Dick Wolf

[outerbankschick]

Detective Jack McCoy??

Okay, where are the fact-checkers on these articles? Somebody was asleep on the job here. LOL!

[annabelleleigh]

This post could have gone to any number of threads but it seems most to affect Dick Wolf.

Boldfaces mine.

AL
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N.Y. production incentives in danger
Program no longer considering new projects

By Sam Thielman
Variety
February 12, 2009

Excerpt:

"Sensing they had struck gold with tax incentives that helped lure films including "Enchanted" and TV shows such as "Ugly Betty" to Gotham, New York state lawmakers dramatically expanded the program last year. But the tax incentive program is now the victim of its own success. The $515 million in incentives designed to last through 2013 have been allocated in less than 10 months, just in time for the state to enter a financial black hole.

Until the state allocates more money for the credits, the incentive program cannot process applications for new film and TV projects.

New York-based series like ABC's "Ugly Betty" aren't in danger of losing the credits they've already earned, but since shows have to renew their credits annually, shows like "Fringe," "Life on Mars" and "Nurse Jackie" -- all of which moved to Gotham specifically to take advantage of the incentives -- are considering going elsewhere for their next seasons....

...The message Gotham industryites are trying to send to lawmakers is that failing to extend the program will hurt more than just the film and TV biz; it will curtail broader spending (in such segments as food, retail and hotels) at precisely the wrong moment.

...By now, there's ample evidence that the tax program succeeded in attracting production back to Gotham from Toronto and other simulated locales. An Ernst & Young study predicts that taxes generated by industry and production-related spending for New York will exceed by $2 billion the total credits claimed through the program for the fiscal years 2005-10.

New York's program grew out of a smaller incentive program (10%, sweetened by 5% from the city) launched in 2004 by then-Gov. George Pataki. Local notables like studio chiefs Hal Rosenbluth and Douglas C. Steiner as well as "Law & Order" impresario Dick Wolf threw their weight behind the initiative....

...And now, though filmmakers will always want to work in New York, many of them may no longer be able to do so at the same profitable rate.

If the credit goes away in this shaky economy, the danger is not that productions won't come to Gotham -- it's that those films and TV shows might not get made at all. That's bad news for the industry, but it's also bad news for the state: New York lawmakers have insisted that the money be spent before the incentive kicks in, so the state has seen an instant boost (this is a first -- similar incentive programs are all for capital investment)."

Read the full article (with its myriad of financial details) at:
www.variety.com/article/VR1118000106.html

[DonnaJo]

I can't imagine any of the Law& Orders, especially the mothership, filming anywhere but New York City.

[annabelleleigh]

Though this particular article doesn't mention Dick Wolf I started posting on this subject in this thread and I don't think interest warrants starting a new one.

Why should we care about this seemingly arcane financial issue?

Because CI benefits directly from this tax incentive program (see my boldface, below).

The cost of quality drama is a primary topic in the debate over sustaining financial models for broadcast TV; it's less discussed in the context of original cable network shows. Yet it's the same issue.

General audience cable outlets, such as USA and TNT, have managed to create and launch new scripted series by limiting costs from the outset. However L&O: Criminal Intent is a peculiar holdover from an earlier broadcast era when -- eg -- TV stars could expect to be paid in excess of a quarter-million dollars per episode. CI was created when budgets were more generous because profits from it were larger.

Though, in moving to USA, CI has cut costs considerably (freezing star salaries; eliminating senior writers and other staff, according to various media reports) there is likely an irreducible budget needed to maintain its quality. So this New York Statetax incentive program may be important to continuing CI at the 16-episode annual order level.

AL

P.S., a sad postscript to yesterday's news conference on the the "Life on Mars" set: That series has been canceled.
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Gov. urged to save NY tax program
Industryites rally at public news conference

By Sam Thielman
Variety
March 2, 2009

Excerpt:

"Thesps, crew members, studio facility owners and other Gotham showbiz players braved the snowstorm that blanketed the city Monday to publicly urge Gov. David Paterson to save the state's production tax incentive program.

The news conference was held at Kaufman/Astoria Studios to sound the alarm that the state will lose jobs and tax revenue if the budget pending in Albany is approved without an allocation for the production tax credits. The budget recently submitted by Paterson has no new funds earmarked for the program that has been around, in one form or another, since 2005...

...The newser was held on the set of ABC drama "Life on Mars," a program that relocated to Gotham to take advantage of the credit program. Despite the chilly weather and 10 inches of snow on the ground, the event was well attended by filmmakers, thesps and crew, though the turnout by reporters was a little sparser than organizers had hoped.

"I'd rather do all my work here, except on days like today," joked "Life on Mars" co-star thesp Michael Imperioli. Imperioli and his co-stars Harvey Keitel and Jason O'Mara all spoke in favor of the tax incentive program, though their salaries are exempt from the break that gave producers a 30% refund on state and city taxes generated from below-the-line expenditures.

Supporters of the tax credits say the state's $14 billion deficit should have no bearing on the program because it has proved to more than pay for itself in additional production spending and jobs brought to the city...

