Ben Blacker

Andy Paley, the decade-long musical director for @thrillingadv.bsky.social, has passed. Andy was an immense talent as a songwriter, producer + musician. We were a footnote in his incredible career, but he never treated us that way. rockcellarmagazine.com/andy-paley-d...

New Bond gonna be from Chicago too.

The only celebrity I want giving political takes: deadline.com/2025/02/reac...

Accidentally started a Buffy rewatch.

I'm off doing @thrillingadv.bsky.social things the next couple of weeks, so no new Writers Panel pods. I do, of course, have time to watch as many horror movies as possible. In this week's Re:Writing newsletter, some recs for your spooky viewing season: benblacker.substack.com/p/terror-mes...

In today's Writers Panel, the showrunners of DMV discuss pitching + selling the show, what they look for in samples when staffing, how comedy has changed since Friends and How I Met Your Mother (where each began), keeping inspired + more. Listen: benblacker.substack.com/p/dana-klein...

Look, I’ve tried for my whole career to champion writers, but post-season baseball, Survivor, Taskmaster, and GBBO are all running at once, and I dunno y’all…

SHANE BLACK is back on the Writers Panel today to talk about his new movie, PLAY DIRTY, adapting Donald Westlake, how he pushes through imposter syndrome, respectful but playful actors, how production is just “shopping for ingredients” +lots more. benblacker.substack.com/p/shane-blac...

Nothing lives rent free in my head. I am a gray matter slumlord.

Been using a new first word in Wordle all week and it feels like I’m having an affair.

Working on a new draft of a script and realized I can excise an entire character to make the story better. But doing so made me... sad? Like, I miss her? Writing is weird.

Archive is probably my favorite Riverdell character

I give up. deadline.com/2025/09/bigf...