Linwood Boomer, who was of course the creator of Malcolm in the Middle and was the original ‘genius’ that the character of Malcolm was modelled on, has been speaking at the Los Angeles Comedy Shorts Film Festival.
He had some advice for anyone trying to get a job writing comedy for TV — just write lots and lots of scripts.
Linwood Boomer started as an actor, became a writer, made enough money, and retired.
Write TV spec scripts. I wrote Malcolm as a spec script just to keep in practice. The guy at FOX who bought it got fired for some other reason and we were ignored for 12 episodes. By then we had critical acclaim so they poured all kinds of money into it. We had seven years of doing whatever we wanted to. It was like winning the lottery.”
“How to get a job in TV? Write scripts and send them out. You need four or five good scripts and they will do your auditioning for you. If you don’t get any calls write some more.”
KSITETV: What made you choose “Pizza Man” as the movie that brings you back to acting, and what have you been up to?
MUNIZ: I’ve been off racing cars for a while, and I’m in a band now. I’ve been really busy trying to find some other things I’m into. I always said I would get back into acting, and I just didn’t know when. It literally was a luck of the draw kind of thing. I called my manager for the first time in like four years, and like two weeks later the Pizza Man script came to me. I read it, and I really, really enjoyed the script. I thought it would be a lot of fun; a bunch of good guys working on it, and here I am. I’m having a really good time and I think we’re getting some really good stuff.
I’m really happy to be back as an actor. I didn’t think that I would miss it as much as coming back has reminded me that I did. So I’m really excited to be here.
It is particularly interesting that Frankie seems to have decided to return to acting in a very short space of time. It does now look fairly likely that his car racing aspirations might be on the backburner for some time, as he is also now playing drums for Phoenix-based rock band You Hang Up.
You can read the full interview at KSiteTV; they even promise more Pizza Man interview content over the next week.
Shooting on the new picture is happening throughout the month of April 2010, after which Frankie is set to return to Phoenix, Arizona to continue drumming with You Hang Up.
Justin Berfield’s new show Sons of Tucson has unfortunately not been popular enough and it has been confirmed by FOX (via Variety) that the show will be removed from its current time slot. Effectively, the show has been cancelled.
Thankfully, the remaining episodes will air in the summer, in a process known as ‘burning off’ (where the network just seeks to fill less popular time slots). From June 6, the remaining 9 episodes will air on Sundays at 7:30pm.
This is a big disappointment for the show as well for those who worked on it and means almost certainly that there won’t be a second season.
It’s no consolation, but perhaps fans should be glad that the show got this far — it sounds obvious, but getting a TV show on US national television is very hard. The fact that Sons of Tucson got this far genuinely is an achievement. While the viewing numbers weren’t enough for FOX to want to keep it in its slot, let us not forget that several million people did enjoy watching it.
We look forward to seeing the rest of the episodes in the summer and wish Justin luck in his future projects!
Following on from the news yesterday that Frankie Muniz (Malcolm) had apparently landed a role in a new superhero movie Pizza Man, it seems that we now have confirmation that this is indeed the case.
Replying to our very own TJ on Twitter, Frankie’s girlfriend Elycia Marie was able to confirm it. It even seems she will have a role in the film!
I was just on the Pizza Man set; really good crew and I saw Frankie’s costume and some scenes from the movie… he’s definitely in it.
I should be posting interviews with the writer and director soon; hopefully I can get Frankie if he’s willing to do an interview… he wasn’t on set today as it was his day off (as you all caught on his Twitter).
Hello Lovely Actors! Currently casting for Stand-In Actor for Frankie Muniz. Must be around 5’5”, with brown hair similar in appearance to Frankie’s. no visible tattoos and/or piercings. Must be available FULLTIME and have an excellent attitude. We start shooting next week and it will go for four weeks. Feature film: Genre: Superhero/Comedy/Action Adventure. Email CURRENT photo and resume etc and we will schedule a time for you to come in and interview.
ps. if you can also toss pizza dough that is a plus but def not a requirement:) But must be SAG
Thank you!
Kelli
Extras Casting Director
So, it’s official! We will hopefully be seeing Frankie back on screen in the not too distant future.
Shooting on Pizza Man is apparently is taking place for the next four weeks in the Los Angeles area. Frankie’s band You Hang Up are to take a brief hiatus while Frankie is busy shooting the picture (according to TMZ), but they are planning a small tour soon.
We wish Frankie every success with the new project and of course continued success with You Hang Up when he returns to that in May!
In recent years, Frankie Muniz (Malcolm) has seemed to move away from acting and has pursued a racing career as well as recently joining Arizona-based band You Hang Up as a drummer.
Now, KSiteTV is reporting that Frankie has landed an acting role in Pizza Man, which is set to be a family-friendly superhero movie.
Malcolm In The Middle star Frankie Muniz is returning to acting for the first time in five years for a new movie currently being filmed with the title of “Pizza Man.”
The film is executive produced by Foz McDermott, known to many online fans of Heroes as “TheMightyFoz” on Twitter. McDermott was involved in many aspects of the show’s production, also producing for the BBC “Heroes Unmasked” series in addition to writing episodes of the Heroes “Slow Burn” tie-ins as well as writing for the online graphic novels.
“Pizza Man,” envisioned as a family-friendly feature that could be enjoyed by fans of the genre as well as their kids, also features former championship wrestler “Diamond” Dallas Page as the villain.
Frankie’s recent tweets do seem to support the story that he is filming something, although there is scarce information available and neither Frankie himself nor anyone officially connected to him have announced his participation in the Pizza Man project.
Hopefully some more details and official confirmation will emerge soon, but it does seem likely that Frankie is returning to acting in some capacity. No word on how this affects his role as drummer in You Hang Up or his racing career which appears to be on hold for now.
