Dollhouse, Firefly, Angel, Buffy : news, photos & videos

Happy Birthday To Tim Minear, 46 Today !

Webmaster — 2009-10-29T08:47:30Z

Date of Birth : 29 October 1963

Location : New York City, New York, USA

Mr. Minear came to "The X Files" in 1998 after serving successfully as executive story editor on "Lois and Clark : The New Adventures of Superman." His episode credits on "Lois and Clark" include "Brutal Youth," "Twas the Night Before Mxymas," "Meet John Doe" and "I've Got You Under My Skin". Prior to that he spent two seasons living in New Zealand where he worked on the syndie hour-drama "High Tide." He received both writing and co-producing credits during his tenure. Other credits include story editor for Aaron Spelling's "Robin's Hoods," writer for New World's "The New Adventures of Zorro" and co-writer (with Reider of the political thriller "The Infiltrator". Mr. Minear studied film at Cal State University, Long Beach. IMDb Mini Biography By : Anonymous

Tim joined ABC's "Lois & Clark" at the beginning of the 1996-97 television season. His first script for the series, "Brutal Youth," found Lois and Clark pondering issues of mortality, married life and love while tracking a mad-scientist who had invented a criminal way to restore youth to the aged. Tim next penned the script for "Lois & Clark's" 1996 Christmas episode, "'Twas the Night Before Mxymas," in which a selfish elf from the fifth dimension attempted to rid Metropolis of hope — and therefore Superman — but, of course, did not succeed.

When he was a child, Tim Minear's parents chastised him for doing his homework while watching television. Little did they know he was planning a career. A Trekie long before there was a "Next Generation," Tim grew up in Whittier, California and began making super 8 movies in his backyard at the age of nine. He studied film at Cal State University at Long Beach and began his professional career in film as a production assistant then assistant director on such films as "Re-Animator," "The Men's Club," "Dudes" and "Platoon." After penning several "spec" feature scripts, Tim worked for a time as a "script doctor," re-writing on low budget feature films. His television credits include "The New Adventures Of Zorro," "Robin's Hoods" for Aaron Spelling and "Two" for Stephen Cannell. He spent two years as co-producer on "High Tide," a surfer/detective/comedy/drama/any-excuse-to-show-lots-of-girls-in-bikin is hour syndicated show. While working on "High Tide," Tim got to live for a year in New Zealand. IMDb Mini Biography By : Anonymous

Trivia

Signed a seven-figure deal with 20th Century Fox to continue working on 'Angel' and create, write, produce and maybe even direct new series for the studio [2001]

Left "Angel" (1999/I) after its third season to join Joss Whedon's new show "Firefly" (2002/I). Because "Angel" showrunner David Greenwalt left at the same point to write/produce "Miracles" (2003) he still remained involved in the story breaking process of the first seven season 4 "Angel" episodes. When "Firefly" was canceled after 15 episodes he returned to "Angel" and wrote/directed the season finale "Home". But he didn't return for season 5, because he felt that after his exit the "power vacuum" on "Angel" was filled and "business was taken care of, and quite well." He then came in contact with the pilot for the new show "Wonderfalls" (2004) and because that show needed an experienced showrunner he became involved.

Where Are They Now

(April 2004) Adapting Robert Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" into a script.

Tim Minear - "Alien Nation" Tv Series - SyFy explores a remake

Webmaster — 2009-07-05T19:50:59Z

Sci Fi Channel, which on July 6 will relaunch as SyFy, is developing a new take on the 1988 movie Alien Nation. Tim Minear (Angel, Firefly) will pen the series.

Previously adapted in 1989 as a short-lived Fox series (succeeded by five TV-movies), Alien Nation follows a human cop and his alien detective partner, against the backdrop of Earth's begrudging assimilation of ETs banished from their home world, where they served as slaves. The original film starred James Caan and Mandy Patinkin (sporting a prosthetic scalp).

"It's genre mixed with procedural mixed with funny mixed with big, giant scary," Minear told Variety. "I love serialized stuff, but this is also a cop franchise. That Starsky & Hutch/Lethal Weapon buddy-cop comedy is absent from TV right now."

With the alien outcasts still segregated from human society 20 years after their arrival, Minear also plans to touch on "the idea of a ghettoized minority... racism, terrorism, assimilation, immigration. And there's room for satire."

Minear sees SyFy as a good fit for such a saga, noting, "On cable, you can play with ambiguity."

