Damn, this writer liked the concept of this one. HOBGOBLIN, a work long in development at HBO has been let go. It was being written by Michael Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and Wonder Boys) and his wife Ayelet Waldman.
The backstory takes us back to World War II where a unit of conmen and magicians take on a daring plan to stop the Nazis. Using their skills of deception, misdirection and illusion the assembled team are able to dupe Aldolf Hitler. It could have been a action series setting up unique scenarios to thwart the enemy. Think of it as The Dirty Dozen or the Inglourious Basterds meets Mission: Impossible. Though none of my sources can pinpoint why the project failed it has been noted that the intended pilot’s director, Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan, the upcoming Noah), has dropped away from the project as well. He, of course, was an appealing part of the project for this would have been Aronfsky’s first foray into television work. Whether he was a factor in HBO killing the project or not is not known. It is rumored however that the concept is not dead and that FX is interested.
So another interesting project is dead at HBO as is the way of the business. HBO has been known to have passed on long developing projects before and has even passed on works that proved successful elsewhere like Mad Men and The Walking Dead.
4 comments
I would have love to see how this one turned out. I’m sorry to hear that it’s not going forward!
I hate to see HBO let someone like Aronofsky go for ANYTHING. Pretty much 100% hits from this guy. But HBO has a lot of “weird fantasy crazy shit” series coming between American Gods, Monster, True Blood is still on the air, and maybe Dark Tower. Can’t do em all!
Aronofsky dropped out before HBO decided not to take their option on the series.
I thought that Hobgoblin had a rather unique concept, but I had a feeling that it was a bit too out there for HBO.
However, out of all of the concepts HBO has passed on the one I wanted to see the most was The Dark Tower.