Yikes. Even after Point Pleasant, huh?

Smo | April 13, 10:33 CET

Wow. Seven figures? That's a lot of... figures.

Drinks are on Marti.

Bad Kitty | April 13, 11:12 CET

Good on her, ABC is pretty much where it's at right now. If ya can't get a series on HBO, F/X, or Showtime, next best thing (yeah, I know all you entertainment writers/industry employees---a creator getting a deal with and making shows for any studio is great on its own, nevermind which one...unless it's PAX).

I only saw the first episode or two of Pointe Pleasant and didn't care for it, but I'd really like to see the long-shelved Still Life, which I think was also a Fox drama. They never aired a single ep of it though, and there were something like nine already in the can before production ceased.

Kris | April 13, 11:27 CET

That's fantastic. ABC is a channel I actually can get on the old telly.

holymother | April 13, 12:04 CET

Yay! Marti! Welcome to the world of the Mouse. Nice to have you on the team.

TamaraC | April 13, 13:07 CET

Yikes. Even after Point Pleasant, huh?

Okay, that's a little too snarky. She was also working on Prison Break as a producer, and that's doing quite well.

Good on Marti.

gossi | April 13, 13:17 CET

Good for Marti. I wonder if that might mean more naked James Marsters use of Buffyverse alums?

Gill | April 13, 13:43 CET

I have to agree with the Point Pleasant comment, if I'm being honest. Can't see anyone getting a seven figure deal out of that mess of a series. I don't know whether it was because I loved Marti's Buffyverse work so much but that show really let me down in a big way. Marti is far better than that, as this deal goes to show.

Kaine | April 13, 14:58 CET

Well the way I see it, it's always nice that someone who worked on Buffy or Angel done so well i.e. Drew Goddard, Jeff Bell, Tim Minear, David Fury and Marti herself.

There must have been something in the water at Mutant Enemy HQ.

Simon | April 13, 15:09 CET

There must have been something in the water at Mutant Enemy HQ.

I believe that something would be called talent.

Kaine | April 13, 15:15 CET

Where can I get this 'talent water' and does it come in sparkling ? If so put me down for 10 gallons.

Good on her (though when I hear '7 figures' I always wonder which ones cos, y'know, 7 zeroes ? Not that impressive ;)

Saje | April 13, 15:23 CET

I'll be interested to see what happens when Tim's deal with 20th comes up for renewal.

gossi | April 13, 15:25 CET

Reckon that'll depend on how 'Drive' does/is treated.

Saje | April 13, 15:33 CET

Well, if Marti can get $x,xxx,xxx from PP... ;) (Snark!)

gossi | April 13, 15:45 CET

I think it's great news and "yahoo" for Marti! I agree with Simon that it's good to see someone who worked on buffy or angel do so well.

Go Marti!

best_hair_ever | April 13, 15:54 CET

Congratulations, Marti! I've always been among her fans, so I look forward to seeing what she'll come up with next. PP was disappointing, but getting better--I still haven't seen the final (unaired) episodes, but the DVDs are in my Netflix queue.

Maeve | April 13, 16:51 CET

A seven figure deal could also be $0.xxx,xxx,x ...

[ edited by Le Comité on 2006-04-13 15:05 ]

Le Comité | April 13, 17:05 CET

Somebody just put Summer Glau in a movie/tv show where she does spin kicks again please. Don't make me come to hollywood and do it my damn self.

smog | April 13, 17:11 CET

Good for Marti! I really, really tried to like Point Pleasant but could barely sit through a whole episode..

Jonas | April 13, 17:12 CET

Congratulations, I suppose. I'm NOT Marti's biggest fan, and probably couldn't care less whether she's making it big or not. But in the interest of at least pretending to be gracious, I'll give a reluctant congrats.

Now when does Drew get his OWN series?

Haunt | April 13, 18:25 CET

Is there such a thing as damning with faint graciousness ? Cos I nominate Haunt's post as the exemplar ;).

Saje | April 13, 18:31 CET

That wasn't even faint graciousness. I think it's better not to congratulate at all than "pretend" to in that way.

SoddingNancyTribe | April 13, 18:35 CET

Marti already had a seven figure deal with 20th Century Fox, its not really surprising that she got another one, peoples salaries rarely decrease, and in writing seven figures is pretty standard for someone in Marti's position (just a fyi for people who are surprised)

To put it into context Joss had an eight figure deal with 20th Century Fox ($20 million plus a large bonus for getting Angel to s5).

Ocipital | April 13, 19:06 CET

Awesome news! I wish the best for Marti!

