[NEWS] 'Westworld' creators sign nine-figure deal at Amazon

[Your Name]

$30,000,000 is "nine-figure"?!? Only if that's 'per year' ... or if you
stupid enough to count the $ symbol. :-\


From ComingSoon.net ...


Plot Twist! Westworld creators sign nine-figure deal at Amazon
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Hollywood Reporter has brought word that Westworld's
creators Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan have exited their overall
creative deal with Warner Bros. TV for a four-year deal with
Amazon Studios that is estimated to be in the range of at
least $30 million.

Both business partners and a married couple, Joy and Nolan had
made homes for themselves at Warner Bros. TV, with Joy starting
with the studio on the short-lived cult series Pushing Daisies 
in cooperation with ABC and Nolan having worked with the big
screen parent company on his brother's Dark Knight trilogy,
followed by CBS and Warner Bros. TV's Person of Interest, which
he created and ran for five well-received seasons on the
network.

The two would eventually go on to co-create the HBO remake of
the Michael Crichton 1973 classic Westworld, which has debuted
two seasons so far on the premium cable network and has become
of the channel's biggest hits, earning consistently rave reviews
from critics and audiences alike and earning 43 Emmy nominations
and 3 Golden Globe nominations for the series.

"We are incredibly excited to begin this new adventure with
Amazon Studios," Nolan and Joy said in a joint statement.
"Jennifer Salke's vision for the future of our business is bold
and forward-thinking, and she's assembled a brilliant creative
team to execute it. We can't wait to dive in to make some
batshit crazy television together. And we're thrilled to
continue our collaboration with our friends and partners at
Warner Bros. and HBO on Westworld, [Amazon's] The Peripheral 
and more for seasons to come."

Joy and Nolan will remain on the series as writers and executive
producers reportedly for the "life of the show," which is
continuing with a third season that is currently in production
and is expected to debut sometime in 2020. According to THR,
should the show continue with a fourth season, the couple will
not be stepping down as showrunners from the series, nor will
the network search for a new one, as Joy and Nolan have stated
continuing with the vision they have for the sci-fi drama is
still a priority for them.

Amazon's head of genre programming Sharon Tal Yguado was
reportedly key in bringing the two to the streaming service,
with Joy and Nolan already working on an adaptation of the hit
sci-fi mystery novel The Peripheral by William Gibson, which is
coming from WBTV and the couple's banner Kilter Films, which
will now be based at Amazon.

"Jonah Nolan and Lisa Joy are two of the most talented and
inventive creators in the business," said Amazon Studios head
Salke. "They have mastered the art of working in tandem as well
as individually on so many fantastic projects across film and
television.   They each bring their own unique storytelling
abilities to the partnership, creating unforgettable characters
in addictive and compelling worlds. We are ready to jump right
in and can't wait to deliver their future projects to our
Amazon Prime Video audience."


<https://www.comingsoon.net/tv/news/1056943-plot-twist-westworld-creators-sign-nine-figure-deal-at-amazon>

[Ed Stasiak]

> Your Name

>
> The two would eventually go on to co-create the HBO remake
> of the Michael Crichton 1973 classic Westworld

Which is a terrible tv show.

[Jim G.]

Ed Stasiak sent the following on 4/5/19 at 9:39 PM:

So did HBO fire you from a job at some point?

--
Jim G. | A fan of the good and the bad, but not the mediocre
"We are up to our peaches with magical creatures and about to kick some
ass." -- Siren of Space-Time Sara Lance, DC'S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW

[Ed Stasiak]

> Jim G.
> > Ed Stasiak

> >
> > Which is a terrible tv show.
>
> So did HBO fire you from a job at some point?

Hollywood in general and HBO specifically is dumbing down humanity with their
shitty adaptions that disregard having a logical and cohesive story and replacing
it with actors simply “emoting” at the screen, interspersed with meaningless kewl!
scenes of shit blowing up.

And what’s worse, is that these blatant propaganda efforts directed towards the
empty headed ding-bats on Facebook and Twitter are actually working, with the
shows making bazillions of dollars, which means we’ll only get more of this crap.

[Jim G.]

Ed Stasiak sent the following on 4/8/19 at 7:47 PM:

With so many mentions here of lame shows that aired back in my younger
days, I regularly give thanks to the TV gods for giving us options today
that are *so* much better than that old and "nostalgic" stuff. I mean,
seriously. As crappy as ARROW is, for example, it's still *so* much
better than WONDER WOMAN was. There's simply no comparison when it comes
to current quality versus quality "back in the day."

And I say that as someone who has no use for most of what's coming out
today because my point here is that (a) TV use to *really* suck pretty
much across the board, and today's gems are far beyond anything that TV
execs in the old days would have thought possible; and (b) if you think
that shows like GAME OF THRONES and WESTWORLD are bad, I have to wonder
what you thought was *good* 25 years or more ago...

