Bender doing TV with Brown
By Zorianna Kit

After more than a decade of producing feature films, Lawrence Bender (¡§Pulp Fiction,¡¨ ¡§Good Will Hunting¡¨) is venturing into television by teaming with producer Kevin Brown (¡§Roswell¡¨). The duo are doing business with such feature players as writers David Hayter (¡§X-Men¡¨) and Chris Gerolmo (¡§Mississippi Burning¡¨) and producer Laura Bickford (¡§Traffic¡¨).

Under the new Lawrence Bender Prods.¡¦ television division, Bender and Brown ¡V who have an overall deal at Artists Television Group ¡V are developing various projects, including ¡§No Matter How Loud I Shout,¡¨ a one-hour drama pilot for HBO based on the Edward Humes book of the same name.

Gerolmo, who wrote and directed HBO¡¦s ¡§Citizen X,¡¨ adapted ¡§Shout¡¨ and will direct the pilot. The project is an intense look at Los Angeles¡¦ juvenile justice system from the perspective of the people who work in it and the kids who come through it. Bender and Brown are executive producing with Gerolmo and Bickford, who worked together on ¡§Citizen X.¡¨

Bender and Brown are wrapping production on their first television project, the MTV feature ¡§Anatomy of a Hate Crime,¡¨ based on the true story of the murder of gay Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard.

Under their deal with ATG, Bender and Brown are developing ¡§Fingerprints,¡¨ a one-hour drama script for ABC from ¡§Roswell High¡¨ author Melinda Metz¡¦s upcoming book series of the same name about a young college student whose life is turned upside down when she discovers she has the psychic ability to read people¡¦s thoughts by touching the fingerprints they leave behind. Hayter is writing the pilot script and will executive produce with Bender and Brown.

¡§Harper Rowe,¡¨ a one-hour mystery-drama script for CBS based on the real-life experiences of New York private detective Leslie Silbert, is also in development with ATG producing. The project revolves around the life and mysteries of Harper Rowe, a 25-year-old Harvard-educated private detective and her attorney father. Todd Komarnicki (¡§The Professor and the Madman¡¨) is writing and executive producing with Bender and Brown. Silbert and Christian D¡¦Andrea are co-producing.

¡§There are a lot of stories I want to tell, and not all of them make sense for feature films,¡¨ Bender told The Hollywood Reporter. ¡§With my work in films, music videos and commercials, television is a natural extension of what I¡¦m doing. Kevin has this ability to find great source material, and I¡¦m lucky to be partnered with him.

¡§For two non-writing executive producers to get this many projects into development means that having an idea for a series still has some value apart from who will be writing it. In our cases, these ideas attracted high-caliber writers.¡¨

Other projects in development include:

„h ¡§Locanda Blue,¡¨ a one-hour drama script for Fox Broadcasting Co. about a tough, hip black FBI agent, is being written by David Brendel with ATG producing.
„h ¡§Animal Homicide,¡¨ a half-hour single-camera comedy script. The producers are negotiating with Comedy Central on a script deal for the project to be written and directed by Drew Daywalt and David Schneider (¡§Stark Raving Mad¡¨). The comedy is based on Daywalt and Schneider¡¦s U.S. Comedy Arts Festival award-winning short film, ¡§Hate,¡¨ and is set in a world where animals work alongside human beings and are society¡¦s new working underclass. Bender and Brown are producing with Daywalt and Schneider co-executive producing.
„h ¡§The Insiders,¡¨ a one-hour caper drama being developed in-house at ATG. Josh Safran is writing the script, described as ¡§Moonlighting¡¨ meets ¡§Sneakers,¡¨ about a male and female team of high-tech thieves who were once lovers and now hate each other but must pretend to still be in love as they steal secrets for the U.S. government.

Bender also produced ¡§Reservoir Dogs,¡¨ ¡§Anna and the King¡¨ and the upcoming features ¡§Knockaround Guys¡¨ and ¡§the Mexican.¡¨ He will also produce Quentin Tarantino¡¦s next feature, ¡§Kill Bill¡¨ starring Uma Thurman.

Brown was the executive producer of such made-for-television films as ¡§Any Place But Home,¡¨ ¡§Soul of the Game,¡¨ ¡§The Colony¡¨ and ¡§Incident at Deception Ridge.¡¨