Madhatter | April 13, 19:09 CET

Oh c'mon, SNT. My comment wasn't that bad. Certainly no more off-color than other comments I see from time to time. I recognize she's a human being, and a mother, and an ME alum, so I acknowledge that it's good news (for her) that she's apparently got some kind of paying future with Touchstone/ABC. I didn't openly mock anything in particular about her, or go on for paragraph after paragraph about WHY I'm not a big Noxon fan.

And btw, thanks for the nom Saje. I dedicate my performance to all those fans that got bored of the not-so-subtle sexual objectification of Spike (and others) in the final couple of BtVS seasons. :)

Haunt | April 13, 19:17 CET

But what's the point of an insincere congratulations? It's almost as bad as an insincere apology (e.g. "I'm sorry that you took my words the wrong way...").

ETA: Oh crap. I'm on a friend's computer and forgot she's logged in instead of me. This comment is actually by KernelM, not vampirefan.

[ edited by vampirefan on 2006-04-13 17:51 ]

vampirefan | April 13, 19:50 CET

Drop the discussion about insincere comments.* Otherwise I'll take people's buckets away.

*As these things can take on a life of their own and I don't wish the thread to get derailed.

Simon | April 13, 19:53 CET

Go, Marti! I like you, I like your commentaries, and the thing with half-naked men? Hey, I like that too! Plus, you can sing.

cronopio | April 13, 20:22 CET

I didn't like Point Pleasant much either from the first and second episode but having good things about it since then, I gave it another chance and rented the first DVD As some people have mentioned to me, the show really does pick up in later episodes and I plan on checking out the other DVD's from the show. Assuming that the quality continues with other episodes, it's a shame that the show had such a rocky start that it lost support from viewers.

I'm not a fan of Prison Break, but I'm glad to hear that Marti Noxon has gotten such a great deal and look forward to other future shows that she might be involved in.

Matt_Fabb | April 13, 20:42 CET

I know I'm in the minority, but I've often found that I really only like ME alum when they're working on ME stuff. It always makes me wonder if Joss brought out the best in his staff, or if half their greatness is owed to his guiding hand. I really disliked PP and The Inside. Wonderfalls was only 'meh' to me. Lost lost me, I've never been able to get into 24. Prison Break looks terrible to me.

Just reinforces to me how much of a Whedon fan I am, and how rare the combo of talent was on his shows. I'm not sure that, individually, the writers have the stuff to do as well. No, I take that back, I'm not sure that they have the stuff to make another project that will interest me. Again, I know others love their stuff, and I do hope them continued success. I've just yet to put myself firmly in any writer's camp, except for Joss'.

But as for Marti, I loved season sex 6 and if she was mostly or even partly responsible for that, I think she deserves good things to come to her.

Rogue Slayer | April 13, 20:49 CET

"I know I'm in the minority, but I've often found that I really only like ME alum when they're working on ME stuff. It always makes me wonder if Joss brought out the best in his staff, or if half their greatness is owed to his guiding hand. I really disliked PP and The Inside. Wonderfalls was only 'meh' to me. Lost lost me, I've never been able to get into 24. Prison Break looks terrible to me."

This statement of yours really hit home for me, Rogue Slayer. Actually, so did your whole post. I always get a warm fuzzy when seeing good things happen to our 'verse folk (except Lenk), but I always wondered why I never got more excited for them than that.

Thanks for pointing out some pretty clear reasons for me! :)

Willowy | April 13, 21:02 CET

I haven't seen half the shows you mention, RogueS, and I'm not very familiar with Marti/Jane/Petrie/Drew G's stuff outside of the 'verse. Even so, I felt like each of those four had a distinctive "voice" that demonstrated their abilities. Or maybe I'm kidding myself. I am sure that JW worked some alchemy to make everyone's contributions better.

But I must say that I love Wonderfalls, despite it being a little, I don't know, stodgy in places. Also, IMO, Fury's episodes of Lost are head and shoulders above the others, which makes me think he is a pretty darn talented writer.

SoddingNancyTribe | April 13, 21:13 CET

Marti Noxon is my favourite writer from 'Buffy' and I adored 'Point Pleasant' (including the early episodes) so I am very much looking forward to finding out where this new deal leads.

Like Kris, I would love to have the opportunity to see the 'Still Life' episodes, although I don't hold out much hope that it will ever happen.

alien lanes | April 13, 21:25 CET

OK, I think it's safe to say we wish the best for Marti. Next question is whether she will catch a break on Fox.

The board is open.

Madhatter | April 13, 21:35 CET

First, congrats to Marti as it's always good to hear about ME alums doing well and continuing their work. I am somewhat ambivalent about Rogue Slayer's points. On the one hand, I agree with them, as subsequent work by both actors and writers has been a mixed bag for me. On the other hand, I'm fairly ignorant about just how much influence different people have in their respective positions on new projects.

