Here’s a succession of really pleasant words for you. Jacki Weaver – Australian darling and much beloved actor – is making the leap from film to TV in the US, with the news today that she has signed on to star alongside Patrick Stewart in a new sitcom being produced by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane. Commence frothing.
Weaver is the latest addition to the cast of the upcoming series Blunt Talk, centring around an iconic British newscaster who is brought across to America to front his own show on a cable news network. Though the series itself isn’t directly based on Piers Morgan and his show on CNN, the parallels are obvious.
Stewart will be filling the lead role of British newsman Walter Blunt, whilst Weaver’s character will be his producer, Rosalie Winter – described as being “tough and motherly” – or, to put it another way, more or less every character Weaver’s played since her breakthrough role in Animal Kingdom.
Now, a lot of you might be at least a little bit perturbed by the inclusion of Seth MacFarlane into the mix. And if that’s the case, this next little nugget will settle your worries. The series is merely being executive produced by MacFarlane and his production company Fuzzy Door. The series is the brainchild of Jonathan Ames, who is serving as the show’s creator, producer and chief writer. If that name sounds familiar, it’s with good reason. Ames previously created the absolutely excellent – but all-too-short-lived – series Bored to Death, which starred Jason Schwartzman, Ted Danson and Zach Galifianakis. If you haven’t seen Bored to Death, good god drop everything you’re doing and seek it out immediately.
US cable network Starz has already ordered two ten-episode seasons of the show, bringing the total order to twenty episodes, which is as good a sign as any that someone with money and power thinks the show is quality.
Whilst you shouldn’t expect to see it hit any TV screens – be it home or abroad – until 2015, I feel strongly that now is the time to begin getting unreasonably keen for this one.
Photo: Mike Windle via Getty Images.
via SMH.
