Volcano, Dante’s Peak; Deep Impact, Armageddon; No Strings Attached, Friends with Benefits; The Prestige, The Illusionist – that ideas come in twos in Hollywood is nothing new, but seriously, this rapture thing has gotten out of hand. We’ve already seen Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, and this year brings the release of both This is the End, with Seth Rogen and James Franco, and Rapture-palooza, with Craig Robinson.
And now, today comes word of The Leftovers, a Damon Lindelof-produced HBO series about, you guessed it, life after the rapture. I’ll say this for it, it has a much better title than “Rapture-palooza.”
Justin Theroux has been cast in Damon Lindelof’s HBO pilot “The Leftovers.”
Drama, based on a novel of the same name written by Tom Perrotta, centers on life after the Rapture happens — and the people who didn’t make the cut, and are left behind in a suburban community.
Theroux will play Kevin Garvey, a chief of police and father of two who is trying to maintain some semblance of normalcy in this new world. The thesp recently appeared in feature film “Wanderlust,” and held a recurring role on NBC’s “Parks and Rec.”
Lindelof is exec producing and co-writing “The Leftovers” with Perrotta. Peter Berg, also an executive producer, is slated to helm the pilot. [Variety]
Okay, so this one’s a drama. Does that make it different enough? Does the idea of Peter “Join the Army, Motherf*cker” Berg directing intrigue you enough not to mind? I can’t decide, myself. All I know is that it seems like everyone had a similar idea right around the time Left Behind came out. It’s gonna suck when Kirk Cameron’s up in heaven eating Subway sandwiches, and all us sinners are down here with empty bellies like Belinda.