Notizie

Throughout his career, visionary filmmaker David Lynch, whose death was announced Thursday at the age of 78, made 10 features and dozens of short films. He only ever did two TV series (plus a 3-part anthology), but through one of them, Twin Peaks, his impact on the medium was profound.

“Even though, he’s probably better known as a filmmaker, when he entered TV, he revolutionized it,” says Gary Levine, Senior Creative Advisor at Showtime Networks who was a development executive on both the original Twin Peaks series at ABC and its continuation at Showtime.

In summer 1988, Levine, then a senior drama executive at ABC, had just seen Lynch’s Blue Velvet a few weeks earlier when they got word that the director was coming to pitch his first television show.

“I was scared to get in the room with him to tell you the truth,” Levine recalls of the meeting, which...

Lakeshore Entertainment has announbced during Mipcom it is moving into television and has appointed Chad Hoffman to run the new division.

Lakeshore Entertainment is moving into television and has appointed Chad Hoffman to run the news

The company recently sold Sebastian Maniscalco Project to NBC through Sony Pictures Television and serves as executive producer.

Lakeshore is also about to start of production on the pilot Blanco for Cinemax in association with Fox TV Studios and is producing with Tom Rosenberg and Gary Lucchesi serving as executive producers.

Hoffman is a former ABC executive who will lead the new division.

“We will build on our successful feature formula of developing, financing, producing and owning carefully selected projects,” said chairman and CEO Rosenberg. “Being able to get quality projects made independently is one of the hallmarks of Lakeshore and we will expand that to television.”

“We’re very happy to have Chad join our team at Lakeshore,” said Lucchesi...

Independent film production, finance and international sales and distribution company Lakeshore Entertainment ("Crank," "The Dead Girl," "Gamer") is making a move into television, implementing a strategy based on their existing movie model to venture into small screen projects. Producer and former ABC executive Chad Hoffman has been brought on to head the new TV division. The company already has two television projects in the works. The "Sebastian Maniscalco Project" is a half-hour comedy written by Dan Kopelman ("Malcolm in the Middle") and starring Maniscalco, a stand-up, which was recently sold to NBC through Sony Pictures Television. "Blanco" is a drama about a gangster informant who turns the tables on law enforcement written by Mark Rosner ("Blue Bloods"), a pilot for which is set to start production soon at Cinemax in association with Fox TV Studios. Lakeshore's CEO Tom Rosenberg and Gary Lucchesi are executive producing. Lakeshore's looking to bring its financing ability.

Lakeshore Entertainment is launching a television department to be headed by former ABC executive Chad Hoffman, the company said Wednesday. Hoffman (right) developed David Lynch’s early ’90s crime drama “Twin Peaks” while serving as vice president of dramatic series at ABC. His resume also includes Hearst Entertainment, Sony, and internet start-up Permission TV. Also read: ‘Watchmen’ Writer David Hayter to Adapt ‘The Sword’ for Lakeshore The new business venture comes on the heels of Lakeshore’s sale of the “Sebastian Maniscalco Project” to NBC through Sony Pictures Television. Lakeshore is also producing “Blanco” for Cinemax in association with Fox TV Studios.

Former ABC exec Chad Hoffman has come aboard to spearhead television strategy for Lakeshore Entertainment as the indie film production, finance, sales, and distribution company moves into the small screen biz. Lakeshore’s TV division launches with a pair of shows. The Sebastian Maniscalo Project, recently sold to NBC through Sony Pictures Television, will be executive produced by Lakeshore. The company is also producing the pilot Blanco for Cinemax in association with Fox TV Studios, which Lakeshore Chairman and CEO Tom Rosenberg is also producing. Lakeshore’s Gary Lucchesi will exec produce. As part of their expansion into TV, Lakeshore will look to solicit and develop new original materials and will tap their own film library for potential series adaptations. While at ABC Hoffman developed Twin Peaks, China Beach, and thirtysomething. He also exec produced Eerie, Indiana for Hearst Entertainment Productions before stints at Sony and start-up Permission TV.

Mark Frost began his career writing teleplays for The Six Million Dollar Man in the mid-70's. But his climb to prominence actually happened with the 29 episodes of Hill Street Blues that he penned. From that springboard he teamed up with David Lynch and co-created one of the most iconoclastic series of the 1990s - Twin Peaks. It only ran two seasons but its approach to story-telling changed television forever. Mark sat down with me in Dark Delicacies and talked about Twin Peaks and television in general.

With it being so different from anything else on television how did you know Twin Peaks would work?

What made Twin Peaks work was that we never thought it would work. We never had the slightest expectation that they would ever want it. So we just told the executives going in, because they had called us and said they wanted the show, was...