It is a new year and I have some scraps of news sitting around that I can package up and get to you. This is the first HBO Development Slate piece in quite a while so, let’s get right to it.
Michaela Coel Returns to HBO with FIRST DAY ON EARTH
Straight from a press release comes word of this title. HBO and the BBC are set to co-produce the ten-episode drama series FIRST DAY ON EARTH starring and written by multi-award winner Michaela Coel (Chewing Gum and HBO’s I MAY DESTROY YOU). Coel will serve as executive producer alongside Jesse Armstrong, Phil Clarke, and Roberto Troni for Various Artists Limited, in association with A24.
In the work, we find that British novelist Henri (Coel) is stuck. Work has dried up, her relationship is going nowhere. So when she’s offered a job on a film in Ghana, West Africa – her parents’ homeland, where her estranged father lives – she can’t resist the chance to reconnect with him and the country of her heritage. As we can imagine from Coel’s other titles, the situation will not turn out so well for her character. Her unique storytelling skills make this yet another eager work from her and we will surely watch for it.
David Simon Back on Another HBO Series
If plans go his way, prolific writer David Simon could rack up his ninth series for HBO. His newest construct is centered on Child Protective Services. Simon is attached to write and executive produce the drama project, currently titled THE SYSTEM. Lily Thorne and Larissa MacFarquhar will also write and co-executive produce. The project is based on a series of New Yorker articles written by MacFarquhar. The show “will examine the foster care and child protective service systems from the viewpoint of family court judges and lawyers, as well as social workers, caretakers, mothers, and the children themselves, and will probe the risks and benefits of removing children from families of origin.”
Sounds right up Simon’s alley as he has already given us THE CORNER, THE WIRE, GENERATION KILL, TREME, THE DEUCE, THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA, SHOW ME A HERO and WE OWN THIS CITY. We eagerly await what is next.
Rachel Sennott Pilot
The news that Rachel Sennott of the comedies Bottoms and Bodies Bodies Bodies signed up for a development deal with HBO hit us way back in March and since then it has been quiet regarding her plans. She is no stranger to HBO though, as she appeared in HIGH MAINTENANCE and THE IDOL. But all are willing to have her brand of humor really hit its mark on HBO. She could be the next Lena Dunham (GIRLS) or Issa Rae (INSECURE) if her gig falls into place.
Emmy-nominated director Lorene Scafaria, coming off of stellar episodes of SUCCESSION is said to direct the pilot which is about a codependent friends group that reunites, navigating how the time apart, ambition and new relationships have changed them. Also, a cast has come to light that includes not only Sennott but Leighton Meester, Quenlin Blackwell, Odessa A’zion, Jordan Firstman, Miles Robbins, and True Whitaker. If the pilot pleases the powers that be, then we should see the show, as of yet untitled, in 2025.
Bill Hader Pitches HBO an Idea
Bill Hader, just coming off of HBO’s acclaimed BARRY, has turned around to pitch another comedy project. Though there isn’t a lot to go on about the work, it was announced that it involves “a woman in a small town that has a big secret revealed.” What, she’s an assassin for hire? Oh, wait, I guess Hader can’t do that.
Joining him in the endeavor is long-time friend Duffy Boudreau. They previously worked together on BARRY which Hader, of course, starred in and co-created. Boudreau was a writer and eventually a co-executive producer for the four-season series. In fact, Boudreau received an Emmy nomination for best writing for a comedy series along with Hader and the show’s co-creator Alec Berg for the Season 3 episode “710N.” Well, seeing Hader & Boudreau teaming up again for HBO would be nice. There is no word as of yet whether a pilot script has been picked up or whether a whole season of scripts is being written before Bloys at HBO has the final say. We’ll keep you posted.
DARK PLACES is On its Way to HBO
The 2009 Gillian Flynn novel “Dark Places” is getting set up as a limited series for HBO. The following description from the source material states, “Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in the famous 1985 ‘Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas.’ She survived and famously testified that her teenage brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, a pair of mother/daughter true crime ‘detectives’ locate a grownup Libby and pump her for details, believing that Ben is innocent. Libby, having spent her youth working the talk show circuit, hopes to once again turn a profit off her tragic history: She’ll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings -for a fee. As Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist traps, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started on the run from a killer.”
