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.
Marlowe — A look at the pilot script
I’m a big fan of private eye TV shows and novels, and I’ve been thinking lately that they need to make a big comeback (sorry, Monk just isn’t the same). Raines comes kinda close, but it’s not quite the same thing. Judging from the script for the pilot of Marlowe, ABC’s modern take on the classic Raymond Chandler character, it looks like it could be a return to the great private eye genre that TV fans have been waiting for.
The first thing I noticed is that, yes, the show is going to have voiceovers! Some people hate voiceovers, some people love them. I remember that Robert Parker hated the voiceover on Spenser: For Hire, when it was actually one of the cool things about the show. There’s a lot of voiceover in this pilot script, and while I don’t mind it, I wonder if it’s too much.
Another thing I notice is that everything in the script is in first person, like the voiceovers. I don’t think that’s a normal aspect of most scripts, even those that contain voiceovers and narration by the main protagonist. And that makes me think that this show is going to be very first person-oriented, very much focused on the Philip Marlowe character.
All the other private eye staples are here too: Marlowe is sick of L.A., he wonders why he doesn’t leave the city, and he comments on the city and the surroundings and how the rich live. He’s hired to follow the friend of rich couple Bill and Suzette Church, and problems arise from that seemingly mundane assignment. There’s a sexpot in the story, of course, and she causes trouble for Marlowe, too.
ABC has hired Jason O’Mara (The Agency, In Justice) to play Marlowe, though I don’t really know much about him. As long as they don’t have him dress like Ryan Seacrest and listen to rap music. If they do this show right, it will truly be unlike anything else on television. That’s if it gets past the pilot stage, of course.