Mark A. Altman is a television and motion picture writer/producer/director who is currently the Showrunner/Executive Producer of the CW series, Pandora which is distributed by Sony Pictures Television worldwide and streams exclusively on Amazon Prime in the United States. Previously he served as Co-Executive Producer of The Librarians (TNT), Agent X (TNT), Castle (ABC), Necessary Roughness (USA) among others. In addition, Altman has sold numerous pilots and produced the $30 million film adaptation of the bestselling video game, DOA: Dead Or Alive, which was released by Dimension Films. His first motion picture was the award winning, Free Enterprise, starring William Shatner and Eric McCormack, which he wrote and produced and for which he won the WGA Award for Best New Writer at the AFI Los Angeles Film Festival prior to its theatrical release.
In this episode, we talk about:
• The terrific story about convincing William Shatner to be in his film and why he never recommends writing a film for an actor
• How he got Eric McCormick to do his film just after he shot the Will & Grace pilot which hadn’t been picked up yet
• Transitioning to the writers room of the TV show Castle and overlapping a year with our other Mentor, David Grae
• What does it mean to write for a budget and why that’s every line producer’s dream
• Having to choose between the final season of The Librarians and holding off on the possibility of doing his own show
• The conception of his show Pandora on CW and creating an incredible sizzle reel and bible to pitch it
• Making the choice to stop filming due to COVID
• Advice to actors from a Showrunner
Book Recommendations for Actors: Mike Nichols: A Life by Mark Harris
2 Books he Wrote:
The 50 Year Mission: The Complete Uncensored History of Star Trek
Secrets of the Force: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Wars
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