With the cabler hoping to cast a wider net under the SyFy brand, programming executive VP Mark Stern told Variety an Alien Nation reboot is "very much in keeping with what we've been looking to do — find themes that are more than just hard sci-fi, something that feels contemporary and relevant and invites a broad audience in."

"The challenge," he said, "is how do you do it in a way that will reinvent it without it feeling like a derivative rehash. [Minear's] approach felt like it wouldn't be a traditional adaptation. We got excited."

Tim Minear - "Alien Nation" Tv Series Remake - He will work with Fox 21

Webmaster — 2009-07-01T11:49:28Z

Sci Fi is developing a new take on "Alien Nation," the 1988 feature that previously spawned a spinoff series on Fox.

"Angel" alum Tim Minear — no stranger to sci-fi tales, having worked on "The X-Files," "Firefly" and "Strange World" — is penning the fresh take on the franchise. Fox 21, the alternative production arm of 20th Century Fox TV, will produce.

"Alien Nation" centers on the partnership between a veteran cop and his alien detective partner, set against the larger tale of alien "newcomers" who move to Earth and attempt to assimilate into society.

Fox 21 topper Chris Carlisle said he believed "Alien Nation" could rep the next franchise revival for Sci Fi, which found huge success in dusting off "Battlestar Galactica" and reworking it for today's auds. Carlisle said "Alien Nation" works both as a sci-fi piece and a procedural drama.

"It's absolute perfect timing for this type of show," Carlisle said. "They're looking for more grounded sci-fi and close-ended episodes, and at the heart of 'Alien Nation,' it's a cop movie. It's grounded. And it has a tremendous amount of dramatic possibilities and humor."

Sci Fi is also looking to broaden its footprint, as it preps to rebrand itself as "Syfy" next week.

"It's very much in keeping with what we've been looking to do — find themes that are more than just hard sci-fi, something that feels contemporary and relevant and invites a broad audience in," said Sci Fi original programming exec VP Mark Stern.

The new "Alien Nation" would include a mythology that evolves over time and will also touch on some of the issues of the day, such as the immigrant experience and how society integrates an incoming culture.

Minear said he's looking forward to incorporating a mix of all the different kinds of series he's written in the past.

"It's genre mixed with procedural mixed with funny and mixed with big, giant scary," Minear said. "I love serialized stuff, but this is also a cop franchise. That 'Starsky and Hutch'/'Lethal Weapon' buddy cop comedy is absent from TV right now."

Minear is currently busy outlining the "Alien Nation" script and mapping out the project's mythology. The new "Alien Nation" will likely take place in the Pacific Northwest, and will take place about 20 years after the first ship of aliens - who have been banished as slaves - crash lands into Earth.

By the time the show begins, some time in the 2020s, the alien population has multiplied from a few thousand to 3.5 million. And much of the "newcomers" live their own segregated existence, in what Minear compares to the North African ghettos in France.

"You can take (the original 'Alien Nation') a step forward and really do a show that encompasses the clash of civilizations, and the idea of a ghettoized minority," he said. "You can touch on racism, terrorism, assimilation, immigration. And there's room for satire."

The original film, which took place in 1991, was helmed by Graham Baker and written by Rockne S. O'Bannon (with an uncredited revise by James Cameron). Mandy Patinkin and James Caan starred as alien cop Sam Francisco and his reluctant human partner, respectively ; Terence Stamp also starred.

In 1989, 20th Century Fox TV and Kenneth Johnson Prods. adapted the movie for Fox, with Eric Pierpoint and Gary Graham in the lead roles. The show lasted just a single season but spawned a series of books.

The TV show was revived in 1994 as a series of telepics for Fox, starting with "Alien Nation : Dark Horizon." Five TV movies were ultimately aired ; the last, "Alien Nation : The Udara Legacy," ran in 1997.

Stern said Sci Fi had been looking at "Alien Nation" as a potential franchise for several years and had talked to several writers about ways to update the concept for modern auds.

"The challenge is how do you do it in a way that will reinvent it without it feeling like a derivative rehash," he said. "We sat down with Tim, who is someone we'd been looking to work with for quite a while, and his approach felt like it wouldn't be a traditional adaptation. We got excited."

Minear said he'd been anxious to develop for cable - and in particular, Sci Fi. The success of "Battlestar" fueled his interest in reviving "Alien Nation," he said.