Flynn will serve as co-creator, writer, and co-showrunner on the project. Brett Johnson will also serve as co-showrunner, co-creator, and writer along with Guerrin Gardner. If the title sounds familiar, you’ve either read Flynn’s second novel or seen the 2015 movie with Charlize Theron. And, if you don’t recall, HBO’s 2018 limited series SHARP OBJECTS with Amy Adams was also based on some of Flynn’s fiction.
Eggers’ THE EVERY a Potential HBO Comedy
HBO is said to be entertaining a comedy series based on David Eggers’ big concept novel of 2021. The news dropped quite a while ago and we have yet to see any current information concerning it. We don’t really know if the project got off the ground or not with all the budget cutting at WBD and such. In the show, the world’s largest tech company merges with the planet’s dominant e-commerce site, creating the richest and most dangerous – and, oddly enough, the most beloved – monopoly ever known: The Every. I don’t know – think Amazon, Google, FaceBook, Instagram, and X all in one I guess.
Amy Gravitt, executive vice president of HBO Programming stated at the time, “In this equally terrifying and hilarious cautionary tale, Dave Eggers shows us the increasing cost of the frictionless life that technology enables. As he writes, ‘Nothing described herein actually happened, though much of it likely will,’ and what better starting point for an HBO comedy script?” So where is it?
How about THE CHAIR COMPANY?
Speaking of comedy, by title alone this title seems to be off-beat. Tim Robinson (pictured), of I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson and plenty of Adult Swim shows is working with Zach Kanin, a prolific writer for SNL and the Robinson title listed above on a pilot for a work titled THE CHAIR COMPANY. Robinson and Kanin will serve as the writers and executive producers of the half-hour series with Robinson starring.
The tagline setting up the work states that it centers around a man who, after an embarrassing incident at work (what a chair upholstery company?), begins to investigate a far-reaching conspiracy. Ah, just what that conspiracy is the linchpin here. This is a solid opportunity for these two to land their first gig at HBO and get away from their long careers in sketch comedy. They will be aided by producer Adam McKay who is no stranger to HBO. He had his hands in EASTBOUND & DOWN, SUCCESSION, and WINNING TIME through Hyperobject Industries. Stay tuned.
HALF MAN with Baby Reindeer‘s Richard Gadd Planned
Yes, Gadd is a good get! He got a lot of attention for Baby Reindeer and perhaps people will gravitate to HBO for his next big project. HBO and the BBC are set to co-produce the six-episode drama series that was originally called Lions but has since locked into it being called HALF MAN. Gadd will be joined onscreen by Jamie Bell, who was, of course, Billy Elliot in the movie of the same name and TV’s TURN: Washington Spies. The series is created, written, and executive produced by Gadd and will be shot in Scotland.
HALF MAN follows estranged ‘brothers’ Niall (Bell, pictured right) and Ruben (Gadd, pictured left). When Niall’s estranged ‘brother’ Ruben shows up at his wedding, it leads to an explosion of violence that catapults us back through their lives. Spanning almost forty years from the 1980s to the present day, this ambitious series will cover the highs and lows of the brothers’ relationship, from their meeting as teenagers to their falling out as adults – with all the good, bad, terrible, funny, angry, and challenging moments along the way. It will capture the wild energy of a changing city – a changing world, even – and try to get to the bottom of the difficult question… What does it mean to be a man? It sounds like a good one.
FLAT TYRES Comedy In The Works
Need some African humor? Could we get it with FLAT TYRES? HBO is in development on the comedy series by co-creators Thabo Rametsi (pictured left) and Robbie Leacock (pictured right). But are we sure it’s a comedy that can carry the torch from the aforementioned titles? I mean, just read the tagline they have for this work – the series follows a hapless gang of four deluded friends as they endlessly try – and fail – to become criminal kingpins of Cape Town’s most vibrant township. Does that sound like a comedy to you?
I guess it is possible if you look at it in the vein of Max’s BOOKIE. If it were a Cape Town drama I’d be all in. Rametsi is a multi-award-winning South African actor, writer, director, and producer who, however, has had some state-side success with The Gamechangers starring Daniel Radcliffe, Homeland with Rupert Friend, and The Giver directed by Phillip Noyce. Leacock is a British writer, director, and producer who was involved most recently in Netflix’s African spy-thriller The Red Sea Diving Resort. It sounds intriguing to me, but I’m partial to international content on HBO. But as a comedy? We’ll see.