Justin Berfield (Reese) recently had a ‘live tweet’ event where he shared behind-the-scenes information and photos from the set of Episode 3 of the new show he is producing, Sons of Tucson. The live tweet event is now over, but you can follow him on Twitter — @justinberfield.
“those were Tylers glasses in the 1st scene.The sun was killing him and we thought they looked Snuffkin like.”
Recognized as one of the nation’s elite charity events, Celebrity Fight Night is a star-studded evening presented in honor of our featured guest, Muhammad Ali. Celebrities and professional athletes from all over the country participate in a night filled with incredible Live Auction items and live musical performances by many of today’s brightest stars.
This power-packed night of excitement not only leaves our audience with unforgettable memories each year, but more importantly, provides significant dollars for charities that help many people in need. Throughout Celebrity Fight Night’s fifteen year history nearly $60 million has been raised with the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center at Barrow Neurological Institute as the primary beneficiary. Numerous other charities have benefited and countless lives have been changed thanks to the tremendous generosity of our supporters.
The event this year was hosted by country music artist Reba McEntire, who has hosted the event for the past four years. Other acts on stage during the event included teen sensation Charice and The John Corbett Band.
You can see more photos of Frankie and Elycia in our gallery.
Kyle from JohnJay and Rich (a radio show) even recorded this video of Frankie at the event.
Sons of Tucson is as close to a Malcolm in the Middle reunion as there ever has been, but its all behind the scenes. As I’m sure you know Son of Tucson is produced by Justin Berfield (Reese) and directed/produced by Todd Holland who worked on many Malcolm episodes.
Justin was responsible for this reunion and had this to say…
We all knew a show revolving around three young kids requires someone who’s done it before and Todd fit that bill immediately, I’d actually been dying to work with him again for the last three years, so I’m glad everything worked out.
The reason why we brought a lot of the people from Malcolm is, especially when you’re working with kids, time is extremely important, and that’s a group of people that worked together for seven years straight, and they all know what to do and the timing needed to get it done.
You can’t say enough about that when you’re on a TV show with kids. You want everything to run as smoothly as possible because, especially with Ben Stockham who plays Robby, you only have him on set working hours like four hours a day, and if he’s in three or four scenes, everything has got to be running smoothly, and so that’s why we brought on everybody from Malcolm, not only because they’re the best if not some of the best in the business at their jobs, but because they all have a short-hand knowledge with each other, and they just work together great.
People who made the move (and their Malcolm contribution):
Justin tweeted the good news this week that early figures say 4.5 million tuned in for the Sons of Tucson premiere. Lets hope the success continues, the second episode airs tonight (March 21) 9:30/8:30 Central on FOX.
Here’s a round-up of what Justin has had to say about himself and the show in recent weeks…
During Malcolm in the Middle – I think I was around 15 or 16 – instead of running to my trailer after a scene I would stay on set. I would ask questions. I would hang out with the crew. I would hang out with the grips, you know, the guys doing all the work. I would ask questions, and I would look around. I would talk to the writers. I actually went to Linwood Boomer a few times with some treatments, ideas for some episodes. I’d submit it to him. He’d give me his notes. So it was actually really early in the process or early in Malcolm where I would start doing that. I was always thinking towards the future. So that was with it for me. – MediaWeek
The idea came up from our creators, Tommy Dewey and Greg Bratman. They brought this idea to us way back when, and we just sort of developed it from an idea to scripts. Finally, we took it to Fox because I had some relationships there obviously, and they purchased it from us. It was exciting. It was like our first scripted show that we sold as a company at J2, and we couldn’t be happier with the people that we’re working with and the two guys that wrote it. Visually and maybe tonally, everyone’s going to compare it to Malcolm, but I think story wise you can’t really compare it to any show that’s been out there. It’s a truly unique concept, and we’re excited that Fox and everyone has a vision to see this through because on the face of it, it is kind of crazy. It’s kind of out there, but they were behind it from day one. It’s not really a concept that comes up too much in the show, and it sort of naturally weaves its way into every script, so it’s not like if someone tunes in four episodes into the season that they’re going to be lost. It’s really easy to catch up on it. – tvismypacifier.com
I don’t really consider myself the big boss, but that’s the title they’ve given me. I act the same way I did before – just be respectful to everyone. As long as everyone does their job, hopefully we will have a successful show. That’s all you can hope for. It should be simple. That’s my philosophy. – zap2it.com
“Being in front of the camera, you never got to see the whole process from the conception of the script all the way through to the filming process. And building the pilot…selling this little inkling of an idea has just been eye-opening for me, I especially love the whole casting process because I’ve been on the other side of the process in those rooms, and now I get to sit behind the camera and sort of–” “…Judge!” Tyler Labine pipes up, and they both laugh. – examiner.com
Network brass were hovering around when the show was in its nascent stages. “That’s a heavy understatement” says Justin…Todd Holland adds “You have never had so much participation, shall we say. I mean, it really started to be like, ‘Please love us less.’” All that attention from the top caused a good bit of frustration, it would seem. “It’s like a parent that doesn’t give you clear instructions and you don’t know how to please them,”…“So it’s always like a weird thing trying to figure out: What do they want? What are they saying? Even if we did understand the instructions, would we agree enough to do it that way, or would we have to push back?” Berfield and his partner Jason Felts had tried to interest the illustrious Holland in directing other projects of theirs in the past, to no avail. “I think it’s good it didn’t work out in the beginning. It was a learning process for us. I was young, just starting out as a producer, seeing different material – striking out a few times, I think it helps you grow.” – jaxobserver.com
Todd Holland had a few other things to say on ‘Tucson… (more…)
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