TV: Jason Schwartzman in HBO’s Bored to Death / Tim Roth in Fox’s Lie to Me
Jason Schwartzman (Rushmore, Spun, Coconut Records) will play an aging Brooklynite/alcoholic writer who experiences a nasty breakup and finds himself in the position of a Philip Marlowe-ish gumshoe in the new HBO series Bored to Death. Written by former New York Press columnist and novelist, Jonathan Ames, the half-hour comedy will go into production this September. Seth Gordon, director of The King of Kong, will work as a consultant on the show.
Schwartzman’s character “takes out an ad pretending to be a private detective and starts taking cases — solving some and making others worse.” You may remember that back in 2004 Schwartzman starred in the failed Fox sitcom, Cracking Up, from writer Mike White (The School of Rock). Ames also began developing a semi-autobiographical pilot for Showtime the same year, but it was never picked up. Based on the logline, it’s easy to picture Schwartzman making the role and premise into an irreverent hit.
HBO also has the series, Hung, in development from creator/director Alexander Payne and weeks ago I took a look at the pilot script for Cocaine Cowboys, the rumored series for HBO from Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay.
via Hollywood Reporter / Buzz Sugar
The iffier logline belongs to Lie to Me, a one-hour drama for Fox starring Tim Roth as a “scientist/human lie detector, skilled at reading the human face, body and voice to uncover the truth in criminal and private investigations.” Shades of House: the character’s talent/gift makes it difficult for him to maintain personal relationships.
As long as Lie to Me isn’t peppered with computer-generated eyeball schematics of various suspects in the vein of Robocop, we’ll check it out. Variety reports that the material is inspired by the real life science and life long studies of psychologist/deception specialist Dr. Paul Eckman. Brian Grazer is exec-producing the show, which has been picked up for 13 eps, and begins shooting in August.
Jason Schwartzman is HBO’s newest leading man
Jason Schwartzman is officially coming to HBO. The actor will play the lead in Bored to Death, a new comedy from the cable network. Schwartzman has been cast as Jonathan, a struggling writer in this thirties who has a drinking problem. The series, which is set in Brooklyn, follows Jonathan’s post-breakup decision to pretend to be a private eye.
Although he’s not qualified for detective work, Jonathan loves the novels of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. He’ll luck out and solve a few cases, but his lack of experience will often make matters worse for his clients. Novelist Jonathan Ames wrote the pilot and will serve as the show’s executive producer.
I’m looking forward to watching the Bored to Death pilot now that Jason Schwartzman is on board. He hasn’t done a lot of work on television, but he’s had some memorable leading roles in movies like Rushmore and Shopgirl. As far as TV goes, Schwartzman did a guest spot on Freaks and Geeks and starred in the short-lived FOX series Cracked Up.
Can you picture Jason Schwartzman as a private eye?
HBO wants us Bored To Death
Hmmm … this sounds like a rather interesting premise, actually: HBO has just given the green light to a new comedy pilot titled Bored To Death, about a Brooklyn writer who is so bored that he decides to become a real life private eye like the hero in his favorite Raymond Chandler novels.
Hey, if we can’t have Marlowe, I’ll take this.
The script is being written by Jonathan Ames, former columnist at The New York Press and author of the books The Extra Man, I Pass Like Night, I Love You More Than You Know, My Less Than Secret Life, Wake Up Sir! and What’s Not To Love? Ames has also been a boxer and has appeared several times on The Late Show with David Letterman. He’s also working on a graphic novel called The Alcoholic, which sounds like a rather great idea for a graphic novel. He’ll also be executive producer on the project.