[Ed Stasiak]

> Jim G.
> > Ed Stasiak

> >
> > Hollywood in general and HBO specifically is dumbing down humanity with their
> > shitty adaptions that disregard having a logical and cohesive story and replacing
> > it with actors simply “emoting” at the screen, interspersed with meaningless kewl!
> > scenes of shit blowing up.
>

> (b) if you think that shows like GAME OF THRONES and WESTWORLD are bad,
> I have to wonder what you thought was *good* 25 years or more ago...

I’ll agree there was plenty of shit tv back in the day but there were only a handful
of broadcast networks then, so they effectively had a captive audience and they
were further more restricted by FCC regulations.

But there were also shows like “Shogun” produced in 1980 by NBC, that was also
based on a 1000+ page novel yet was almost a word-for-word adaption, as well as
movies like “The Godfather”, which other than deleting the unnecessary storylines
from the book about not-Frank Sinatra and Sonny’s mistress with her gigantic pussy,
was also a strict adaption.

If you’ve got the time, check out some the vids from this guy, who makes a very good
case (better than me) why GoT is shit because the showrunners are no-track-record
utterly talentless fucking hacks who wiped their ass with the original novels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw9JXNnw1QA&t=463s&frags=pl%2Cwn

[Connor]

I don't care what some no-nothing on the Internet thinks of GoT. And I don't even care if it doesn't follow the books. It's show that kept us hooked in it's own right!

[Your Name]

Only some of *you* ... many more people think 'Game of Thrones' is just
garbage, irrespective of whether or not it follows the books (which
would have been difficult since the author hadn't finished writing
them!). Of course even more people on the planet wouldn't have a clue
what that show is at all.

[Ed Stasiak]

> Connor
> > Ed Stasiak

> >
> > If you’ve got the time, check out some the vids from this guy, who makes a very good
> > case (better than me) why GoT is shit because the showrunners are no-track-record
> > utterly talentless fucking hacks who wiped their ass with the original novels.
>

> I don't care what some no-nothing on the Internet thinks of GoT.

Fair enough, though I’ll point out that all of us here are “know nothings on the Internet”
yet we still read each other’s posts and discuss various subjects.

> And I don't even care if it doesn't follow the books.

If you enjoy the shitty tv show but haven’t read the books, I recommend you give them
a go, as they’re pretty good and you ought to see what you’re missing.

> It's show that kept us hooked in it's own right!

Then you’ve been easily hooked by the worst bait, as the story presented by the show
runners David Benioff and D.B.Weiss (aka; D&D or Dumb & Dumber) is objectivily flat
out retarded and straight up bad writing and directing.

[Jim G.]

Ed Stasiak sent the following on 4/9/19 at 4:58 PM:

>> Jim G.
>>> Ed Stasiak
>>>
>>> Hollywood in general and HBO specifically is dumbing down humanity with their
>>> shitty adaptions that disregard having a logical and cohesive story and replacing
>>> it with actors simply “emoting” at the screen, interspersed with meaningless kewl!
>>> scenes of shit blowing up.
>>
>> (b) if you think that shows like GAME OF THRONES and WESTWORLD are bad,
>> I have to wonder what you thought was *good* 25 years or more ago...
>
> I’ll agree there was plenty of shit tv back in the day but there were only a handful
> of broadcast networks then, so they effectively had a captive audience and they
> were further more restricted by FCC regulations.
>
> But there were also shows like “Shogun” produced in 1980 by NBC, that was also
> based on a 1000+ page novel yet was almost a word-for-word adaption, as well as
> movies like “The Godfather”, which other than deleting the unnecessary storylines
> from the book about not-Frank Sinatra and Sonny’s mistress with her gigantic pussy,
> was also a strict adaption.

I consider quality in this context to be measured by how successfully
writers, directors and actors are at accomplishing the goals that they
set out to accomplish. As such, if their goal is to do a faithful and
literal adaptation of an existing work, then quality is defined at least
in part by how well they manage to avoid going off in other directions.
But not every work of fiction that is based on/inspired by a previous
work has that goal. Some see the original work as some combination of an
inspiration and a foundation.

Given all of that, I consider GoT and WESTWORLD to both be superior TV
because neither claimed up front that it would be a literal retelling of
the source material. If that bothers a person (and it clearly bothers
you, as you've said so many times), then it's fair for that person to
say things along the lines of not being fond of the adaptation or not
liking the direction that the show is taking, etc. But to say that
something "sucks" and whatnot simply because it's not a literal
retelling of the source material is to claim that quality is defined by
faithfulness to the source material, and that stance is going to be
tenuous even on the best of days.

