It appears that filmmaker Cameron Crowe is ready to take the plunge into television.  The Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous director is apparently developing an ensemble comedy series for Showtime called Roadies, which will be set during a U.S. rock tour.  J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot is poised to produce the potential series.  Further details are unknown at this time, but Crowe intends to direct the pilot sometime this year, marking his first foray into the TV world.  The logline sounds a bit like "Almost Famous: The Series", which is kind of great.  Before moving into the film world, Crowe worked as a music journalist for Rolling Stone throughout the 1970s.  That served as his inspiration for Almost Famous, and one imagines he still has plenty of personal stories to mine for a cable TV show.

Hit the jump for more, including who will act as showrunner on Roadies.

The news of Crowe’s potential Showtime series was first reported by NikkiFinke.com, who also notes that Winnie Holzman will be the showrunner of Roadies should Showtime order it to series.  Holzman created the short-lived but beloved TV series My So-Called Life in the mid-90s, and also acted as a writer on thirtysomething and Once and Again, so Crowe has a partner well-versed in the world of television.

Crowe most recently directed an untitled romantic comedy starring Bradley Cooper and Emma Stone, which is slated for release this Christmas.  He took a bit of a break following the 2005 feature Elizabethtown, and while his 2011 return We Bought a Zoo was a bit of a minor entry in his oeuvre, the pic was refreshingly earnest.  I’m certainly curious to see how this new untitled feature shapes up, but the prospect of seeing Crowe turn his rock stories into a pay cable TV series is incredibly exciting.  Hopefully we hear more soon.