http://collider.com/michael-chabon-hobgoblin-hbo/79424/
Married authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman are in the early stages of development on a new drama for HBO titled Hobgoblin. “A motley group of conmen and magicians who use their skills at deception to battle Hitler and his forces during WWII.”
My first thought: Whoa! Thought two: that particular grouping of “conmen and magicians” makes me wonder about the show’s perspective on supernaturalism. Will Chabon and Waldman equate magicians to conmen, simply repurposing the tricks of their fraudulent trade? Or will there be a dichotomy between the believers (the magicians) and the skeptics (conmen)? Either way — or any way, really — I’m in.
This is the first professional collaboration between Chabon and Waldman; they will write the script and executive produce. John Lesher and Adam Kassan will also produce.
Two Chabon novels have been adapted into feature films: Wonder Boys and The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. Scott Rudin (True Grit) owns the rights to two others: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and The Yiddish Policemen’s Union. The adaptation of Pulitzer prize winner Kavalier and Clay has been stuck in development hell for a decade now, but Rudin is in active development on The Yiddish Policemen’s Union with the Coen Brothers.
Recently, Chabon has ventured into screenwriting (Variety refers to the author as “a sought-after script doctor”). He has a screen story credit on Spider-Man 2 and worked with Andrew Stanton (WALL·E) on the script for John Carter of Mars.
Lest you think Walmdan a slouch, her Love and Other Impossible Pursuits was turned into the Natalie Portman drama The Other Woman, which hit theaters and VOD earlier this year.
This news radiates the feeling of a very exciting new collective voice to the TV industry, especially tied to such a unique premise. We’re still in the early days, but Hobgoblin is definitely a project I’ll be keeping tabs on.
Hoffentlich buddelt da bald mal ein Reporter eine genauere Beschreibung aus, aber alle Möglichkeiten, die ich mir vorstellen kann (von "Inglourious Basterds"-Style bis Carnivale ohne echte Magie), wären interessant und Chabon zählt sowieso zu meinen Lieblingsautoren.
Es soll sich wohl lose auf eine wahre Begebenheit beziehen:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasper_Maskelyne
Jasper Maskelyne (1902–1973) was a British stage magician in the 1930s and 1940s. ...He is most remembered, however, for the accounts of his work for British military intelligence during the Second World War, creating large-scale ruses, deception, and camouflage.
Maskelyne joined the Royal Engineers when the Second World War broke out, thinking that his skills could be used in camouflage. He convinced sceptical officers by creating the illusion of a German warship on the Thames using mirrors and a model. He was eventually deployed to the African theatre in the Western Desert, although he spent most of his time entertaining the troops.[1]
In January 1941, General Archibald Wavell created A Force for subterfuge and counterintelligence. Maskelyne was assigned to serve in it and gathered a group of 14 assistants, including an architect, art restorer, carpenter, chemist, electrical engineer, electrician, painter, and stage-set builder. It was nicknamed the Magic Gang.
The Magic Gang built a number of illusions. They used painted canvas and plywood to make jeeps look like tanks — with fake tank tracks — and tanks look like trucks. They created illusions of armies and battleships.
His largest illusion was to conceal Alexandria and the Suez Canal to misdirect German bombers. He built a mockup of the night-lights of Alexandria in a bay three miles away with fake buildings, lighthouse, and anti-aircraft batteries. To mask the Suez Canal he built a revolving cone of mirrors that created a wheel of spinning light nine miles wide, meant to dazzle and disorient enemy pilots so that their bombs would fall off-target.
In 1942 he worked in Operation Bertram, before the battle of El Alamein. His task was to make German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel think that the attack was coming from the south when British General Bernard Montgomery planned to attack from the north. In the north, 1,000 tanks were disguised as trucks. On the south, the Magic Gang created 2,000 fake tanks with convincing pyrotechnics. There was a fake railway line, fake radio conversations, and fake sounds of construction. They also built a fake water pipeline and made it look as if it would never be ready before attack.
The Magic Gang was disbanded after the battle and, although Winston Churchill praised his efforts, Maskelyne did not receive the appreciation he desired. Maskelyne tried to resume his stage career after the war without much success. He also published a book about his exploits, Magic: Top Secret in 1949. In 2002 The Guardian said: "Maskelyne received no official recognition. For a vain man this was intolerable and he died an embittered drunk. It gives his story a poignancy without which it would be mere chest-beating."[2]
Maskelyne later moved to Kenya and founded a driving school. He died in 1973.
Naja, in Entwicklung bei HBO heißt ja selbst im besten Fall wahrscheinlich 2 Jahre bis zum Dreh eines Piloten ...und der wird dann nicht bestellt. :lol:
http://www.deadline.com/2011/03/john-mc ... dy-pilots/
Scrubs alum John C. McGinley is set and Adam Arkin is in final negotiations to join the ABC multi-camera comedy pilot Smothered, from Andrew Reich and Ted Cohen. The Warner Bros. TV-produced project centers on young couple Zack (Kyle Howard) and Gillian, who find themselves smothered by their two very different sets of parents, Zack's (Marcia Gay Harden, Arkin) and Gillian's (Julie White, McGinley).
Die Serie sammelt einen exzellenten Cast, aber warum muss es Multicam sein. Da sind McGinley, Arkin und Gay Harden doch völlig verschwendet.
Außerdem dachte ich bisher, dass Dr. Cox zum Luck Cast gehört, aber das ist dann wohl nur eine Gastrolle.
http://www.deadline.com/2011/03/robert- ... st-pilots/
Former Stargate Universe star Robert Carlyle is set to portray Rumplestiltskin in ABC's drama pilot Once Upon a Time, about a woman drawn into a town where the magic and mystery of fairy tales may be real and hold the key to unlocking the mysteries of her troubled past. An expert on black magic, Rumplestiltskin agrees to help Snow White and Prince Charming counteract the Evil Queen's dark spells, but for a price.
Emma Bell has been added to NBC's drama pilot Reconstruction (formerly The Crossing). Written by Josh Brand and directed by Peter Horton, the project is set in a Missouri town during the post-Civil War Reconstruction era and centers on Jason (Martin Henderson), a soldier who crosses the country and settles into a complicated town where he is welcomed as its savior. Bell, repped by ICM and Brillstein, will play a strong-willed woman who denounces Jason as a coward. She recently recurred on AMC's The Walking Dead
Auch Once upon a Time klingt mit jeder neuen Charakterbeschreibung vielversprechender und Carlyle gibt sowieso Bonuspunkte.
Zwar nix Offizielles, aber Variety scheint mir doch ne seriöse Quelle zu sein oder liege ich da falsch? Wäre jedenfalls genial.
