J.J. Abrams got a $55+ million deal
Actually, it’s two deals: one for TV at Warners, and another for film at Paramount. Though I’ve never met the guy, I’m very happy for him. It honestly couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy. Not only has he consistently created great material in the past, he clearly has great work ahead of him.
And yet…
I feel exhausted just thinking about it.
Right now, he has three TV shows on the air: Lost, What About Brian, and Six Degrees. He’s prepping the next Star Trek movie, and is supposed to be producing other, smaller movies on top of that.
Meanwhile, I’m going to be spending this entire week working on a two-minute section of The Movie. Oh, and I have a lunch with my TV agent about a show I probably won’t do because I don’t have time. Because, you see, I operate on Mortal Time.
Godspeed, Mr. Abrams. I look forward to your work, and pray that your stretching the boundaries of the time-space continuum don’t have any grave repercussions. (But as mutual fans of science-fiction, we both know that’s unlikely.)
Fingers crossed.
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July 17th, 2006 at 11:18 am
Hopefully, J.J. Abrams won’t go all “Dave Chappelle” on us. Abrams is one of the most creative people working in Hollywood today and I can’t wait for the third season of Lost to start.
July 17th, 2006 at 11:55 am
Wow. And I thought I felt like an underachiever yesterday . . .
July 17th, 2006 at 12:26 pm
You think J.J.A. is busy? Look at Bruckheimer’s production slate… There’s also the issue of quantity vs. quality. And the question does J.J. write on his shows or “only” executive produce them?
July 17th, 2006 at 1:58 pm
Yeah, it pretty much sucks that my son can run a four minute mile while I’m lucky to jog it in eight to ten. But he gets shin splints. I don’t.
July 17th, 2006 at 3:20 pm
This immediately made me think of Bruckheimer as well. If they can get the kind of success out of J.J. Abrams that Bruckheimer has had, then that $55M will be money well spent.
July 17th, 2006 at 6:48 pm
Zach-
Good point but Abrams creates and produces. Bruckheimer just produces. Not that that’s a simple task but you know what I’m saying.
July 17th, 2006 at 9:07 pm
I’m telling ya, it’s the glasses. Instant writer cred.
July 17th, 2006 at 11:03 pm
Congrats to him but I am so ready for Lost to conclude.
July 18th, 2006 at 3:41 am
But does Abrams maintain a blog?
July 18th, 2006 at 8:41 am
Yes ! I can’t wait ’till I get my own $55-million dollar deals. I’ll finally be able to afford my own personal John August, complete with bald head and sarcasm !
July 18th, 2006 at 9:11 am
John –
A big advantage to only needing reading glasses is that you can buy them by the dozen at the dollar store, as I do. I lose them at the same rate as lost pens.
A local TV news anchor (Clayton Vaughn, channel 6, Tulsa) told me a funny story of the time he put his contacts in the wrong eyes and couldn’t read the teleprompter. Another TV disaster story.
Marc
July 18th, 2006 at 9:46 am
Abrams and Bruckheimer are lazy buggers. Check out Rainer Werner Fassbinder….now there was a hardworking guy.
July 18th, 2006 at 12:12 pm
You gotta start building up your writing staff John. I volunteer, so that you can make ridiculous amounts of money.
Then again, is Abrams a Dad? Cause, you ain’t got no time as a new parent. Not if you’re a good one at least.
July 18th, 2006 at 1:17 pm
Abrams is the man. Is there really anything more to say? And yes, Abrams is a dad - 3 kids, Palisades, the whole shebang. Does he subsist simply on espresso and creativity intravenously?
Congratulations to him and what the future brings.
Scribe
July 18th, 2006 at 4:21 pm
I heard an interview with two writters who worked with Abrams on Alias and they said one thing they learned working under Abrams was that not every word in ones script has to be perfect… the most important thing is to just get it done!! I think thats great advice for all writters.
July 19th, 2006 at 12:18 am
Abrams got a twin brother.
July 19th, 2006 at 2:38 am
Wow…he must have some good people working for him.
–RC of strangeculture.blogspot.com
July 19th, 2006 at 6:07 am
Good on JJ. One need look no further than the ALIAS pilot — created, written, directed, and including the best-staged action (check out the fight in the underground garage) and truthful-feeling funeral scene I can recall on TV.
Although I’ve got to say that with the world at his feet, I wonder what on earth he’s doing putting his time into other people’s franchises.
