Michael Showalter News

According to TechCrunch, the upcoming film The Lovebirds will head straight to Netflix instead of being shown in cinemas.

Gravitas Ventures, a Red Arrow Studios company, has announced IT STARTED AS A JOKE will be released on-demand on Friday, April 3. The feature documentary chronicles the decade-long run of the EUGENE MIRMAN COMEDY FESTIVAL including the final farewell show. Packed with stars and offering an intimate look at the New York comedy scene, It Started As A Joke celebrates Eugene's unique brand of humor and his role in the alternative comedy movement. Heartfelt and hilarious, the doc offers a bittersweet goodbye to an era and reminds us of the healing properties of comedy – even in the most challenging of life's circumstances.

Three-time Emmy nominee Molly Shannon (The Other Two) has signed on to star in the half-hour comedy pilot BIG DEAL, starring and executive produced by Emmy nominee Vanessa Bayer (Saturday Night Live). If the project is picked up to series, Shannon would appear as a series regular. Bayer co-created BIG DEAL with Emmy nominee Jeremy Beiler (Saturday Night Live, Inside Amy Schumer), who will also executive produce. Emmy winner Jessi Klein (Inside Amy Schumer, BLACK MONDAY, Big Mouth) will serve as showrunner and executive produce along with Michael Showalter (The Big Sick, Wet Hot American Summer, The Lovebirds), who will direct, as well as Annapurna's Megan Ellison and Sue Naegle and Jordana Mollick of Semi-Formal.

At the Television Critics' Association (TCA) Press Tour, AMC Networks and AMC Studios announced a partial list of current projects in development. The broad slate, which includes potential AMC Studios series being developed for the company's Entertainment Group and also projects being developed for potential sale to other content companies, reflects fresh ideas and strong voices from creators and talent including Scott Z. Burns, Katie Couric, Owen and Stephen King, Megan Mostyn Brown, Armadu Garba, Eliza Clark, Mark Johnson, Zack Whedon, Scott Gold, Ilana Glazer, T Bone Burnett and many others.

Straight from the renowned New York stand-up scene via winning Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019, American sensation Catherine Cohen is back on UK soil with her hilarious show about living, laughing, loving, and losing your debit card five times in one year a?" for two nights only at London's Bush Hall on 11th and 12th March 2020.

SHOWTIME has announced a pilot order for the half-hour comedy series BIG DEAL, starring and executive produced by Emmy nominee Vanessa Bayer (Saturday Night Live). Bayer co-created the project with Emmy nominee Jeremy Beiler (Saturday Night Live), who will also executive produce. Emmy winner Jessi Klein (Inside Amy Schumer, BLACK MONDAY, Big Mouth) will serve as showrunner and executive produce along with Michael Showalter (The Big Sick, Wet Hot American Summer), who will direct. Annapurna's Megan Ellison and Sue Naegle will also executive produce. The announcement was made today by Gary Levine and Jana Winograde, Presidents of Entertainment, Showtime Networks Inc.

 Fox Searchlight Pictures announced today that principal photography on THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE is underway in Charlotte, North Carolina. The film is written by Abe Sylvia (Dead to Me, DIRTY GIRL) and directed by Michael Showalter (THE BIG SICK; HELLO, MY NAME IS DORIS), and stars Jessica Chastain (MOLLY'S GAME, ZERO DARK THIRTY) and Andrew Garfield (HACKSAW RIDGE, SILENCE). The film is based on Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato's acclaimed 2000 documentary of the same name chronicling the dynamic ascent and subsequent demise and redemption of televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker as described by Tammy Faye herself.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, actress Cherry Jones has joined the upcoming Tammy Faye Bakker biopic. The film also stars Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield.

FX today announced the cast that will star in the pilot for Gone Hollywood. Set in 1980, Gone Hollywood centers on a group of talent agents who defect from an old-guard percentery to found their own, which skyrockets to industry dominance, disrupting the business and changing movies forever. The show will mix its fictional protagonists with real-life entertainment figures and events.

Andrew Garfield and Jessica Chastain are set to star in Fox Searchlight's "The Eyes of Tammy Faye," according to Variety. "The Big Sick" director Michael Showalter will helm the film from a script by Abe Sylvia.