So if you say, for example, "I don't like what Jon Snow did in that
episode" and you explain why in ways other than "Because it's not what
he did in the book," then I might be interested in engaging you on the
point, especially if I disagree with you. But if you just say "It's not
what he did in the book," then I'm going to tune you out right away...

> If you’ve got the time, check out some the vids from this guy, who makes a very good
> case (better than me) why GoT is shit because the showrunners are no-track-record
> utterly talentless fucking hacks who wiped their ass with the original novels.
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw9JXNnw1QA&t=463s&frags=pl%2Cwn

I'm enjoying the show a great deal. While would I be interested in
having someone convince me that my subjective opinion is "wrong" in some
way? And from what you just said, it sounds as if this guy has done a
series of "This show sucks and this is why!" about GoT and that's just
pathetic, IMO. I've never understood why anyone would lobby a person to
change his mind about a show in either direction. It's subjective, after
all. I can be tenacious when it comes to objective stuff, but not when
it comes to the subjective. And if I like something, I give reasons why.
If I don't, I give reasons why. But I don't make a career out of trying
to "prove" that I'm "right" when it comes to subjective stuff.

[Ed Stasiak]

> Jim G.

>
> But to say that something "sucks" and whatnot simply because it's not a literal
> retelling of the source material is to claim that quality is defined by faithfulness
> to the source material, and that stance is going to be tenuous even on the best
> of days.

The tv show sucks both because it isn’t faithful to the books _and_ because it sucks
in its own right as it’s terribly written and directed;

Cersei essentially blows up the Vatican, killing the Pope and all kinda high nobility
and… no repercussions at all, everybody just forgets about it and she’s now super
powerful because Grrrl Powah!

Oberyn battles the Mountain and is killed, so his mistress and daughters decide
to avenge him by… murdering his entire fucking family and everybody is cool
with this.

Arya gets stabbed in the stomach and jumps into a shit filled canal and... she's
perfectly fine in the next episode.

Littlefinger spends multiple seasons twirling his mustache being a super cunning
guy and… just hands over Sansa to Ramsay Bolton to get raped because…?

Jon Snow & Friends travel Beyond the Wall to acquire a zombie and get ambushed
by the White Walkers and… Gendry runs for hundreds of miles back to Castle Black,
where they send a raven to Daenerys, who is thousands of miles away and she
zooms off to the North on her dragon to save them… all in one day.

This is the show you’re praising as “superior tv”.

[Jim G.]

Ed Stasiak sent the following on 4/10/19 at 3:38 PM:

>> Jim G.
>>
>> But to say that something "sucks" and whatnot simply because it's not a literal
>> retelling of the source material is to claim that quality is defined by faithfulness
>> to the source material, and that stance is going to be tenuous even on the best
>> of days.
>
> The tv show sucks both because it isn’t faithful to the books

Nope. You get to *want* it to be just like the books and you get to not
*like* it when it's not just like the books, but it doesn't "suck" just
because it doesn't give you what you want.

> _and_ because it sucks
> in its own right as it’s terribly written and directed;
>
> Cersei essentially blows up the Vatican, killing the Pope and all kinda high nobility
> and… no repercussions at all, everybody just forgets about it and she’s now super
> powerful because Grrrl Powah!

Both rule(d) by fear. And when she eliminated the competition, it just
made the people fear here more than they already did. They didn't forget
her past and now there's no one out there reining her in in any way.

> Oberyn battles the Mountain and is killed, so his mistress and daughters decide
> to avenge him by… murdering his entire fucking family and everybody is cool
> with this.

I can't even remember that anymore...

> Arya gets stabbed in the stomach and jumps into a shit filled canal and... she's
> perfectly fine in the next episode.

When were we told that it was "shit-filled"?

> Littlefinger spends multiple seasons twirling his mustache being a super cunning
> guy and… just hands over Sansa to Ramsay Bolton to get raped because…?

Because Ned was dead and was no longer useful, so his kid was no longer
useful at that point. And he didn't see the potential for her to become
useful again, so she became a pawn.

> Jon Snow & Friends travel Beyond the Wall to acquire a zombie and get ambushed
> by the White Walkers and… Gendry runs for hundreds of miles back to Castle Black,
> where they send a raven to Daenerys, who is thousands of miles away and she
> zooms off to the North on her dragon to save them… all in one day.

Everyone knows why that was, at least in the immediate sense: HBO told
them to wrap it up soon. I don't think that anyone has denied that there
were timing issues as they tried to set the table for the end of things,
but that's hardly the writers' fault.

> This is the show you’re praising as “superior tv”.

Even if all of your points were entirely valid, they don't even begin to
add up to justifying the amount of vitriol that you throw at the show at
every opportunity. Not even close.

