Jeff Daniels Joins Aaron Sorkin’s Cable News Centric Drama Series at HBO

Back in January we learned that writer Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network, A Few Good Men) was behind a brand new drama series. After taking us behind the curtain of a late night sketch series in Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, the White House in The West Wing and cable sports news in Sports Night, the writer is taking us behind the scenes of cable news for HBO and Variety says Jeff Daniels is coming with him. The actor is currently in negotiations for the lead role in series that will have him playing the host of his own show (not unlike Kieth Olbermann or Bill O’Reilly) who is very difficult to deal with from the network perspective.

Daniels is quite a versatile actor from his slapstick antics in Dumb & Dumber to quirky drama in The Squid and the Whale, but one of my personal favorites is his turn as a naive diner employee who wants nothing more than to paint with beautiful colors in the black and white world falling apart around him in Pleasantville. Surely more casting for this promising new series is on the way, so stay tuned.