Brace yourselves, folks, because this one is almost too good to be true. Filmmaker Cary Fukunaga kicked off a longform storytelling trend by directing every episode of the tremendous first season of HBO’s True Detective, and after a sojourn back to feature film territory with his gripping drama Beasts of No Nation it appears that Fukunaga is ready to head back to TV in a big way. Per THR, Emma Stone and Jonah Hill are set to star in a dark comedy series called Maniac, for which Fukunaga is set to likely helm every episode.
The show is based on a 2014 Norwegian series about a mental institution patient who escapes to a fantasy world in his brain where he’s a hero and everything’s grand. Already this offers a number of visual opportunities, and given the immense skill of Fukunaga as a filmmaker, this is a fantastically promising fit.
Paramount TV and Anonymous Content are currently shopping the project to various outlets, seeking a straight-to-series order for potentially two seasons, with Fukunaga likely onboard to direct each installment. The search is underway for a writer but given the talent involved here—Stone and Hill are equally adept at comedy and drama—one has to imagine this is gonna incite a bidding war of epic proportions.
Hill and Stone first shared the screen together in Superbad, which launched both of their careers. The two have subsequently gone on to become Oscar nominees, but it’s nice to see they aim to reteam for another comedic-leaning project. Stone recently wrapped Whiplash filmmaker Damien Chazelle's musical La La Land opposite Ryan Gosling for release this December and is set to star as Billie Jean King in the biopic Battle of the Sexes. Hill, meanwhile, has Todd Phillips' War Dogs opposite Miles Teller opening later this year, and is due to reteam with Channing Tatum for Sony's Men in Black/Jump Street crossover film. While the duo have busy schedules, one imagines the prospect of teaming up again is enticing, and the involvement of Fukunaga only sweetens the deal.
The filmmaker was previously developing an ambitious two-film adaptation of Stephen King’s It before creative differences led him to depart. He’s currently working on the TNT drama series The Alienist, which has its sights set on Garrett Hedlund to star, but one imagines Maniac will become a top priority once it gets off the ground and the schedules for Hill and Stone clear. Fukunaga, Stone, and Hill will all executive produce the series with Anonymous Content’s Michael Sugar and Doug Wald.
So yeah, I think the Second Golden Age of Television is firmly here to stay, at least for the next few years.
