One thing you can’t accuse J.J. Abrams of is not breaking off his homies, or at least looking good as a contact on their resumes. As summarized by Variety, former Abrams disciples have gotten some of the salad jobs via their association with him. This includes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who were writers and co-exec producers
on Alias before teaming with Abrams to script his feature directorial
debut, Mission: Impossible III. The duo wrote Star Trek and
continue to collaborate with Abrams on Fringe. And Drew Goddard, who
penned the Abrams-produced Cloverfield, also came from Alias as a
writer/co-producer, and he is a writer and co-exec producer on Lost.
Cloverfield director Matt Reeves was writer and exec producer on Felicity, which Abrams exec produced.
Now Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec, who wrote and co-executive produced Alias with Abrams, as well as oversaw other shows such as October Road and the American adaptation of Life on Mars have been hired to pen the upcoming Mission: Impossible IV, which is set for a 2011 release. Tom Cruise is of course back on board to star and will be producing with Abrams. Applebaum and Nemec will be going off of a story that they wrote with Abrams. Said Abrams of the prospect: “I’ve been looking forward to working with Josh and Andre again for
years. Their sense of balance between character and
action is wonderful, which I know is hugely important to Tom [Cruise] as well.
We’re off to an exciting start, so, as usual, fingers crossed.” No word yet on whether Abrams will sit in the director’s chair again yet.
Applebaum and Nemec are also exec producers on the upcoming Happy Town for ABC that stars Geoff Stults, Amy Acker, Sam Neill, Dean Winters, Lauren German, and MC Gainey. They’ve also got the Dirty Dozen remake on their IMDB pages.