..."This program more than pays for itself," said Mary Rae Thewlis, a unit production manager for USA Network's "Law and Order: Criminal Intent," another beneficiary of the program. "This is not charity. It generates revenue at a time when the state is desperately in need of money."

Read the full article at:
www.variety.com/article/VR1118000737.html

[jeffan]

Thank you AL for your insights and analysis.

Did not the Governor of California, Arnold ........ (LOL, can't spell his surname) manage to reinstate the Tax Incentive Program in his state?

[tjara]

Mar 3, 2009 12:54:01 GMT -5 jeffan said:

Arnold ........ (LOL, can't spell his surname)

Schwarzenegger

[annabelleleigh]

Does anyone find this a little bizarre? Dick Wolf is set to speak next month at a "faith-based" film festival in California. Apparently the event will be held in a facility owned by the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

www.emediawire.com/releases/2009/3/prweb2253394.htm

AL

[DonnaJo]

This must be a personal favor. I also noticed that Chris Christmas is a speaker also. Isn't he VDO's friend & collaborated with him on a few films? Films that are not exactly G rated?

[jeffan]

It does seem bizarre AL but, as DJ commented, he could be doing a favor for a friend or even talent-scouting.

Here is another bizarre story. I have only posted the relevant paragraphs.
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The cop drama that rewrote TV history.
G F Newman's Law and Order shocked the nation when it was shown on television 31 years ago. Its first airing since will still pack a punch, says Gerard Gilbert.

Take two British television dramas about police corruption and brutality in the 1970s. Channel 4's Red Riding, which finished last week, attracted almost universal praise for its drama, but barely raised an eyebrow with its graphic depiction of a named constabulary (the West Yorkshire Police) routinely torturing and murdering people. The BBC's Law and Order (not to be confused with the later US show, and its current ITV spin-off) depicted bent Seventies coppers and a violent prison service. Unlike the retro-saga Red Riding – or, for that matter, Life on Mars – G F Newman's Law and Order was broadcast to an aghast nation in the year it depicted – 1978. It was shockingly contemporaneous, in other words, and caused an uproar...

In the meantime, Newman discovered that the series had an influential admirer in the States – the film-maker Michael Mann. "I got to know Michael after he asked me to write a screenplay about the American Revolution – the film that became The Last of the Mohicans. I was about to make my directorial debut in television and said I couldn't do it because I was doing something else. And then the something else didn't happen."

Mann tried to get Law and Order remade for American television, but to no avail. In the meantime he regularly screened it on the set of Miami Vice – something that was later to give rise to suggestions of plagiarism when Dick Wolf – then a supervising producer on Miami Vice – eventually sold a series by the same name to NBC: the globally syndicated smash hit Law & Order.

Although the format of Wolf's Law & Order is almost identical to a 1960s series called Arrest and Trial, Newman believes there are also similarities to his drama. Did he think Wolf had nabbed his idea? "Michael Mann certainly took that view," says Newman. "He phoned me up and said, 'You've got to sue Dick Wolf'. I was in the middle of a plagiarism case at the time. Fortunately we won, but I didn't fancy the prospect of going into another piece of litigation."

When Newman finally did find the stomach for a fight, he learnt that he had run out of time under the statute of limitations. "I can see the argument for a case," he says now. "But I can't pretend that I've been eaten up by it over the past 30 years. By the way, as a piece of thumbnail arithmetic I would be owed about $300m in royalties."

The Independent
March 24, 2009.

Full article
www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/the-cop-drama-that-rewrote-tv-history-1652514.html

[annabelleleigh]

Mar 24, 2009 16:32:39 GMT -5 DonnaJo said:

This must be a personal favor. I also noticed that Chris Christmas is a speaker also. Isn't he VDO's friend & collaborated with him on a few films? Films that are not exactly G rated?

VDO's personal production company, Brooklyn Hazelhurst Films (ironically located in Santa Monica) employs a Ken Christmas. But you may be right anyway, DJ -- Wolf is probably doing this as a personal favor. But I did wonder what he would have to say to such a group, especially when L&O franchise shows have hardly been easy on organized religion, particularly fundamentalists.

I also note that Wolf has been spending the last year or so showing up at all kinds of public events and -- whenever possible -- collecting awards from any organization that will bestow one on him. He's also made a huge contribution to the University of California to help establish some sort of media program that will ensure preservation of his legacy. It seems like Wolf is on an extended, worldwide grand tour for recognition that will wind up in retirement.

J-Fan -- thanks for posting the piece. I only recently became aware that there had been a British drama called "Law and Order" and didn't know the backstory.

AL

[Patcat]

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100726/ap_en_tv/us_books_dick_wolf

Mr. Wolf to write novels.

Patcat

[outerbankschick]

It doesn't make it clear what characters he'll use, but if he uses those from the franchise...well that is one way to make these characters live on. And just imagine that...the creator of the show writing his own fan fiction! The irony is beautiful! I love it!

[jeffan]

Well, it is said if you can't get the staff...

[maherjunkie]

Let your rod comfort you....

[alliehalliwell]

I'll probably read no matter who its about but it'll come as no shock that I do hope the characters used would be Goren and Eames. But I guess we'll see...for all we know it could be some time before the books come out.