EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros TV just re-upped Monica Breen and Alison Schapker for a 7-figure deal to keep co-executive producing Fringe for Season 4 under Bad Robot’s banner. 
And the pair with long ties to J.J. Abrams (they also worked on his TV dramas Lost and Alias) will develop another TV series for his banner. But it’s what they’re doing in the movie arena for J.J. and Bad Robot that interests me. At a time when female writing teams are scarce, and even more so in the sci-fi genre, I’ve learned they’ve been hired to do a rewrite on one of J.J.’s top-secret projects at Paramount. With a working title of Zanbato, the script involves Japanese history and robotics: “swashbuckling robots with swords” is how one insider describes it to me. (That’s the project which Francis Lawrence is no longer attached to direct.) The female writing team will continue to develop original material with J.J. and Bad Robot. Their “heightened reality” crime drama Pulp was written under their deal last year, and now it may turn into a graphic novel or potential comic book series for Warner’s DC Comics. Hard to believe that Breen and Schapker were once showrunners for ABC’s relationship melodrama Brothers and Sisters.
And the pair with long ties to J.J. Abrams (they also worked on his TV dramas Lost and Alias) will develop another TV series for his banner. But it’s what they’re doing in the movie arena for J.J. and Bad Robot that interests me. At a time when female writing teams are scarce, and even more so in the sci-fi genre, I’ve learned they’ve been hired to do a rewrite on one of J.J.’s top-secret projects at Paramount. With a working title of Zanbato, the script involves Japanese history and robotics: “swashbuckling robots with swords” is how one insider describes it to me. (That’s the project which Francis Lawrence is no longer attached to direct.) The female writing team will continue to develop original material with J.J. and Bad Robot. Their “heightened reality” crime drama Pulp was written under their deal last year, and now it may turn into a graphic novel or potential comic book series for Warner’s DC Comics. Hard to believe that Breen and Schapker were once showrunners for ABC’s relationship melodrama Brothers and Sisters.
Why is anything JJ Abrams touches “top secret,” like it’s something good. EVERYTHING he’s ever done has been overhyped to the point of hysteria. Fringe is already dead and it doesn’t know it yet. Cannot believe that they’ve already pulled out the alternative universe plotline already.
Fringe is one of the best shows on TV right now, if not the best. Much better than Lost which was much less focused. Great acting on display all the time.
Anyway, haters gonna hate.
already? the alternate universe has been the main plotline since episode 1.
They are great! Love them since Charmed, which was crap, and knew they would have a great career after it!
Kudos to Abrams for giving female writers a shot at doing genre. 99% of producers/directors have it hard wired into them that only men can write sci-fi.
So true.
Let’s couple that with Nikki’s comment above: “Hard to believe that Breen and Schapker were once showrunners for ABC’s relationship melodrama Brothers and Sisters.”
Guess what, Sista? Melodrama is about all they let us do in the beginning. And here’s the thing: learning how to track the emotion of a character’s arc – and build suspense into storytelling through emotional stakes – is VERY NECESSARY FOR SCI-FI. And we’re damn good at it.
Imagine that: summer tent poles where the audience actually cares about the characters – cares about their story. And feels so satisfied with what they’ve paid for the experience, they might actually pay to see it again.
Note to Producers/ Directors/ Studios: By letting us into the game, you just might win. Big.
Very good post. Adding compelling characters to genre is a winning combination. Who would have thought?
I’m glad I’m not the only person who didn’t like Finke’s remark “Hard to believe that Breen and Schapker were once showrunners for ABC’s relationship melodrama Brothers and Sisters.”
A writing job is a writing job. The ladies took what they could get. Now they’re getting to pick their work. Good for them!
Hear, hear!
And let’s not forget that what put Abrams firmly on the map was “Felicity,” a show that still holds up, ten years later precisely because the show has characters you care about.
the “wunderkind” and his TOP SECRET projects. these marketing lines start to get boring.
What Paramount needs to do is hand over control of Star Trek to JJ. Only he has the ability to do the amazing job the franchise needs to stay alive.
Here is an inside tip. It ain’t good yet. Really ain’t.
Awesome news, Monica and Alison have done amazing jobs on the Bad Robot projects. When Alias ended, basically half the writing staff went on to Lost, while the other half went on the Brothers and Sisters, both shows share many cast and crew from Alias. So it wasn’t surprising to see them running Brothers and Sisters. Most of Abrams’ show used characters’ relationships to drive the stories, like melodramas. They wrote some of my favorite episodes from all of those shows. They should be as successful as the other writing team, Roberto Orci and Aliex Kurtzman, that graduated from Alias.
Last news on Monica and Alison was that they were going to be shopping their super hot TV show ‘Pulp’ to the networks. Now it’s being considered as a comic. Things that make you go hmmm…
My wife and I were wondering why we’ve lost interest in Fringe and it came down to this: It started out with the story being first, and the characters second. Now it’s a soap opera with characters first (too many of them) and story second.
Thankyou. Finally someone else who sees season 3 as I do. This season became one big soap opera. The show has done fine without that up until season 3, so I’m not sure why the producers decided they had to go down that route. I’m hoping that these two female writers coming over to Fringe, didn’t influence them in this regard.
Agree they have way too many characters now. Other characters that we have had from the beginning, not getting the development they need over new characters now. Is it a wonder that ratings keep dropping for this show over the course of season 3 airing.
Robots with swords?
Probably-Not-So-Wild Guess: Voltron.
Only interested if the robots are actually robots. None of this robots-disguised-as-humans shit.