For example, for me "Smallville" is unbearable (my apologies to the folks who enjoy it, I know there are many). How much influence does Steven De Knight have over what gets written? I would think a lot on the episodes he writes but given how much of a hand Joss had with what ended up on the screen I'm guessing the same is true in other productions.

The second thing is, how much did we really get to see of the various ME alum projects. Has any of them aired more than 8 weeks? (I'm not talking about shows such as "Lost" where individuals were responsible mostly for individual episodes). I think that for many of us if 8 episodes was all we had ever seen of Buffy that membership at Whedonesque would be much smaller. I've found with all the projects I ended up enjoying, such as Firefly and Wonderfalls, that the more I saw of it the better I liked it. In truth though, were ME alums not involved in various shows I've seen, I might well not have watched past the first episode and given it a chance.

yourlibrarian | April 13, 21:44 CET

One ME alum who seems to get overlooked a lot is David Greenwalt. I dearly love his Miracles, and I think it's the best series that any ME alum has done, closely followed by Wonderalls. We should also not forget Profit, which was responsible for David Greenwalt bringing in Keith Szarabajka to play Holtz in Angel S3.

I've only seen about half an episode of PP, and didn't get drawn in. However, I've seen enough good comments about later episodes that it's back on my wish list. Stll, Marti deserves great things after all that she contributed to BtVS, and I'll be very interested to see what comes out of this deal with ABC.

MissKittysMom | April 13, 22:23 CET

Congrats to Marti, for all the flak she takes (unfairly IMHO) for seasons 6 & 7, it isn't a coincidence that Buffy began to hit its creative stride when she arrived.

rockchalkwatcher | April 13, 23:46 CET

I always get a warm fuzzy when seeing good things happen to our 'verse folk (except Lenk), but I always wondered why I never got more excited for them than that.


Yeah, and I've realized that it's not just that I can't find ANYthing on tv that I like, because I'm deeply into House, Gilmore Girls, Battlestar Galactica(recent discovery-woot!)...so I know it's not just my Whedon-snobbery kicking in!

Tom Lenk, huh? I sense some issues with him... :~P

Rogue Slayer | April 14, 01:25 CET

With you again, this time about the House love, RS... and my issues with Lenk could be totally unfounded. Still, there they are, issue-y as ever! :D

You want more tv goodness? You and hubby get your hands on the Deadwood dvds, you'll never regret it. Scout's honor.

Willowy | April 14, 01:38 CET

I keep hearing that show is really good. We need to put it on the 'flix list!

Rogue Slayer | April 14, 02:12 CET

Rawk on, Marti!

Lunakitty | April 14, 02:34 CET

Re: Mutant Enemy alum post-Buffyverse/Firefly work

MissKittysMom mentioned David Greenwalt above and, yeah, Miracles is incredible (it was Richard Hatem's baby too though, and from the way he makes it sound in the commentaries, their whole team of writers really contributed to the feel of the 13-episode series). I just rented the fourth and final disc and am really gonna hate saying goodbye to it this weekend. It's a definite buy now, I wish I'd known that before I wasted money on renting it. I also thought Jake 2.0, though nowhere near as great as Miracles, had a great cast, fun storylines, and some standout episodes (though I still haven't seen the final four eps and continue to believe that the pilot really sucked).

Think Tim Minear's post-Mutant Enemy work has been very interesting, with Wonderfalls being something really special (one of my favorite cancelled-after-less-than-one-season DVDs I have) and The Inside showing some real promise, especially the further it went. I haven't seen the last half of the series that wasn't aired, but hopefully they'll put it all out on DVD some day.

I'm not caught up enough on 24 to have seen David Fury or anyone else's involvement in the fifth season (and fourth? Were there any ex-ME employees involved in Season 4?).

Haven't seen more than the first half of Season 1 of Alias. Still. Seriously doubt I'll get around to it any time soon, if ever. I still need to check out Farscape and Battlestar Galactica and finish off the last of Babylon 5, so I think I'll be a bit too busy with sci-fi for a while. Not to mention the most recent release of The Shield (Season 4), need to get around to that soon, as well as maybe the second year of Nip/Tuck and also Rescue Me once it's out.

Kris | April 14, 13:48 CET

Rogue Slayer, you will thank us all for Deadwood recommendations. Don't make a judgement after the first 2 or 3 eps; I think they took a few to hit their stride. After that -- it's some f*%$in' powerful s%@#, dude! ;-) It's definitely kin to Firefly, except with HBO-style language, and the female sex workers in Deadwood are definitely not highly respected, licensed "companions."

billz | April 15, 03:55 CET