HBO Developing Comedy Series Starring Catherine Keener And Written & Directed By Charlie Kaufman
EXCLUSIVE: Frequent feature collaborators Charlie Kaufman and Catherine Keener are teaming for a TV series project. In a competitive situation, a half-hour comedy starring Oscar nominee Keener and to be written and directed by Oscar winner Kaufman has landed at HBO, which has put it on fast-track development. The untitled comedy is described as an exploration of one day in a woman’s life and how the events leading up to it can affect, or not, the reality in which she lives. Kaufman is executive producing; Keener serves as producer.
Over the last decade, Keener had been frequently pursued to do TV series, something she had declined to do until now. For her first series starring vehicle, she opted to team with a writer-director whom she has worked with before and who knows her well. Keener starred in Kaufman’s feature directorial debut Synecdoche, New York. She appeared in two movies written by him – Synecdoche and Being John Malkovich – and also did a cameo in the Kaufman-penned Adaptation. Keener also is set to co-star in Kaufman’s next movie, Frank Or Francis, opposite Steve Carell and Jack Black. Both Keener and Kaufman earned Oscar nominations for Being John Malkovich. Gersh-repped Keener also was nominated for Capote; WME-repped Kaufman was nominated for Adaptation and won a best screenplay Oscar for Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. Following a stint on the short-lived drama series Ohara early in her career, Keener has been focused on features for the past 25 years. She is filming Sony’s Captain Phillips opposite Tom Hanks for director Paul Greengrass and will next be seen in Peace, Love & Misunderstanding.
HBO has been building a slate of comedy series with female leads, including recent entries Enlightened starring Laura Dern and Veep starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Catherine Keener? **Yawn**
Gasp gasp gasp gasp…. Gasp,
Me want.
Brilliant duo. Cannot wait to see this much talent in a quirky human show. I will be tuned in! Congratulations HBO.
Catherine Keener is one of my favorite actresses and certainly the most interesting of her generation.
Charlie Kaufman has a great voice. Please make it accessible!
I’m a big fan of Kaufman’s films, and literally in the last week I thought to myself how I would love to see him tackle a TV series — and the thought also occurred to me that he probably wouldn’t want to do TV.
I actually prefer her dramatic work more than her comedies. That being said, I fully expect an Emmy nomination though HBO needs to not become the new Showtime with only half hour dramedies starring film actresses.
Quirkiness is awesome, especially those new iPhone commercials with Zoey Deschanel. Note to all execs: bring on the quirk!
Not sure Kaufman is a good fit for TV; his stuff is more conceptually interesting than relatable. From the premise it’s hard to see where you get 50 episodes from, but the two of them certainly deserve the chance to try.
Charlie Kaufman began his career in TV. He was staffed on numerous shows before segueing into features. He knows the TV model and I think it will be interesting to see his unique vision translated into a weekly series.
It’s not TV. It’s HBO.
OHHHHHHH!!!!!
nice.
What an amazing duo. Can’t wait to see this show. Love them both, especially keener.
Show of hands, who thinks HBO will develop this, shoot a pilot, and then pull the plug?
HBO has canned so many pilots one could make that prediction about any HBO project, no?
*sigh*
YES!