Latest Writing News, Headlines and Blogs from Writers Write:

Screenwriter Says JLo Stole His Idea For Reality Show
From: www.writerswrite.com

" Screenwriter Jack Bunick is suing Jennifer Lopez claiming that she stole his idea for her new reality show about dancers trying to make it big.

Jennifer Lopez has been sued by a screenwriter who claims she stole his idea for a US TV series. Jack Bunick alleges that 'South Beach', a programme on which J-Lo is executive producer, is the same as 'South Beach Miami', a script he wrote in 1999. Mr Bunick also claims he pitched the idea to South Beach's broadcaster UPN but was never contacted. He has applied for an injunction barring further transmission of the series.

Frank Spotnitz, the mastermind behind much of the mythology of The X-Files, told SCI FI Wire that he has signed on to help write the next movie based on the hit series, but that the new movie won't deal with the show's byzantine conspiracy arc. "There's still a very good chance that we will all do another X-Files movie," Spotnitz said in an interview. Spotnitz was an executive producer on the show, which starred David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson; it ended its nine-year run in 2002.

One point of contention in getting a second X-Files film off the ground: Series creator Chris Carter is still wrangling with 20th Century Fox over legal matters. "David, Gillian and I, and even Chris Carter, all have deals in place, and once the legal issues are over with, we will go on with it," Spotnitz said. "I'm hoping it will get resolved soon."

Although the script isn't written, the idea is already developed, Spotnitz said. He added that Fox likes the idea, which hearkens back to the series' stand-alone episodes rather than the conspiracy to cover up the existence of extraterrestrials, which was the subject of the first X-Files movie. "No, we're not going into the mythology [in the sequel]," Spotnitz said. "One of the things that was exciting about doing it is to not make it a mythology story, and it's like one of the stand-alone episodes. It's a bit scary. Of course, we will catch up with the characters and what is going on in their lives, but it's not about the alien conspiracy. It's not about that." The first X-Files movie came out in 1998.

Sony Pictures has signed The Da Vinci Code screenwriter Akiva Goldsman to adapt author Dan Brown's first religious thriller, Angels & Demons. "Code" grossed $231.8 million worldwide in its first five days. Though development of Angels & Demons is still in the early stages, Variety says the studio's also planning to reassemble The Da Vinci Code producing team of Brian Grazer and John Calley for the project.

No deals are set yet for director Ron Howard or star Tom Hanks to return, but both would have first crack at the project. "Code" was Brown's second novel centering on Robert Langdon, a Harvard professor who's an expert in religious symbols. "Angels & Demons," published in 2000, introduced the Langdon character. In "Angels," Langdon's character tries to solve a murder and unravel a plot by an ancient group, the Illuminati, to blow up the Vatican during a papal conclave.

When John Updike approached the lectern in the Convention Center ballroom Saturday morning, most of his bleary-eyed, coffee-swilling audience expected him to talk about his latest novel, "Terrorist." But Updike, the much-honored 74-year-old author of dozens of volumes of fiction, poetry, essays and criticism, said that would be "immodest." Instead, he praised the assembled booksellers as "the salt of the book world" and reminisced for a while about bookstores he had loved in his youth.

Then, without warning, he opened fire on the technorati. "I read last Sunday, and maybe some of you did too, a quite long article by a man called Kevin Kelly," he began. He proposed to read a few paragraphs so that listeners who hadn't seen the article might "have a sense of your future." The reference was to a piece called "Scan This Book!" in the previous week's New York Times Magazine. (The title echoes activist Abbie Hoffman's 1970 provocation, "Steal This Book.") In it, Kelly described -- in the messianic/hyperbolic style favored by Wired, the magazine with which he has long been associated -- the inexorable march toward an "Eden" in which the totality of human knowledge will be downloadable onto a single iPod-size device.

" 'When Google announced in December 2004 that it would digitally scan the books of five major research libraries to make their contents searchable, the promise of a universal library was resurrected,' " Updike read. He then followed up with later selections that had, he said, "clarified" Kelly's vision: " 'At the same time, once digitized, books can be unraveled into single pages or be reduced further into snippets of a page. These snippets will be remixed into re-ordered books and virtual bookshelves . . . once created, these "bookshelves" will be published and swapped in the public commons. . . . " 'The new model of course is based on the intangible assets of digital bits, where copies are no longer cheap but free.' "

Reading further, Updike noted Kelly's assertion that "copy-protection schemes" are helpless to hold back the technological tide. "Schemes," he repeated sarcastically, drawing a laugh. As his audience well knew, the Association of American Publishers filed suit last year on behalf of five major publishers alleging that Google's library scanning project is a massive and flagrant violation of copyright law.

Updike went on at some length, heaping scorn on Kelly's notion that authors who no longer got paid for copies of their work could profit from it by selling "performances" or "access to the creator." ("Now as I read it, this is a pretty grisly scenario.") Unlike the commingled, unedited, frequently inaccurate mass of "information" on the Web, he said, "books traditionally have edges." But "the book revolution, which from the Renaissance on taught men and women to cherish and cultivate their individuality, threatens to end in a sparkling pod of snippets. "So, booksellers," he concluded, "defend your lonely forts. Keep your edges dry. Your edges are our edges. For some of us, books are intrinsic to our human identity."

Vargas said she had made the decision after consulting with her doctors.

"David and I have been talking for some time about what would happen as my maternity leave approaches," Vargas said. "My doctors have asked that I cut back my schedule considerably. What works best for me and my family is to return in the fall to '20/20' as I raise my new baby and young son."

Woodruff said, "Elizabeth and I set out on a great adventure this year, and I'm proud of what we accomplished. Elizabeth had to shoulder an enormous job when I was injured, and she did it with grace. Charlie Gibson is a mentor and a friend. I look forward to contributing to his broadcast as soon as I'm able."

You can stop asking if Maer Roshan will ever restart Radar. He already has, albeit in a somewhat more modest form. According to two sources, Roshan has rented an office in Manhattan and hired at least three staffers. One source said Radaronline.com will be up and running again in a month or so. A revival of the print version is further off; despite talk about the next edition appearing in September or October, the source said it will almost certainly be later than that.