Shawn Levy Developing Fox TV Comedy for Comedian J.B. Smoove

Producer/director Shawn Levy is a busy man. On top of his forthcoming robot boxing movie, Real Steel, Levy is getting involved in television production. Lucky for him, it looks like he may have picked a winner.

According to a Deadline report, Levy, along with business partner Marty Adelstein, is producing a new comedy for FOX featuring comedian/actor J.B. Smoove. The series, which was developed by Smoove and The Office writer-producer, Aaron Shure, revolves around a recently divorced dad who can’t afford to move out of his family’s home, so he moves into the basement instead.

On the surface, the premise may sound somewhat hackneyed, but there’s real room for comedy there if handled correctly. The Deadline article notes that the show shares similarities with Roseanne, which, while not beloved by all, was ahead of its time in presenting a truly blue collar family experience.

Smoove has had a varied career in the entertainment business, working as a stand-up comedian, Saturday Night Live staff writer, and guest star on a variety of films and TV shows (such as the cab driver in Date Night, where he first worked with Levy). Smoove is most famous, however, for his recurring role as Leon Black on the HBO show Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Playing a vulgar, uninvited houseguest whose bluntness runs directly parallel to Larry David’s passive-aggressive behavior, Smoove turned the Leon Black character into a fan-favorite within a few episodes. Clearly, Smoove’s work on his FOX show will not be like his work on Curb, but I wouldn’t worry about that too much. The man is a talented comedian, and this show seems like a smart pickup by Fox.

In addition to getting his own show, Smoove has also been busy with work on the big screen. The actor recently finished filming The Sitter, opposite Jonah Hill, and is also in the supporting cast of We Bought a Zoo, Cameron Crowe’s upcoming film starring Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, and Thomas Haden Church. Smoove will also lend his voice talents to Ice Age 4.

Source: Deadline

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‘Zombieland’ Writers Making Directorial Debut With Comedy Film ‘Doc and Howie’

Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick are fast becoming two of Hollywood’s most popular and sought-after screenwriters, ever since their success with Zombieland, a hilarious and extremely entertaining comedic take on the zombie genre.

Since Zombieland the pair have become involved with numerous high profile projects, including a Zombieland sequel; the X-Men spin-off Deadpool; the G.I. Joe sequel; a “300-style” action movie called Earth vs. Moon; and most recently, an adaptation of the comic series Cowboy Ninja Viking.

Not content with speeding ahead in the screenwriting game, Reese and Wernick have decided to try their hands at directing. Risky Business reports that the duo are going to be making their directorial debut with Doc and Howie (originally titled Doc and Howie Whack a Granny), a comedy described as being in the same tone as the Harold and Kumar movies.

Interestingly enough, Reese and Wernick didn’t write the script for Doc and Howie (you’d think they would want to direct stuff they’d written), but rather it was written by TV writer/producer, Steve Leff. The script actually made the Hollywood “Black List” last year and was reportedly one of the better received entries on the list.

“So what’s Doc and Howie about?” I hear you asking. Well, here’s the plot rundown thanks to Risky Business:

In the story the title characters accidentally kill an elderly woman when they neglect to help her carry her groceries up the stairs. In a fortuitous twist, the incident brings them into contact with the woman’s hot granddaughters, and they struggle with the dilemma of whether to tell the women the truth.

Admittedly the plot does sound a little mean-spirited, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t be funny. Recent hits such as The Hangover, Date Night and Pineapple Express (to name but a few) all had a bit of that humor in them, but that didn’t stop them from being hilarious.

There’s no telling at this point how Reese and Wernick will fair as directors; just because they’re talented screenwriters doesn’t mean their talent will transfer to directing. But at the same time, I’m confident with Doc and Howie being in their hands.

The plan is to start shooting Doc and Howie by early next summer. There’s currently no release date been set.

Source: Risky Business

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NBC Develops New Comedy ‘Several Children’

After news that NBC is switching up their Thursday night comedy line-up by moving Outsourced and 30 Rock to the 10pm timeslot, the struggling network announced that they’re developing a new series from comedian Dan Levy entitled Several Children.

The new comedy series will center around a businesswoman who lives in a houseful of kids. Kids being a loose term – as her much younger husband and his friends are also included in that group, in addition to the couple’s two actual children.

Levy is a longtime comedian who is best known for his hit Crackle web-series Long Distance Relationship, which was turned into a television pilot for MTV. In addition, Levy most recently starred in the Comedy Central pilot Let it Ride and is currently writing a television movie for ABC Family entitled Stoked.

Helping Levy develop Several Children is Jamie Tarses, former president of ABC’s entertainment division and former vice-president of primetime series on NBC. During her illustrious career as a primetime executive, Tarses was responsible for helping develop Friends and Wings. In addition, Amanda Peet’s character from the failed Aaron Sorkin series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was loosely based on Tarses – with the original pilot script referring to Peet’s character as Jamie.

