Post by iluvtexas on Apr 5, 2012 7:20:21 GMT -5
Variety
This American Life' seg inspires HBO project Rob Thomas, Owen Wilson, Ira Glass developing drama
HBO has teamed with Rob Thomas, Ira Glass and Owen Wilson to develop a drama series inspired by a
"This American Life" segment about a man who deals with a midlife crisis by rescuing two kidnapped kids in Mexico.
Thomas ("Veronica Mars") is penning the script for the project, tentatively titled "Thrillsville."
The series will be a fictionalized spin on aspects of the "Midlife Cowboy" seg that aired on the public radio series in March 2010. James Spring, a San Diego meth smuggler-turned-advertising copywriter, detailed the story of how the approach of his 40th birthday inspired him to do something significant to help others. His quest led him to mount a search for two young girls who were kidnapped in Northern California in connection with drug-trade violence and taken to Baja California.
The media coverage of Spring's success in finding the girls led him to a new career investigating missing persons cases.
Thomas, Glass and Wilson are exec producing with Thomas' partners Dan Etheridge and Danielle Stokdyk, Regina Lee of Wilson's company and Alissa Shipp of Public Radio Intl.'s "This American Life."
UTA packaged the project and reps Thomas, Glass and Wilson.
***************************************
Rob Thomas, Ira Glass, and Owen Wilson Developing THRILLSVILLE for HBO; Series Inspired by THIS AMERICAN LIFE Segment “Midlife Cowboy”
Posted:April 4th, 2012 at 9:06 pm
Rob Thomas, Ira Glass, and Owen Wilson are teaming up at HBO for a drama series tentatively titled Thrillsville. Variety says the series is inspired by
the This American Life segment “Midlife Cowboy,” in which former methamphetamine smuggler James Smith tells the story of his inspiration to help others before his 40th birthday: “His quest led him to mount a search for two young girls who were kidnapped in Northern California in connection with drug-trade violence and taken to Baja California.” His success in finding the girls led him to a new career as an investigator in missing person cases, which I imagine is how they will turn this into an ongoing series.
I’m a big fan of Thomas. His lighter fare (Party Down, Cupid) is great, but his best work is Veronica Mars, so I’m in Thrillsville seeing him return to darker territory—especially at HBO. There is no mention of Wilson doing anything but producing, but he would be a good fit in the starring role… I just ask that you consider it, Mr. Wilson.
Here’s an excerpt from the TAL transcript: this_american_life_poster
“At 39, I took a little inventory of my life and found myself to be unremarkable in almost every way. For more than a decade I’d held a job writing ad copy and radio commercials in San Diego. I had a wife, two kids, two mortgages, TiVo, prescription reading glasses, and about 20 extra pounds that I no longer had the energy or ambition to lose. My 40th birthday was only a couple of months away, in April… In the end what I thought was, I’m going to do something big to help somebody else in a big way. It’s going to be a great big thing. When it’s done, I’m going to feel really, really good and helpful…
And so on the eve of my 40th birthday, I brought up Google and typed the words Baja and missing. The top result on Google was a day old newspaper article about a fugitive couple wanted for kidnapping and murder. The story, essentially, was that this couple, Richard Carelli and Michelle Pinkerton, were a pair of chronic meth heads who killed their landlord in San Francisco. Then they drove to Santa Cruz and kidnapped their own six year old daughter from the grandparents who’d been given legal custody. And, oh yeah, also on the run with them? Their two month old baby girl with Down syndrome. Clearly these were not great parents.”
Smith goes on to detail his fascinating search for the missing girls. You can listen here.
Glass mentions at the end of the episode that Smith has since helped in “half a dozen cases”:
“There was the paranoid schizophrenic in Laguna Harbor, the guy who’s been missing for 35 years, the tow truck driver’s missing wife, the father who stole his son and fled to Mexico. His current case is a missing family of four in Southern California.”
That gives me hope that it will be one case per season rather than case-of-the-week, like Veronica Mars. But I’m getting way ahead of myself. For now, I’ll just root my little heart out that HBO orders Thrillsville to series
Midlife Cowboy
Full Production Credits »
Producer - Owen Wilson
Producer - Regina Lee
Producer - Alissa Shipp
Producer - Ira Glass
Studio Executive - Sam Brown
Studio Executive - Merideth Finn
Company Information
New Line Cinema - Studio
Untitled Owen Wilson Company - Production Company
This American Life - Production Company
This American Life' seg inspires HBO project Rob Thomas, Owen Wilson, Ira Glass developing drama
HBO has teamed with Rob Thomas, Ira Glass and Owen Wilson to develop a drama series inspired by a
"This American Life" segment about a man who deals with a midlife crisis by rescuing two kidnapped kids in Mexico.
