Best Served Cold

The Unofficial Companion to Revenge

By Erin Balser

ECW PRESS

Copyright © 2012 Erin Balser
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-77041-093-0
CHAPTER 1

plotting revenge

The Making of ABC’s Soaptacular Hit

Revenge opens with a quote from ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius: “Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.” This sentiment is true not only for those seeking vengeance, but for those developing a TV series. Hundreds of shows are pitched every pilot season. Few are shot. Even fewer are picked up. And even fewer still make it past their first season and become bona fide hits. When Revenge was pitched to ABC, it received a lot of support from network executives; Paul Lee, president of the ABC Entertainment Group, admitted the project was one of the network’s “internal favorites.” But those behind the show — the ABC network, Temple Hill Productions, and Mike Kelley’s cast and crew — were cautiously optimistic. They had all buried beloved projects before. But thanks to right team, the right cast, and the right concept at the right time, Revenge defied the odds.

While writer and creator Mike Kelley is given a lot of credit for the show (and rightly so) Revenge’s journey started long before he came into the picture. It began with the Temple Hill Entertainment team, Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey, two producers best known for a series of teen-targeted films about brooding vampires who sparkle.

Before becoming a TV and film producer, Marty Bowen was a talent agent. After graduating from Harvard University, Bowen moved to Los Angeles and landed a job in a talent agency’s mailroom. He worked his way up the ladder, eventually becoming a partner at the United Talent Agency. As an agent, he represented some of Hollywood’s best and brightest, including The Sopranos star James Gandolfini and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. But after years of finding the right projects for his clients, the Fort Worth, Texas, native wanted to start making his own. “I wanted a creative outlet,” Bowen explained to IndianTelevision.com. So he turned to his longtime friend Wyck Godfrey.

By this time, Godfrey had spent 15 years producing films for companies like New Line Cinema. His résumé included The Mask (1994), Dumb and Dumber (1994), and Behind Enemy Lines (2001). The Princeton graduate was ready to develop his own projects when Bowen came calling. In 2006, Bowen and Godfrey both left their jobs and started Temple Hill Entertainment, named after the house they had shared when they were just launching their careers.

The two found success right away with their first film, 2006’s The Nativity Story. The Jennifer Aniston project Management (2008), a modest box-office success, followed. Then Temple Hill decided to bet big on a project that couldn’t get off the ground: the film adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight trilogy. After floundering in development hell for a few years, the project needed producers to breathe life into it again. Director Catherine Hardwicke — who had worked with Bowen and Godfrey on The Nativity Story — suggested Temple Hill. They jumped at the chance to bring these books to the big screen, as they saw Temple Hill as a multi-platform company, working on the intersection of books, films, and television. “We stay in those three worlds,” Bowen said at the 2011 ContentAsia Summit. “We incubate [ideas] in any of these various mediums.” The gamble paid off. The first Twilight film (2008) grossed just under $400 million worldwide, launching one of the most successful film fran