[Ed Stasiak]

> Jim G.
> > Ed Stasiak

> >
> > The tv show sucks both because it isn’t faithful to the books
>
> Nope. You get to *want* it to be just like the books and you get to not
> *like* it when it's not just like the books, but it doesn't "suck" just
> because it doesn't give you what you want.

Yes it does, I’m part of the audience and I wanted an close adaption, not stupid
trash from no-track-record hacks who think they’re better writers than the original
author, who as sold a bazillion copies of his books all over the world.

> > Cersei essentially blows up the Vatican, killing the Pope and all kinda high
> > nobility and… no repercussions at all, everybody just forgets about it and
> > she’s now super powerful because Grrrl Powah!
>
> Both rule(d) by fear.

No, it was a functioning feudal society and (mostly) unified kingdom for 300
years, that doesn’t happen if you go around blowing everybody up. Cersei
is a madwoman and the people (both nobility and peasants) aren’t go to
stand for that.

> And when she eliminated the competition, it just made the people fear here
> more than they already did.

Why would they fear Cersei? House Lannister had been devastated by the
War of Five Kings and the other lords of Westeros all had large armies of their
own, the Tyrells alone fielded 100K troops… who all just magically disappeared
and were forgotten about when Cersei blew up the Vatican.

> They didn't forget her past and now there's no one out there reining her in in
> any way.

There is nobody reining her in because the hack producers simply ignored the
rest of Westeros, everything is Kingslanding and the rest of the continent just
doesn’t exist anymore.

> > Oberyn battles the Mountain and is killed, so his mistress and daughters decide
> > to avenge him by… murdering his entire fucking family and everybody is cool
> > with this.
>
> I can't even remember that anymore...

Probably your brain instinctually protecting you from the debilitating stupidity
of the entire Dorne storyline…

> > Arya gets stabbed in the stomach and jumps into a shit filled canal and... she's
> > perfectly fine in the next episode.
>
> When were we told that it was "shit-filled"?

it’s a quasi-medieval Venice, so of course the canals will be toxic as hell, not to
mention that the stomach wound itself has a high chance for sepsis.

> > Littlefinger spends multiple seasons twirling his mustache being a super cunning
> > guy and… just hands over Sansa to Ramsay Bolton to get raped because…?
>
> Because Ned was dead and was no longer useful, so his kid was no longer useful
> at that point.

“No longer useful”? Sansa is the heir to the North, she’s the ENTIRE REASON that
Middlefinger spent season after season twirling his mustache after smuggling her out
of Kingslanding, where by the way, Cersei wants her head but… just forgets about her
because reasons.

> And he didn't see the potential for her to become useful again, so she became a pawn.

Did you even watch the shitty tv show?

> > Jon Snow & Friends travel Beyond the Wall to acquire a zombie and get ambushed
> > by the White Walkers and… Gendry runs for hundreds of miles back to Castle Black,
> > where they send a raven to Daenerys, who is thousands of miles away and she
> > zooms off to the North on her dragon to save them… all in one day.
>
> Everyone knows why that was, at least in the immediate sense:

Because Dumb & Dumber are complete and utterly talentless hacks?

> HBO told them to wrap it up soon.

They knew for years how many seasons the series was going to be, it’s not like HBO
suddenly pulled the plug and canceled the show on them.

> I don't think that anyone has denied that there were timing issues as they tried to set
> the table for the end of things, but that's hardly the writers' fault.

Yes it is, they suck as writers and producers.

[Jim G.]

Ed Stasiak sent the following on 4/12/19 at 12:16 PM:

>> Jim G.
>>> Ed Stasiak
>>>
>>> The tv show sucks both because it isn’t faithful to the books
>>
>> Nope. You get to *want* it to be just like the books and you get to not
>> *like* it when it's not just like the books, but it doesn't "suck" just
>> because it doesn't give you what you want.
>
> Yes it does,

No, it doesn't. When I was a kid, I often didn't get what I wanted for
dinner. But the fact that I might have wanted spaghetti and meatballs
didn't mean that the meatloaf that I actually got "sucked." The quality
of the meatloaf could be judged only by the meatloaf itself, not by my
disappointment over it not being pasta.

> I’m part of the audience and I wanted an close adaption,

And you're entitled to disappointment for not getting it. But
disappointment over the direction that things took is not evidence of a
lack of quality.

> not stupid
> trash from no-track-record hacks who think they’re better writers than the original
> author, who as sold a bazillion copies of his books all over the world.

Yeah, I can see once again from your hyperbole that you're able to talk
about this rationally. Add to that the fact that you're (a) making
convenient assumptions about some things while (b) taking stuff that was
*only* in the books and using all of that to judge what we're seeing on
the TV show and you're left with a recipe for frustration for me. So...

[snip]