"Twenty years (after 'Alien Nation'), TV as a whole has evolved, and you can explore issues and go deeper with subject matter than you ever could before," Minear said. "On cable, you can play with ambiguity. This is a place I want to be."

Tim Minear will be interviewed live at The Writers Store on March 28, 2009

Webmaster — 2009-02-08T20:49:56Z

Hosted by The Write Environment, happening 11am March 28th in Westwood, California.

Click on the link :

http://www.facebook.com/event.php ?eid=123274080385

Tim Minear - "Wonderfalls" Tv Series - Crossover with Pushing Daisies ?

Webmaster — 2008-07-29T06:38:27Z

Mary Ann Marie Beetle, a character from the “Muffin Buffalo” episode of “Wonderfalls,” will turn up in a season-two episode of ABC's “Pushing Daisies,” series mastermind Bryan Fuller told the ComicCon crowd Saturday.

Fuller, who created both "Daisies" and "Wonderfalls," said he'd love to have “Wonderfalls” central character Jaye Tyler turn up on “Daisies” as well.

Other season-two news :

* Kids have been cast to play young Emerson Cod and young Olive Snook.

* Chuck and Olive will remain roomies.

* Chuck's Aunts will visit the Pie Hole and end up in a nunnery.

* David Arquette has been cast as Ned's new best friend.

Tim Minear - "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress" Movie - Read the Script

Webmaster — 2008-06-25T20:43:52Z

Tim Minear's “The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress” Script

Remember the Browncoat Backup Bash back in 2006 ? Tim Minear showed up and among other things, gave away the script he wrote for “The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress”. Well, we finally have a copy of it, and we are making it available for download.

Click on the link :

http://socalbrowncoats.com/images/moonfriday.pdf

Tim Minear - "The Inside" Tv Series - Campaign for DVD release on the Theinside-out.net

Webmaster — 2008-06-13T11:35:05Z

Click on the link :

http://www.theinside-out.net

Tim Minear - "Miracle Man" Tv Series - Disgrace makes 'Miracle'

Webmaster — 2007-11-13T23:36:37Z

Preston Downey may not be able to perform miracles on command the way, say, a member of the 700 Club might, but Downey still manages to do God's work - somehow.

When a man in a wheelchair accuses Downey of stealing money from his sister, for example, Downey reacts like the sleazy salesman he is : He physically attacks the disabled man. But when Downey lays his hands on him, to everyone's surprise - including Downey's - the man in the wheelchair isn't hurt but healed.

Downey is the tentatively named leading character in Tim Minear's new show "Miracle Man," which was recently picked up by ABC. He's a disgraced televangelist who has been exposed as a fraud, a fast-talking, charismatic showman who has fallen from grace when people learn he doesn't actually have the power to perform miracles.

Yet, that's also when God decides to use Downey as an instrument. Essentially, Minear said, the show revolves around one central question : What if God actually chose to work through someone who was faking miracles ?

God, it turns out, is not only good, but has a good sense of humor.

"It's irony that someone who has been exposed as a fraudulent miracle worker suddenly performs a miracle," said Minear, whose previous credits include work on "The X-Files," "Lois & Clark : The New Adventures of Superman" and Fox's short-lived "Wonderfalls."

However, "That doesn't solve everybody's problems ; that just complicates everybody's lives," including Downey's.

So far ABC has committed to just a pilot for "Miracle Man," and the role of Downey has not yet been cast. Minear said if the show sticks, he may consult religious experts as a way to further develop the program. But, he added, "it's not an area that is unknown to me."

Minear said part of his inspiration for Downey's character came from living through the infamous televangelist scandals of the 1980s, including Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's now-defunct Praise the Lord television empire.

But there's also a personal connection for Minear, 44, who attended parochial schools as his father worked in religious broadcasting and his mother directed the church choir and taught Bible classes.

Growing up in Whittier, Calif., Minear said, he often "tried to stump the Bible teacher." He never rejected his religious roots out of anger, he said, but slowly drifted away because "there were certain questions that I couldn't get answered to my satisfaction... I just started not to believe in anything."

Today, Minear said, he would not "categorize myself as religious," yet looks back on his pious upbringing with a sense of fondness and respect. The show, he hopes, will reflect that.

"Doing the show is an expression of longing, seeing what other people have and admiring it," he said.

