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Mad Men’s fifth series remains in jeopardy
Serious doubts arise as contract talks with creator Matthew Weiner stall
There are growing fears among Mad Men fans on both sides of the Atlantic that a battle over money could prevent series five being filmed this spring
- if ever.
Four series have established it as one of the most admired US television shows ever, up there with The Sopranos. As a result, the show's creator Matthew Weiner has decided he'd like to be better rewarded by producers Lionsgate TV and the channel that commissions it, AMC, before filming starts on series five.
But after months of negotiations over Weiner's "compensation", a stalemate has developed. As one US commentator asked this week, "Do our favourite shows magically get renewed year after year? Today's news suggests not."
Weiner is not only the creator of Mad Men - he's the executive producer, head writer, and basically runs the show.
Meanwhile, the show's leading actors are increasingly in demand for movies. John Hamm, the inimitable Don Draper, features in two films coming out this spring - Sucker Punch and Bridesmaids - and is involved in a third, Friends with Kids, currently in post production.
John Slatterly, who plays character Roger Sterling in the TV series, appears with Emily Blunt and Matt Damon in The Adjustment Bureau, released earlier this month.
As for the female stars, Elisabeth Moss has got a taste for the theatre, sharing the limelight with Keira Knightley in the current West End production of The Children's Hour. She also has three films in post-production.
January Jones also stars in three releases this year, while Mad Men's fiery redhead Christina Hendricks is currently filming I Don't Know How She Does It and has another project, Seconds of Pleasure, with Brendan Fraser, lined up for 2012.
Among those anxiously awaiting news from the Weiner negotiations are Sky TV, who signed up to broadcast Mad Men in the UK after the first four series were shown on the BBC. Watch this space. ·
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Instead of lamenting the potential non-appearance of a fifth series of this empty, narcissistic, pointless slow-motion style magazine, why not lament the real non-appearance of a much superior new US drama series, Treme? Mad Men may be "up there with The Sorpanos" but it is nowhere near The Wire in its range or characterisation or drama or anything else, and The Wire's creator, David Simon, has made the new show, without any hissy fits over his fee, in post-Katrina New Orleans. Reviews in the US have been ecstatic. The Wire was bought by the BBC and shown around midnight on BBC2 and 4, but better late at night than never, and the BBC didnt even bid for Treme, I gather because of a spending restrictions on US imports, which is perverse if you are talking about getting real value for spending in straitened times. Intead Treme is on Sky Atlantic, unavailable to those of us on Freeview. Fuss should be kicked up with the BBC over this.
The cigarette manufacturers must be .... ahem .... fuming.