Entertainment One and Lion producer Aquarius Films are co-producing a new Stan Original comedy series The Other Guy, starring and written by Australian comedian and broadcast personality Matt Okine. The show, which has already begun production, is based on Okine’s own experiences, which he developed into a stand-up show and is now a TV series for Australia’s local streaming service Stan. The show is co-written by Becky Lucas (Please Like Me) and Greg Waters (Soul Mates, Dance Academy). The 6×30 series follows a successful radio host who finds himself unexpectedly back in the dating pool for the first time in a decade, after discovering his long-term girlfriend had been having an affair with his best friend. Kacie Anning (Fragments of Friday) is set to direct. EOne will distribute the series internationally.
Starz
Studiocanal has picked up physical and digital transactional home entertainment rights to Starz’s new TV adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Hugo Award-winning fantasy novel American Gods for UK, France and Germany. The series stars Ricky Whittle, Ian McShane, Emily Browning and Pablo Schreiber as well as Yetide Badaki, Bruce Langley, Crispin Glover and Orlando Jones. Additional cast includes Gillian Anderson and Kristen Chenoweth. Bryan Fuller and Michael Green are writers and showrunners while David Slade directs the pilot with additional episodes. Story pits Old Gods against New Gods, with ancient mythological ones fearing irrelevance as their believers die off or are seduced by the money, technology and celebrity offered by younger deities. Deal was negotiated by Fremantle’s SVP Home Entertainment and Archive Sales Pete Kalhan and Studiocanal’s General Manager of UK Home Entertainment John Rodden.
Viceland, the youth-focussed TV network from VICE Media, is making a new topical comedy series called Brexit Stage Left. The 4×30 series will see UK comedian Jamali Maddix and three of his stand-up comedian friends – Fern Brady, Alfie Brown and Sean McLoughlin – take in a quick-fire, stand-up comedy tour of Europe to find out if anyone outside of Britain actually cares about the UK’s exit form the European Union. Each episode of the four-part series is centered around one comedian and their respective relationship with that city. They’ll tour Dublin, Amsterdam, Berlin and Copenhagen, sample the weird and well-known delights of the city, befriend locals and then perform a live, stand-up gig. Yonni Usiskin will exec produce the series.