The trials and travails of disgraced evangelists should easily provide enough fodder for a television drama, observers said.

Peter Evans, who works as an investigator for the Dallas-based Trinity Foundation, which functions (at least partly) as a private detective agency whose aim is to expose deceptive TV preachers, said the storyline is rich with potential.

When caught, Evans said, "most televangelists start out with denial." Most televangelists begin their careers "sincerely - believing they can help people - but they get caught up in the fame," he said.

Ole Anthony, the foundation's president, said most televangelists usually begin with the best of intentions but "slowly but surely, they start thinking they're special... and that's what leads most of them astray."

Which does not mean they're any worse than others. Teresa Blythe, a spiritual director in Tucson, Ariz., and the author of "Watching What We Watch : Prime-Time Television Through the Lens of Faith," said Downey wouldn't be the first flawed leading man to be used by God.

Just look at the Bible's King David, she said, who had an affair with Bathsheba, tried to cover up an out-of-wedlock pregnancy and then arranged for her husband to be killed in battle. King David, she says, is "designed to show us that God doesn't pick the perfect person for leadership."

Minear said he doesn't think viewers would have to be particularly religious to find questions about God interesting, especially given the "Judeo-Christian" ethic that weaves its way through American life.

"Certainly," Minear said, "televangelists are as American as apple pie."

Happy Birthday To Tim Minear, 44 Yesterday !

Webmaster — 2007-10-30T10:29:23Z

Date of Birth : 29 October 1963, New York, New York, USA

Mini Biography 1

Mini Biography 2

Trivia

Signed a seven-figure deal with 20th Century Fox to continue working on 'Angel' and create, write, produce and maybe even direct new series for the studio [2001]

Tim Minear - "Miracle Man" Tv Series - A new project on ABC

Webmaster — 2007-08-28T07:11:19Z

"Drive" creator Tim Minear and Emmy winner Todd Holland have teamed for "Miracle Man," a drama project that sparked a bidding war between ABC and Fox and landed at ABC with a put pilot commitment.

"Miracle" — from 20th Century Fox TV, where Minear and Holland are based with overall deals — centers on a disgraced former televangelist, a man of no faith, who finds that God is using him to perform real miracles and change lives, starting with his own.

"It's about losing everything and starting over and finding that there is a higher purpose in life," Minear said. "It's about a man who says, 'I don't know how to be good, but I'll try to be better.' "

"Miracle" was developed by Minear and Holland, who worked together on Fox's critically praised drama "Wonderfalls." Minear is writing the script, with Holland set to direct. Both are executive producing.

Televangelism is a familiar territory for Minear, who had an evangelical upbringing in Whittier, Calif., and went to evangelical schools. His father is a radio engineer for religious programming. While he was growing up, Minear often listened to preachers as they taped their programs in his dad's home studio.

"Miracle" also was influenced by the series of sex and accounting fraud scandals that rocked the televangelist industry in the 1980s and brought disgrace to such heavyweights as Jimmy Swaggart, Marvin Gorman and Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. Others, like Peter Popoff, were exposed as a sham.

But "Miracle" "is not in any way an indictment to religion," Minear said. "It's a love letter to the religious."

What attracted him to the idea of doing a show about a disgraced televangelist was that "I love the genre, and I love stories about redemption and stories about characters that are slightly cynical and nudged by higher force," Minear said.

"Miracle" brings Minear back to ABC, where he landed his first full-time series gig on "Lois & Clark : The New Adventures of Superman."

"I've come a full circle," Minear said. "It feels a fresh clean beginning of something."

Like the other three major networks, ABC has been an active buyer in the past several weeks. It has acquired several projects with significant commitments, including a legal dramedy from David Hemingson, which was picked up as a put pilot (HR 8/27).

There have been a few attempts in the past few years to develop a series set in the world of televangelists, including Showtime's pilot "Paradise," which starred David Strathairn.

Minear, who most recently created and executive produced Fox's drama "Drive," also has worked on such series as Fox's "The Inside" and "Firefly" and WB Network's "Angel." He is repped by Endeavor and manager Larry Shuman of the Shuman Co.

Holland has won three directing Emmys — two for Fox's "Malcolm in the Middle" and one for HBO's "The Larry Sanders Show." On the big screen, he most recently directed "Firehouse Dog."

Holland is repped by Endeavor and attorneys Alan Wertheimer and Bob Getman.