McBride Penning THE SOUTHERN BOOK CLUB’S GUIDE…
Hey, something has to replace CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, SOMEBODY SOMEWHERE and THE RIGHTEOUS GEMSTONES, right? Could it just be THE SOUTHERN BOOK CLUB’S GUIDE TO SLAYING VAMPIRES? It could happen with this comedy series based on Grady Hendrix’s New York Times bestseller “The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires.” It is in consideration at HBO with the author writing alongside THE RIGHTEOUS GEMSTONES duo Danny McBride and Edi Patterson.
It follows a women’s book club that must protect its suburban community from a mysterious and handsome stranger who may be a vampire killing their children. But, since it was a successful book we can easily pad the details of the story quite a bit. It follows Patricia Campbell from Charleston SC. The only thing keeping her sane is her book club, a close-knit group of women united by their love of true crime. At these meetings, they’re as likely to talk about the Manson family as they are about their own families. One evening after a club meeting, Patricia is viciously attacked by an elderly neighbor, bringing the neighbor’s handsome nephew, James Harris, into her life to save her. James is well-traveled and well-read, and he makes Patricia feel things she hasn’t felt in years. But wait, somewhere along the line there has got to be a vampire or two. Is it James? Is this Fonda/Keaton/Steenburgen/Bergen’s The Book Club meets TRUE BLOOD? We will have to wait and see.
Steve Carell’s HBO Show
Steve Carell is said to be coming to HBO with a show getting before the cameras as early as this spring. It is all coming into play because of filmmaker Bill Lawrence. He has been behind great shows like Scrubs, Ted Lasso, and Shrinking and now has something Carell wants to be involved in.
Lawrence told Collider – “That show starts shooting in spring of next year. I created that with Matt Tarses and we have an amazing writing staff. The staff we put together now usually has a cool, healthy combination of young, newer writers and people that have run their own shows, so that there’s a lot of experienced people there.” The only other thing we know is that it follows an author (Carell) trying to reconnect with his daughter on a college campus. Not a lot to go on but, are you excited to see Steve Carell in an HBO show?
Craig Zobel Has a First Look Deal with HBO
Film and television writer, director, and producer Craig Zobel is staying in the HBO fold with a multi-year first-look deal Yes, as he should. Zobel most recently served as lead director (episodes 1-3) and executive producer of HBO’s limited series THE PENGUIN. He previously directed and executive produced the entirety of MARE OF EASTTOWN, which won four Emmy Awards and earned Zobel Directing Emmy and DGA nominations. Plus, he also directed episodes of THE LEFTOVERS and WESTWORLD. It sounds like he does deserve an option deal with HBO. Besides a second season of Oz Cobb’s story hopefully, we wonder what else he has in mind?
THE SON and THE SHARDS End Up Being Dead Projects
Two concepts that were announced years ago in similar Development Slate posts have died, at least for now or at least at HBO. Jo Nesbø’s THE SON was optioned back in 2020 and Denis Villeneuve was set to direct the miniseries but, over time, the sensibilities between the director and the network did not align. Jake Gyllenhaal was said to star.
Bret Easton Ellis was finally in pre-production on THE SHARDS it was told, but it was too little, too late. He felt he was left hanging at HBO to the point he felt he wasted a whole year. He was quoted as saying –
“We were invested in The Shards at HBO, from January to September, until we parted ways, and it became an extremely frustrating experience, and what we thought we were able to do we were told that we can’t. The show that we sold, through whatever machinations were going through at Warners Bros, was sadly not going to be that show anymore. I didn’t just want to get the thing made, I also wanted it to be good. I wanted it to be what my version of good was. This had all been promised to me when we made the deal, and it was just not happening. I really felt like eight months of the year had been wasted. I was disappointed and bitter. I said never again. I’m never going to do this again.”
The series was expected to run for three 10-episode seasons. Way to go Zaslav.
Okay, that cleans out my file. We will see and keep you posted on the titles & deals that are viable in the year ahead. Stick with HBOWatch.
