On Saturday Night Live, Bill Hader possessed an uncanny ability to dive into personas as diverse as Stefon, James Carville, and Vincent Price. Today it’s been confirmed that the 37-year-old Documentary Now! actor will be trying on a new role for size: HBO comedy lead.
Deadline reports that Hader will be starring in the upcoming half-hour comedy series Barry for the pay cable giant. The program, which emerged from Hader’s development deal with HBO, is scheduled to begin shooting in Los Angeles next year and marks the first scripted series under the watch of new programming president Casey Bloys. Hader and Seinfeld/Silicon Valley writing vet Alec Berg are the pilot’s co-writers and will executive produce the series. The pilot also marks the official directorial debut of Hader.
Here’s the description of Barry as laid out by Deadline:
Co-written by Hader and Silicon Valley executive producer Alec Berg, Barry centers on an ex-Marine (Hader) who works as a low-rent hitman in the Midwest. Lonely and dissatisfied in his life, he begrudgingly travels to Los Angeles to kill someone and ends up finding an accepting community in a group of eager hopefuls within the LA theater scene.
Sounds marvelous, right? We’re slightly disappointed it’s not a Vinny Vedecci series, but that’s just a minor quibble.
Barry can also boast a loaded cast of trusted small screen comedy hands like Henry Winkler and Stephen Root on the roster, so there’s more than enough reason to be optimistic when this series eventually makes its way onto your television set. Maybe Bill Hader will look back to his GoldenEye 007 past to really lock down his killer-for-hire skills.
(Via Deadline)
