Animated Series From Jonah Hill Greenlit By Fox. William H. Macy Drama, Shameless, Set For Showtime.
Last week, wediscussedthe surprising, albeit less surreal in 2009, news thatFoxhad picked up an animated TV pilot based on the characters of subversive comic book legendPeter Bagge. Today, the network has greenlit another new animated series, this one fromJonah Hill, who will co-write, provide voice work, and executive produce. Details after the jump…
It wasn’t specified whether Hill would voice the rich kid. As with Peter Bagge’sThe BradleysfromCrank Yankers’Matthew Lawton, my first impression is that Hill’s profane and dick-addled mind would fire more synapses atHBO,[adult swim],FX, orShowtime. However, withSeth RogenandEvan Goldbergrecently shortening their bucket list by writing an ep ofThe Simpsons, andFamily Guy’sSeth MacFarlanemaking insane fat stacks on aMicrosoft-level (literally and figuratively), the network’s appeal is obvious. A premise based around a new school and the coinciding social wire walk is shared with Hill’s previously announced, R-rated21 Jump Streetfeature.
Hopefully /Film’s Brendon Connelly offers a comment on the news thatWilliam H. Macywill star in the lead of a newShowtimedrama entitledShamelessbased on the long-running, well-awarded British series of the same name. The American version will be set inScrantonChicago, Illinois, a city making headlines left and right this year, and Macy will play the series’Frank Gallagher, areliable,soberalcoholic father of acontent, traditionallarge, unconventional family.
In the original series, the family consisted of Frank and his nine children, including: an eldest daughter in a maternal role “referred to by the other kids at school as ‘Pov Gallagher’ due to her family’s low-income and her parents' perpetual unemployment,” and an eldest son who is the father of a kid all his own while still attending school. In the update, the eldest, 18-year-old daughter is tasked with looking after five siblings.
Series creator,Paul Abbott, the mind behind several highly-regarded UK series likeState of PlayandCoronation Street, will executive produce the pilot alongsideJohn Wells, producer of U.S. seriesE.R.,China Beach, and the recently and controversially axedSouthlandat NBC. Abbott himself grew up in the U.K. a member of a similarly large and stressed family, andShamelessis based in part on those experiences.