July 19th, 2006 at 7:16 am
Is… Each and everyone of you are JEALOUS of J.J. Abrams. Admit it, you are all JEALOUS !!! A bunch of wanna-be screenwriters who are trying to break into the business, dream of being in J.J. shoes right now !!!
-J.O.S.E.
Jealous Ones Still Envy
July 19th, 2006 at 9:20 am
No problem: just work in the 8th dimension. I hear the space-time scheduling continuum thing is not an issue there.
July 19th, 2006 at 9:23 am
There’s so much CENSORSHIP on this blog. Censorship is illegal John August. I wll have my attorneys look into this. Let freedom roam. You’re an American. If you don’t like something. Let the democracy rule on your blog.
July 19th, 2006 at 4:59 pm
JJ gives me a complex too. I am in awe.
July 19th, 2006 at 6:58 pm
As I recall, Abrams had precious little input on Lost’s second season (80% of which sucked hard, full stop). So maybe that speaks for Abrams’s talent, though it’s hard to go wrong with the best paragraph-long premise on television. Nonetheless, people tend to focus on the good things about the pilot of Lost - the direction on that astonishing opening sequence, the gorgeous scenery, Evangeline goddamn Lilly, the constant aura of suggestion and boilerplate conspiracy-muck, the neat structure, Giacchino’s excellent score - and overlook the paper cut-out characters, ‘Let’s do a stupid thing to advance the plot’ assembly, reliance on cliché (that ‘I counted to 5 and let the fear in’ scene must have looked great on the page but is miles away from, say, any similar small post-traumatic moment on a Whedon show), etc. Sorry about all the parentheses here.
I’ve never seen a full Alias but haven’t impressed with the bits I’ve seen - irrelevant conspiracy-arc nonsense aside, is the show really worth watching? Did it go utterly off the rails as some of my friends claim? I won’t ask about Felicity (premise has no appeal for me, I’m an insensitive jerk), but what about MI:3? Didn’t half the critics in America point out that it was a clever waste of time?
Abrams is being given a tremendous amount of money because he’s shown he can make a tremendous amount of money in return. I’ve no doubt that he works hard, and he does demonstrate more story-conceiving talent than most of his peers, so kudos to him for capitalizing on it. But on the strength of what, exactly, do people compare him to (again) someone like Whedon - who would be merely another genius if he weren’t obviously such a fanatically attentive craftsman and moralist of rare integrity? Surely not Lost, a show whose primary asset is its crazed momentum, after that leaky and calamitous second season…
July 21st, 2006 at 4:03 am
I hope Abrams has the time to leave a comment on here
July 21st, 2006 at 3:07 pm
John,
I just had a fantasy. What if you were put a chain around your next, left completely nude in front of typewriter and whipped daily to produce screenplays !!!
July 22nd, 2006 at 9:34 am
I have a question. My writing partner and I have an argument. I wrote a comedy. The singer PRINCE has an un-flattering light cameo. My friend says you can’t use the name PRINCE even on a spec script. I feel it’s a 1st Amendment issue.
Your thoughts.
July 24th, 2006 at 2:01 pm
Ben,
You can use whatever you want. It’s a script that hasn’t made money, so you’re in the clear. Even sold, it’ll be up to the producers whether or not to get Prince. Good luck getting Prince.
July 25th, 2006 at 3:34 am
Off topic: does anybody know what´s wrong with Josh Friedmans blog? It seems to be off the air, and somehow…. that doesn´t feel too god.
August 16th, 2006 at 11:02 pm
when test screening make sure to leave out all titles and names.
October 4th, 2006 at 3:10 pm
I’m a big fan of JJ and am really happy for him with this deal. To me, “Alias” is one of the best television shows of the last 20 years- period. Yes, even when it got beyond insane, everything that happened pushed it closer to an ending that came together to show that the entire 5 seasons was telling ONE STORY. That’s impressive.
“Lost” is one of the best shows currently on TV and “M:I 3″ was a great surprise after the “look how cool I am” trying-too-hardness of the second one.
November 1st, 2007 at 2:10 am
“Lostâ€? is one of the best shows currently on TV “”"”
I totaly agree with you! I very like this shows.
December 27th, 2007 at 12:27 am
I can’t wait for the JJ Abrams version of Star Trek.
$55 million though? That’s a lot but the dude is seriously worth it.