EXCLUSIVEAcademy Award-winning feature film producer Mark Johnson ("Rain Man") has inked a deal with CBS to oversee the development of three drama pilot scripts penned by prominent film writers.
The yearlong deal marks Johnson's first serious push into TV, although he was marginally involved in the launch of NBC's drama "Homicide" and worked on a short-lived ABC comedy called "Harry" in 1987.
"You'd be an idiot not to look at the work being done in TV today and say it's as good as, if not better than, the feature work being done," Johnson said. "For me it's another challenge, and the stigma that once existed about doing TV work for a writer, director or actor has really disappeared."
CBS has agreed to develop three scripts and shoot a pilot for at least one Johnson project, or face a rather large penalty. Johnson, who most recently produced "Donnie Brasco" with Al Pacino and Johnny Depp and "A Perfect World" with Kevin Costner and Clint Eastwood, will executive produce and help oversee the writing, casting, direction and production of the CBS drama projects that will be considered for fall or midseason next year.
Two of the projects already have writers attached, and Johnson is now looking for a writer to pen the third script. Feature writer John Lee Hancock, whose credits include "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" and "A Perfect World" with Eastwood, is writing the script for one CBS pilot.
Actor Ken Olin ("thirtysomething," "EZ Streets") and Columbia TriStar TV are attached to the project, which deals with a group of doctors who get sick of corporate medicine and start their own practice in Los Angeles.
Another script will be penned by Anne Meredith, who won a CableAce Award for "Losing Chase" and adapted Showtime's "Bastard Out of Carolina." She's also now writing a Castle Rock feature called "Deep Water," starring Helen Mirren, and she wrote the upcoming "Mother Love" with Glenn Close.
Meredith's CBS pilot script is a character-driven serial drama featuring five 20-something friends who move to Nashville to pursue country music careers.
"We're taking people with feature histories, and we know this is all new for them, but the newness is part of the appeal," Johnson said.
Johnson, Hancock and Meredith are the latest in a slew of feature players entering the TV series business at a time when TV is strapped for talent and new ideas. Feature writers Joss Whedon and Kevin Williamson are both overseeing dramas at the WB network, and Jerry Bruckheimer is developing several TV projects at Disney.
"As a (feature) producer, you never know what's going to go and when," Johnson said. " 'Donnie Brasco' took eight years to get made. There's no feature nonsense in this TV world. It takes three or four weeks to make a deal. I'm just so excited to be in business with (CBS TV president) Les Moonves and the new CBS."
Prior to becoming an independent producer, Johnson produced all of director Barry Levinson's films, including "Diner," "The Natural," "Good Morning, Vietnam" and "Bugsy," among others. He now has a first-look deal at DreamWorks and a second-look deal at Polygram, and he's shooting "Astronaut's Wife" with Johnny Depp at New Line Cinema and producing "Home Fries" with Drew Barrymore for Warner Bros.
Johnson's CBS deal was brokered by Chris Silbermann and Ronda Gomez at Broder, Kurland, Webb, Uffner.
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