With streaming sites such as Netflix and Hulu growing in popularity and the future of movie theaters looking vulnerable to change, audiences are growing more receptive to the idea of staying home in order to experience their entertainment. Television is currently enjoying a golden age of sorts, meaning it’s now just as likely to see an A-list celebrity on the small screen as it is the big screen.
In fact, it seems like every other day that we hear news of one TV series or another in the works, complete with actors or filmmakers that we’ve all seen in larger scale productions. With so many familiar names and faces helping to build the TV programs of today, there’s little wonder why so many of us are opting to just stay home and binge watch episodes rather than head out to the Cineplex.
As producer of both seasons of HBO’s Emmy award-winning True Detective, Cary Fukunaga – who also directed the first season of the series – has a knack for keeping audiences comfortably entertained at home. Most recently the young filmmaker wrote, directed and produced the Netflix-released movie Beasts of No Nation - and now according to Deadline, he’ll be teaming up with Oscar-nominees Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street) and Emma Stone (Birdman) for a new dark comedy series called Maniac.
Based on the 2014 Norwegian series, Maniac tells the story of a man who lives in an institution and allows himself to slip away into fantasies in which he triumphs as the hero of a variety of different imagined scenarios. Fukunaga, Hill and Stone will executive producer the new project, with both Hill and Stone also taking on acting duties under Fukunaga’s direction. At present time there is no writer, but word has it that the project will be aiming for a straight-to-series commitment that will possibly last for two seasons. Michael Sugar and Doug Wald of production company Anonymous Content – whom Fukunaga worked with on True Detective – will also join in on executive producer duties.
As a director, Fukunaga’s absence on the second season of True Detective was missed and it does seem that everything he touches at the moment has at least some sort of meaningful resonance. In addition to this, Jonah Hill and Emma Stone have a comic chemistry that that was last seen in 2007’s Superbad, so it will be wonderful to see them team up again now that they’ve grown as actors and comedic talents.
With all the quality programming that’s currently being put on television, it’s still exciting to see such a strong group of talented people get together on a project. Maniac might have a dark or perhaps even somber element to it, but judging solely by the tiny bit of information we have so far, this looks to be one series that really could have a strong chance at winning over audiences and going the distance.
We’ll keep you up to date on Maniac as more information is revealed.
Source: Deadline
