Showtime for Spielberg and Cody’s United States
It looks like Steven Spielberg has found a home for Tara.
Showtime has ordered 12 episodes of The United States of Tara, an original series dreamed up by the Tinseltown titan about a wife and mother who struggles to find stability while suffering from dissociative identity disorder, more commonly referred to as multiple personality disorder.
Juno’s Oscar-winning scribe, Diablo Cody, is executive producing the half-hour single-camera comedy with tube vet Alexa Junge, who’s also serving as show runner.
Tara stars Toni Collette in the title role, with Sex and the City’s John Corbett as her husband, Max. They and their two teenage kids must deal with her numerous and volatile identities that may appear on any given day.
“Showtime is known as the home of several shows featuring flawed main characters, and we welcome Taraand all her alternate personalitiesto the fold,” Showtime’s entertainment president Bob Greenblatt said in announcing the pickup.
“What a pleasure to watch Diablo Cody and Toni Collette work together, a combination of inspired writing and acting that raises this show from just a curiosity to a compelling examination of a modern family.”
Cody wrote the pilot as well as two additional segments, and is expected to pen up to a half-dozen of the season’s episodes, which will start filming this summer.
No word yet from the cable network on a premiere date.
Showtime for Steven Spielberg/Diablo Cody’s The United States of Tara
The Steven Spielberg-produced, Diablo Cody-written pilot The United States of Tara has just been picked up by Showtime. Toni Collette is set as Tara Gregor, a wife and mother of two teens, who just happens to suffer from multiple personality disorder. Basically the family must find a way to deal and live with her multiple personalities. And did I mention that the show is based on an original idea by Spielberg?
I might have read the script. And if I did, I’d tell you how it’s peppered with Cody’s pop-culture obsessed snap-filled dialog, minus the intense slang of Juno. And it’s not light either. In the opening it is revealed that Tara has just found morning after pills in her 16-year-old daughter’s Kate’s bag. It’s later revealed that (potential spoiler) one of Tara’s alter egos, a burnout teenage stoner named T, was the one who supplied her with said pills. If Collette can actually pull off each of the personalities, and actually make it believable, this could be Showtime’s next Dexter.
The pilot is directed by Craig Gilespie, and also stars John Corbett as Tara’s husband Max. The half hour single camera comedy series will begin shooting this Summer. Showtime has ordered 13 episodes.
Showtime likes the laughs, renews Tracey Ullman
Do you love Tracey Ullman? Yeah, who doesn’t? The lady’s a riot. Showtime is so enamored of the Brit-com-queen that they’ve ordered a second season — seven fresh episodes — of Tracey Ullman’s State of the Union. The network has also lined up another English artist for 2009. Comedy star Marc Wootton is locked in for six episodes.
“I won’t hold it against them that both are from the U.K.,” laughed Showtime prez Robert Greenblatt. “Tracey Ullman is the veteran genius who continues to impress us with her versatility, while Marc Wootton is the up-and-comer who will surprise our audience with his own unique voice. This is an embarrassment of riches for us in the comedy department.”
Wootton’s humor has been compared to Sacha Baron Cohen — like Da Ali G Show perhaps — with Wootton taking on a variety of oddball characters and passing them off as real people. For now the show is being referred to as The Mark Wootton Project, but it’s just a working title. According to Showtime’s release, Wootton’s most memorable character is “an overly theatrical psychic named Shirley Ghostman who performs for an unsuspecting audience who think he’s real on the BBC series High Spirits with Shirley Ghostman.”
In addition to Tracey and Marc, Showtime also claims Weeds in its comedy lineup, as well as Californication. Three other new comedies are coming to the cable net, too: another British product, Secret Diary of a Call Girl; The United States of Tara with Toni Collette and John Corbett; and the Edie Falco project about a New York City nurse.
John Corbett cast in Showtime pilot
This sounds like a promising new project: John Corbett as Toni Collette’s leading man in the Showtime comedy pilot United States of Tara. The show comes from the pen of Diablo Cody, fresh off her Oscar win as the screenwriter of Juno, and the pilot’s director is Craig Gillespie who received plaudits for the indie hit Lars and the Real Girl. Oh, and did I mention that Steven Spielberg is one of the producers? Considering this collection of talent and Showtime’s recent programming successes, United States of Tara sounds like another ace for the cable net.
United States of Tara, was first announced last July, so it’s taken a while to put all the pieces together. The premise is all about a woman with a multiple personality disorder, played by Toni, whose alternates make for comic mischief. John has signed up as Max Gregor, Tara’s husband, a contractor whose life is in turmoil because of her condition. He’s obsessed with trying to help her and reads as much as he can about her ailment. It’s a serious subject matter, but the idea is to find the dark comic elements. Diablo did that with teenage pregnancy in Juno, so it’ll be curious to see what she does with this situation.
It’ll be great to see Corbett back on TV. Since his days as Chris in the Morning on Northern Exposure, he’s been a welcomed presence on every show he’s graced. He was one of Carrie’s best beaus on HBO’s Sex & the City, an addicted gambler living in Vegas on USA’s Lucky, among other series and TV movies. With Showtime, he did a pilot called Manchild in 2006.