Thomas ("Veronica Mars") is penning the script for the project, tentatively titled "Thrillsville."
The series will be a fictionalized spin on aspects of the "Midlife Cowboy" seg that aired on the public radio series in March 2010. James Spring, a San Diego meth smuggler-turned-advertising copywriter, detailed the story of how the approach of his 40th birthday inspired him to do something significant to help others. His quest led him to mount a search for two young girls who were kidnapped in Northern California in connection with drug-trade violence and taken to Baja California.
The media coverage of Spring's success in finding the girls led him to a new career investigating missing persons cases.
Thomas, Glass and Wilson are exec producing with Thomas' partners Dan Etheridge and Danielle Stokdyk, Regina Lee of Wilson's company and Alissa Shipp of Public Radio Intl.'s "This American Life."
UTA packaged the project and reps Thomas, Glass and Wilson.
***************************************
Rob Thomas, Ira Glass, and Owen Wilson Developing THRILLSVILLE for HBO; Series Inspired by THIS AMERICAN LIFE Segment “Midlife Cowboy”
Posted:April 4th, 2012 at 9:06 pm
Rob Thomas, Ira Glass, and Owen Wilson are teaming up at HBO for a drama series tentatively titled Thrillsville. Variety says the series is inspired by
the This American Life segment “Midlife Cowboy,” in which former methamphetamine smuggler James Smith tells the story of his inspiration to help others before his 40th birthday: “His quest led him to mount a search for two young girls who were kidnapped in Northern California in connection with drug-trade violence and taken to Baja California.” His success in finding the girls led him to a new career as an investigator in missing person cases, which I imagine is how they will turn this into an ongoing series.
I’m a big fan of Thomas. His lighter fare (Party Down, Cupid) is great, but his best work is Veronica Mars, so I’m in Thrillsville seeing him return to darker territory—especially at HBO. There is no mention of Wilson doing anything but producing, but he would be a good fit in the starring role… I just ask that you consider it, Mr. Wilson.
Here’s an excerpt from the TAL transcript: this_american_life_poster
“At 39, I took a little inventory of my life and found myself to be unremarkable in almost every way. For more than a decade I’d held a job writing ad copy and radio commercials in San Diego. I had a wife, two kids, two mortgages, TiVo, prescription reading glasses, and about 20 extra pounds that I no longer had the energy or ambition to lose. My 40th birthday was only a couple of months away, in April… In the end what I thought was, I’m going to do something big to help somebody else in a big way. It’s going to be a great big thing. When it’s done, I’m going to feel really, really good and helpful…
And so on the eve of my 40th birthday, I brought up Google and typed the words Baja and missing. The top result on Google was a day old newspaper article about a fugitive couple wanted for kidnapping and murder. The story, essentially, was that this couple, Richard Carelli and Michelle Pinkerton, were a pair of chronic meth heads who killed their landlord in San Francisco. Then they drove to Santa Cruz and kidnapped their own six year old daughter from the grandparents who’d been given legal custody. And, oh yeah, also on the run with them? Their two month old baby girl with Down syndrome. Clearly these were not great parents.”
Smith goes on to detail his fascinating search for the missing girls. You can listen here.
Glass mentions at the end of the episode that Smith has since helped in “half a dozen cases”:
“There was the paranoid schizophrenic in Laguna Harbor, the guy who’s been missing for 35 years, the tow truck driver’s missing wife, the father who stole his son and fled to Mexico. His current case is a missing family of four in Southern California.”
That gives me hope that it will be one case per season rather than case-of-the-week, like Veronica Mars. But I’m getting way ahead of myself. For now, I’ll just root my little heart out that HBO orders Thrillsville to series
Midlife Cowboy
Full Production Credits »
Producer - Owen Wilson
Producer - Regina Lee
Producer - Alissa Shipp
Producer - Ira Glass
Studio Executive - Sam Brown
Studio Executive - Merideth Finn
Company Information
New Line Cinema - Studio
Untitled Owen Wilson Company - Production Company
This American Life - Production Company
