In a surprising move, Oscar winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman has agreed to star in a Showtime comedy pilot called Trending Down.
The news comes just before the cable channel’s presentation at the Television Critics Association Press Tour on Tuesday. According to The Hollywood Reporter, it is expected that Showtime will make the official announcement during the panel.
Entertainment Weekly reports that Hoffman will also executive produce the pilot. He’ll star as Thom Payne, a man trying to make it in his advertising agency, even though he’s not needed after it was taken over. Showtime calls the pilot “a blistering attack on our youth-obsessed culture, and a darkly comic examination of what it means to matter. Or matter not.”
The series was created by This American Life contributor Shalom Auslander, who will also write the pilot. Emily Ziff will produce under Hoffman’s Cooper's Town Productions banner, along with Alexandra Beattie and Ken Kwapis.
Parks and Recreation actress Kathryn Hahn has snagged the lead female role in the pilot, playing Thom’s wife.
Showtime has two other pilots in the works - The Vatican and The Affair. Its other original programming includes Ray Donovan, Homeland and the upcoming shows Masters of Sex and Penny Dreadful.
Hoffman won his Oscar for Capote and starred in The Master last year. He stars in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire this year.
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