks, after their creators have re-worked and re-tooled them for years. One example is Numb3rs, which didn't make the cut the first time around. The creators went back to the drawing board, pitched it the next year, and now it's a successful series. Another example is Monk, which was originally created for ABC but never got off the ground. A network exec moved from ABC to USA, where Monk found a following.

One of the most extreme cases comes this year. For eight years, writer Paul Haggis (Crash & Million Dollar Baby) has been trying to get the series, The Truth About Joey Ice Cream on the air. It's a show about four Irish brothers who keep finding themselves tangled up in the mob. Sound familiar? It should. We reported on it last month, when NBC finally picked it up as The Black Donnellys. I actually kind-of prefer the original title because it's quirky. Did the show really change that much or is it just because Haggis is hot right now? Probably the latter. It's the same for Shonda Rhimes, the creator of the very-hot-right-now Grey's Anatomy. She developed a journalism-themed series one year before Grey's and now has been asked to re-develop it.

NBC is banking on gritty writer Paul Haggis for one of its new fall dramas, called The Black Donnellys. Haggis wrote the screenplays for Million Dollar Baby and Crash, and has also won two Emmys for his writing on Thirtysomething. The new series, created by Haggis and Bobby Moresco, is about four Irish brothers in New York's Hell's Kitchen and their lives in organized crime. It's one of those "they keep pullin' me back in" kind of things. The series will actually be shot in New York.

With The Sopranos concluding next year, NBC must be hoping that we'll still want our violent mobster fix.

Today's Oprah – actually, I think it was a repeat - featured the entire cast of Paul Haggis' Crash (which Oprah, as she reminded us ad nauseum, "looooooooovvvvvvvvvvvvvved") talking about racism. I tuned in late (all the better to misinterpret out of context, my pretties), but I caught an ... um ... interesting segment about  linguistics.

When I turned the TV on, Oprah and Don Cheadle were talking over, and almost yelling at, each other. Apparently they were right in the middle of an intense debate over the proper use of the "N Word". Then Terrence Howard (who, the cynics amongst us will point out, is campaigning for Oscar nods on at least 2 performances and, as such, probably wants to be seen as Nice Guy) tells Oprah that he's decided to stop using it; Cheadle vehemently explains why he's opposed to pressuring people into limiting their linguistic choices. As if to bully him into breaking the tie for her side, Oprah turns to Ludacris. "Cris, would you consider not using The Word?" Visibly uncomfortable., Luda smiles. "Uh, I feel the same way Don does about it." Then, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, Sandra Bullock pipes up:

"As long as we're going to stop using words," she says (and I'm totally paraphrasing), "Can we stop with the bitch and the ho, for women?"

The crowd goes wild. Completely silent during the previous portion of the conversation, all of a sudden there are 200 mild-mannered housewives gone wild, hooting and cheering and stomping their feet. And then ...

Ludacris: We can stop when women stop calling themselves bitches.

Sandra Bullock: I don't call any woman a bitch. (pause, then, totally straight-facedly) Unless she is one.

Cut to some kind of language expert, sitting in the crowd. "80 years ago, you could call a woman a broad. We don't do that anymore."

Oh. Really? Whoops.