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Friday, May 09, 2008
‘Breaking' Returning — Will Winnebago Tag Along?
By Dan Mayfield
Journal Staff Writer
The AMC network television show “Breaking Bad,” which was filmed entirely in New Mexico last year, has been picked up for a second season.
Gail Smerigan, of Albuquerque Studios, confirmed this week that the show will be filming again at Albuquerque Studios.
The show was the first original drama for AMC and gained high praise for its inventive premise: Bryan Cranston (“Malcolm in the Middle”) plays a high school chemistry teacher who turns to making methamphetamine to make extra cash. He's joined by a crazy cast of characters in his double life with great names like Krazy 8, No Doze and Skinny Pete.
The show is produced by Vince Gilligan (“The X-Files”) for Sony Television.
“We're excited. They're the greatest people,” Smerigan said.
It is, though, a busy time at Albuquerque Studios. The “Terminator 4” project is filming at the studios and is using up nearly all of the studios' space.
Earlier this year, Albuquerque Studios announced an expansion at its Mesa Del Sol headquarters, and not a moment too soon.
“We're full at the inn, as they say,” Smerigan said.
The new studios should be finished by July, just in time for “Breaking Bad” to start shooting.
AMC has ordered 13 new episodes of “Breaking Bad,” according to the Hollywood Reporter. The show started with a truncated seven-episode season.
The show is a must-see, as it's one of the few bright spots on the small screen. As Walt (Cranston) tries to find some thrills in life, he's constantly on the lookout for the good/bad guys and trying to keep his bumbling, and embezzling, cronies in check. I only hope his meth lab on wheels — the 1970s Winnebago — returns for the second season.
GETTING IN THE WAY: Friends of Karen Harrison know she's funny. She's got a joke about almost anything, especially the kind that makes fun of her friends.
But Harrison of Albuquerque has secretly been funneling those jokes into screenplays, and last week earned third place in the prestigious Bare Bones International Film & Music Festival's annual screenwriting competition.
It may be hard to get excited about a film festival in Muskogee, Okla., but it's one of the more respected screenwriting competitions in the U.S.
“I'm the horse that showed, so that's better than the horse that went to the glue factory,” Harrison said of her third-place award.
So what's her script about?
“Like ‘The Golden Girls' meets ‘Animal House,' ” she says.
It's about a group of older women who are getting evicted from their trailer park to make way for a new Indian casino.
“They protest by getting in the way all over town. They're all obnoxious. They're the old senior hippies now,” she said.
“They do a protest. The casino goes through, but the chief falls in love with my lead, and they're given a place to live.”
“It's not a political statement or anything, it's just a comedy. It's a satirical thing about how old people are in the way ... ha!” she says.
“Seizure World” wasn't her only script to be honored at the festival. A second script, “Vocation Rehab,” about an aimless pregnant girl who attends vocational school, also got notice. Her name is Burgandy, and all the girls in the school are named after the alcoholic beverage their mothers were drunk on the night they were conceived.
SPEAKING OF SCRIPT WRITING: With this film column gig, I'm constantly asked, “Hey, how do I get a screenplay made into a movie?”
Or worse, “Hey, can you give me some producers' phone numbers so I can get them a script?”
Sorry, I don't know how to get a screenplay turned into a movie — but the folks at the 10th Annual Screenwriting Conference in Santa Fe do.
The conference kicks off May 27, but get your tickets now because it's going to fill up.
Over the past nine years, the conference has gathered script-writing pros to teach the rest of us how it's done. There are two tracks for the conference, one for those who are learning to write, and one for those who already have a script and want to take it to the next step.
“Essentially,” says SCSFe spokeswoman Terry Cutler, “you need to write it in the correct format, know how to pitch it to a producer or director so that you sound like a professional, and you need to find out which producers and agents are looking for things like you're pitching and contact them, pitch them, and then get them to read it.”
She makes it sound so easy.
But, as anybody who's ever written a script knows, it ain't. Even if you've done everything right, getting a producer or director to sit down with a script and plow through 100 pages of dialogue isn't easy.
Well, this year some producers have agreed to sit down for some script pitches.
This year world-class William Morris agent Mike Esola; Morgan Creek vice president Andy Fraser; Gary Goldstein, president of The Goldstein Company (co-producer of “Pretty Woman”); Michael Glassman of Outlaw Productions (producers of “Sex, Lies and Videotape”); producers from The Safran Company; and others will gather with beginning, emerging and advanced screenwriters at the conference.
Karl Iglesias, screenwriting instructor at UCLA Extension, kicks off the conference with a special event on May 27.
Conference registration fees vary, depending on which events you want to attend. Visit scsfe.com, or call (866) 424-1501 for more.
HAY THERE: On Cinco de Mayo, the folks rallying to save the “Wildfire” TV show that was filmed in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho and Algodones staged their own mini-battle of Puebla.
The group has been taking donations for a several weeks to buy hay to deliver to the ABC Family network offices, which canceled the show earlier this year.
The group, based online at savewildfire.com, delivered 45 boxes of hay and 300 cast-iron horseshoes to make the point that they want the show to continue.
SEND US YOUR TIPS: If you know of a film in the state, or are curious about one, e-mail Film@ABQjournal.com.
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