A solid 16 months after the network announced its collaboration with Community star Donald Glover, FX has ordered a pilot for Atlanta, a new comedy series about the city’s rap scene. According to the official press release:
FX Networks has ordered the comedy series pilot Atlanta created by and starring award-winning actor and writer Donald Glover (Community, 30 Rock), it was announced today by Nick Grad and Eric Schrier, the Presidents of Original Programming for FX Networks and FX Productions.
Glover serves as Executive Producer, along with Paul Simms (Girls, Flight of the Conchords, NewsRadio), and Dianne McGunigle of Schiff Company. The pilot will be produced by FX Productions.
Irony being the wonderful thing that it is, Glover’s character sort of mirrors his own bouncy relationship with Community. You know, that popular(ly canceled) series about community college students?
Atlanta revolves around two cousins on their way up through the Atlanta rap scene whose opposing views on art versus commerce, success and race will make their quest anything but easy. Glover will play “Earnest ‘Earn’ Marks,” a college drop-out who reconnects with his long buried ambition and sets out to seize the life he imagined for himself when his estranged cousin becomes a sudden star.
Just as the press release started making the rounds, David Itzkoff of the New York Times broke the news on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/ditzkoff/status/543506898507427840
Itzkoff’s tweet generated the usual round of reactions, everything from disbelief to snark:
@ditzkoff I can never tell whether you're joking or not.
— Monica Byrne (@monicabyrne13) December 12, 2014
@ditzkoff But will Childish rap the opening credits, a la "Fresh Prince?"
— Daniel E. Slotnik (@DSlotnik) December 12, 2014
Childish Gambino developing his own version of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song would be excellent. I look forward to an aging, Scientology-accepting Glover reminiscing about the series on a talk show.
Source: Twitter