While Several Children has the professional backing that it needs, it’s hard to tell whether the show will find success at NBC. From the short synopsis, it appears to be a series much like ABC’s The Middle.

Unfortunately, while a series such as The Middle thrives on ABC, it most certainly wouldn’t have succeeded on NBC. One of ABC’s strengths (and weaknesses) is that they’ve culled an audience that’s interested in typical family comedies that are geared to a more adult viewership. While there’s no indication that Several Children will be this type of series, NBC has always found success in the more overtly niche television comedies.

Of course, who knows exactly what the television landscape will look like next fall. So, I guess we’ll just have to just wait and see what happens with Several Children.

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Source: Hollywood Reporter

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Christian Slater is ‘Breaking In’ to Comedy For Fox; Replacing ‘Running Wilde’

Christian Slater is returning to television with Breaking In… Only this time, he’s going to be funny – we hope.

Shortly after the news that Fox would not be ordering any more episodes of Will Arnett’s failed series Running Wilde, it was announced that the network would be picking up the Sony TV/Happy Madison produced comedy series.

If you’re unfamiliar with Breaking In, here’s the official synopsis from Fox:

Breaking In is an offbeat half-hour workplace comedy about a high-tech security firm that takes extreme – and often questionable – measures to sell their protection services. Created by Adam F. Goldberg (“Fanboys”) and Seth Gordon (“Four Christmases” and the upcoming “Horrible Bosses”), the series centers on a team of uniquely skilled oddball geniuses hand-picked to work for a manipulative mastermind. Starring Christian Slater (“The Forgotten”), Bret Harrison (“Reaper”) and Odette Yustman (“You Again”).

While Running Wilde has not yet been officially canceled, the signs certainly point in that direction. With Fox picking up the new comedy series Breaking In, the network will most likely use it to replace the failed series – and pair it with the hit freshman comedy Raising Hope.

Breaking In will team-up with Fox's comedy Raising Hope

Originally developed as a series for last season, Breaking In actually tested well with focus groups and received a lot of buzz. Unfortunately, the series didn’t make the cut.  Thankfully, instead of completely giving up on it, Fox came back a month later and order two additional scripts.

Each year, Christian Slater has been returning in a new series and each new series has subsequently been canceled. While The Forgotten certainly deserved it, his failed NBC drama My Worst Enemy was actually quite good. Unfortunately, it couldn’t pull in the ratings that it needed to succeed.

While it’s hard to tell if Breaking In will be any different, it does have Slater’s unflattering television history to overcome. Hopefully, this time, Slater has found a series that will solidify his return to television for longer than three months.

Let’s hope what they say is true… Third time’s a charm.

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Breaking In premieres April 6, @9pm, on Fox

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Source: Deadline

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‘Little Fockers’ Trailer #2 Offers Uninspired Comedy

Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro) and Gaylord “Greg” Focker (Ben Stiller) are at it yet again in next month’s Little Fockers, the third entry in the highly-successful Meet the Parents franchise.

A second trailer is out for Little Fockers and it features everything we’ve come to associate with this series: (predictable) puns involving Greg’s surname, gross-out physical comedy gags, and awkward sexual humor.

While neither Meet the Parents or Meet the Fockers were critical darlings, both were hits at the box office and grossed a combined total of nearly $850 million worldwide in theaters. These films are essentially feature-length sitcoms that revolve around the battle of wills between traditional, conservative-minded Jack and Greg, whose good intentions always seem to go wrong in the worst way imaginable. As contrived and uninspired as the comedy in these films often feels, these pics clearly hit the right note with the moviegoing masses.

Little Fockers doesn’t look to deviate from the successful formula of its predecessors at all -- even the narrator in this new preview (essentially) admits as much. But are moviegoers interested in paying to see pretty much the same movie for a third time?

Watch the new Little Fockers trailer below before answering that question:

Universal brought back Dustin Hoffman -- who was conspicuously absent from the Little Fockers teaser and international trailer -- to reprise his role as Bernie Focker in the threequel after an earlier cut of the film was poorly received by test audiences. We’re always happy to see the legendary actor onscreen, but it doesn’t look like even he can salvage this flick.

The cast for Little Fockers remains quite good, what with De Niro, Hoffman, Barbara Streisand, and Blythe Danner all still onboard. Harvey Keitel and Jessica Alba will have supporting roles in the film as well, though their characters look to be one-note jokes, at best.

Little Fockers will be released in the U.S. on December 22nd, 2010. Will you be checking this one out in theaters?

Source: Yahoo! Movies

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