Amber Night

In case you hadn’t noticed, I’ve been AWOL for a couple days or weeks. Hopefully the posts will start picking up again though. My new gig¹: Writer at The CW (formerly UPN and The WB). My project? Let’s just say you might have read about this exciting announcement in Variety:

Hollywood, CA. Following closely on the news that Guillermo del Toro will be directing The Hobbit and a The Hobbit sequel, Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson and screenwriter Fran Walsh today announced that early pre-production of a new Middle-Earth-based television series will begin this summer, with a pilot and 9 episodes slated for this fall. Sackville, a new comedy-drama from The CW, will follow the adventures of the ficticious Sackville family, rivals of the more famous Baggins’ from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. “We want people to see that it’s not all Mount Doom and gloom in Middle Earth,” Jackson said at a news conference. “There’s a tremendous amount of back-story that Tolkien only hinted at. We aim to explore that territory fully.”

I’m still not allowed to talk about specifics, but I did get the green light (that’s what we say in the biz, “green light”) to talk about a few of the initial episodes we’re working on. I know it’s still very early in pre-production, but I think you’re going to see a lot of influences from Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Ironweed. Here’s some teasers:

Pilot episode, “Sacked.” Hole-to-hole pipe salesman Longo Baggins’ luck seems to have changed for the better when his “Kewpie Troll” shaped pipe is a big hit with the Digby locals. But things turns sour when it’s discovered that due to a mix-up with the Númenórean pipe supplier, the pipes are made of actual Kewpie Trolls. Hillarity ensues when the teeny trolls set about looting and pillaging the town, killing dozens in the process. Tarred, feathered, and in dire need of a tetanus shot, Longo stumbles into the town of Sackville and into the arms of nursemaid Camellia Sackville.

Epside 2, “Bottoms Up.” Powerful media mogul and 7-time slap-fight champion Wesley Longbottom is dismayed to learn of fiancee Camellia Sackville’s growing interest in the recovering Longo Baggins. Longo is manipulated into challenging Wesley to a slap-fight death-match, a task he is hopelessly unprepared for. Hillarity and a surprise ending ensues.

Episodes 3-4, “Strange Folk.” As romantic tension increases between Longo and Camellia, a former Nazgûl veteran is caught stealing chickens to feed his starving Nazgûl family. In this very special 2-part episode, the plight of Khamûl and his fell family exposes sharp divisions within The Shire, turning neighbor against neighbor. But when a meddling Wizard threatens the town’s very survival, an unlikely partnership between Longo and Khamûl turns the tides and forces even the hardest of Hobbit hearts to re-think their treatment of former Ring War veterans.

Keep an eye out for Sackville in your local listings!

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¹A blatant lie.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 1st, 2008 at 2:14 pm and is filed under Amber's Brain. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.