ben-stiller-slice

The independent studio Media Rights Capital (House of Cards) is looking to adapt Gary Shteyngart's best-selling novel Super Sad True Love Story. According to THR, MRC has gotten Ben Stiller on board to executive produce the series under his Red Hour Films banner.

while-were-young-ben-stiller-charles-grodin
Image via A24 Films.

Stiller has dabbled in TV before, though with under-the-radar series like Comedy Central's Big Time in Hollywood, FL and Another Period, as well as IFC's The Birthday Boys. This upcoming project, being referred to as a dramedy, sounds a little bit like Showtime's upcoming HAPPYish.

Here's a synopsis for the book:

The son of a Russian immigrant, protagonist Leonard (Lenny) Abramov, a middle-aged, middle class, otherwise unremarkable man whose mentality is still in the past century, falls madly in love with Eunice Park, a young Korean-American struggling with materialism and the pressures of her traditional Korean family. The chapters alternate between profuse diary entries from the old-fashioned Lenny and Eunice's biting e-mail correspondence on her "GlobalTeens" account. In the background of what appears to be a love story that oscillates between superficiality and despair, a grim political situation unravels. America is on the brink of economic collapse, threatened by its Chinese creditors. In the meantime, the totalitarian Bipartisan government's main mission is to encourage and promote consumerism while eliminating political dissidents.

Though there is not a network attached (MRC typically finishes development first), they are already looking at casting for this project. Shteyngart and Karl Gajdusek (Dead Like Me) have collaborated on the adaptation, and will co-write the script.

super-sad-true-love-story-cover