HBO has long become a bastion for two things: helping you watch that one movie you never bothered with when it was at the movies but will do for those nights you can't fall asleep and high quality, original programming. The latter could well get a bump should the Home Box Office network purchase a show from director Jay Roach and actress Annette Bening.
Deadline reports that the duo are working on a comedy pilot called The Third Coast, written by playwright and screenwriter Paul Rudnick, who most recently penned The Stepford Wives but before that makes you dismiss him out of hand he also wrote In & Out and the Obie-winning play Jeffrey. The show will revolve around Bening as a "larger-than-life casting director" living in New Mexico. While no other plot points were revealed, the show's title and character profession suggest that The Third Coast will capitalize on the recent glut of films and TV shows that have moved to the area in order to take advantage of the state's tax breaks. It's possible that Bening's character will work on local productions, but it's also possible that the show could feature frequent celebrity cameos. At best, the show could have a Life's Too Short or Curb Your Enthusiasm vibe, or, at worst, be Jiminy Glick (or maybe we're reading too much into the "larger-than-life" description).
While Roach and Bening have yet to formally bring the show to HBO, the network is considered the presumptive home should the show go to series. Both Roach and Bening have great relationships with HBO, with Roach getting Emmys for his work helming the HBO original movies Recount and Game Change, while Bening earned an Emmy nod for her work in the 2005 HBO movie Mrs. Harris. The next step for Bening and the producers is to do an informal reading of the show so they have a better feel for it before taking it to the network.
Bening has been transitioning from dramas to comedy-dramas for the past few years since appearing in 2010's The Kids Are All Right, and it's likely that The Third Coast will have a similar tone to HBO's recently-canceled Enlightened. The wildcard here is Roach, an Albuquerque native, who started out in broader comedies like the Austin Powers movies before settling into more relationship-based work in Meet the Parents and, most recently, Dinner For Schmucks. Considering his resume, The Third Coast could either be a home run or a total disaster. Either way, with Bening on board, you have our attention. Now, here's hoping HBO will bite.
