Ahoy, squirts! Quint here, stealing some of Herc's coax limelight. Saw this hit the trades and couldn't resist commenting on it. First off, how many of you guys have seen Coppola's OTHER masterpiece, THE CONVERSATION? It stars Gene Hackman as a surveillance expert caught up in a paranoid thriller of a story. His work (and lack of action) led to the deaths of some innocent people before and in Coppola's THE CONVERSATION he's worried it'll happen again. Great, great suspense flick with a great cast including Frederic Forrest, Harrison Ford, Teri Garr and, of course, Hackman himself.

Tony Krantz (producer of 24) has hired two great screenwriters to adapt the film into a weekly series for ABC. These two screenwriters are Christopher McQuarrie (USUAL SUSPECTS, WAY OF THE GUN) and Erik Jendresen (BAND OF BROTHERS). This has me curious as all hell. The idea of a series revolving around a surveillence expert has my interest, especially if he's going to be as conflicted and quirky as CONVERSATION's Harry Caul. But will the series be set in the '70s? I think that'd make it much cooler than a modern day gadget-fest, and stack the deck much more against Harry as he goes about his job. At least those are my thoughts. What're yours?

UPDATE!! Herc here. To answer Quint's question, the series will NOT be set in the '70s; it'll be set now - and so will look more like "Enemy of the State" perhaps than the brilliant Coppola movie. Also, it's probably important to emphasize that "The Conversation" is only a pilot in development at his point. Hundreds of pilots are conceived each year, but far fewer ever find their way to series.

Find a few words about "put pilots" here.