How do you like your Norwegian dark comedy TV series adaptations? With a dash of star power, you say? (Please tell us you said that.) The upcoming small screen offering Maniac should be able to meet those needs.
Deadline reports that an American remake is set to arrive with Superbad alums Emma Stone and Jonah Hill finalizing deals to come aboard the project. In addition to having those two Academy Award nominees associated with this would-be series, Beasts Of No Nation helmer Cary Fukunaga is pegged to direct some if not all the episodes of the Yankeeified Maniac. Seeing as Fukunaga scored raves for his work on the first go-around of True Detective, and whose absence (outside of an EP credit) was considered a missing Jenga block that contributed in the show’s reputation crumbling in season two, there’s loads of prestige and intrigue attached to this small screen offering.
Positioned as a half-hour series, Maniac hasn’t locked in a TV home as of yet. Deadline‘s report notes that the show is being shopped as a straight-to-order series with two seasons potentially in mind. The comedy will revolve around a guy (presumably Hill, but we’re flexible) that’s mentally living his days in a fantasy world while he’s physically stuck inside a mental health facility. Best to steady yourself in advance for the parade of thinkpieces the premise will generate once it makes it to broadcast.
Paramount TV and Anonymous Content are currently shopping the series and there’s said to be no writer attached to the project at the moment. Will Maniac spark the Norwegian-influenced TV boom that Lilyhammer failed to launch? We’ll have to wait and see.
(Via Deadline)
