Chris O’Dowd, Rosamund Pike.
SundanceTV in the US has ordered State of the Union, a short-form comedy from See-Saw Films, which will star Rosamund Pike and Chris O’Dowd.
Stephen Frears (A Very English Scandal, Philomena) will direct the 10 x 10’ series written by Nick Hornby, which will shoot in London in the northern summer.
Pike (Hostiles, Gone Girl) and O’Dowd (Molly’s Game, Bridesmaids), will play a couple who meet in a pub immediately before their weekly marital therapy session. With each episode the show pieces together how their lives were, what drew them together and what has started to pull them apart.
Amy Jackson will produce with See-Saw’s chief operating officer, television, Hakan Kousetta and head of TV Jamie Laurenson and Jan Diedrichsen, general manager of SundanceTV and Sundance Now among the executive producers.
This is Hornby’s second project for See-Saw following Love, Nina, a 2016 BBC comedy-drama adapted from Nina Stibbe’s memoir of that title. Set in 1982, the series followed Nina (Faye Marsay), a 20-year-old from Leicester who moves to London to work as a nanny for single mother George (Helena Bonham Carter).
It was based on Stibbe’s experiences of working in the household of Mary-Kay Wilmers, editor of the London Review of Books, who had two children with Frears.
Hornby said: “I am so pleased to be working again with Stephen, Rosamund and Chris. I first met Stephen when he directed High Fidelity [based on Hornby’s book], Rosamund when she revealed her wonderful comic talent in An Education, and Chris when he made the forthcoming Juliet, Naked, and I think they will make a tremendous team.
“State of the Union is an unusual project so it’s all the more gratifying that we have managed to attract talent of this magnitude.”
Kousetta and Laurenson added: “The short form series has given Nick the freedom to explore a marriage in crisis which manages to be both funny and touching in equal measure. Realised by such amazing on- and off-screen talent, we couldn’t be more excited to see these scripts brought to life.”
Directed by Jesse Peretz and based on Hornby’s novel, Juliet, Naked follows the unlikely romance between Annie (Rose Byrne) and singer-songwriter Tucker Crowe (Ethan Hawke), who is also the subject of her boyfriend Duncan’s (O’Dowd) long-time music obsession.
Endeavor Content is handling international sales on State of the Union. There is no word yet on an Australian sale.