Not every sitcom ends with its audience furiously Googling, “Is The Rock running for president?” — and honestly, it’s hard to tell if one ever should.
While the answer remains inconclusive, the question hovers over “Young Rock” like the Ghost of Elections Yet to Come. NBC’s new sitcom tells Dwayne Johnson’s life story, and it frames that story around a fictional 2032 presidential race, in which the former professional wrestler, college football player, and action star has landed one party’s nomination for America’s highest office. In an effort to connect with the voters, with the people, Johnson gets real with reporters on the campaign trail and starts telling stories from his childhood.
Each tale (or two) frames an episode, which might focus on his adolescence in Hawaii, when a 10-year-old Rock (played by Adrian Groulx) idolized his pro wrestler father, Rocky (Joseph Lee Anderson), and abided by his mom,...
While the answer remains inconclusive, the question hovers over “Young Rock” like the Ghost of Elections Yet to Come. NBC’s new sitcom tells Dwayne Johnson’s life story, and it frames that story around a fictional 2032 presidential race, in which the former professional wrestler, college football player, and action star has landed one party’s nomination for America’s highest office. In an effort to connect with the voters, with the people, Johnson gets real with reporters on the campaign trail and starts telling stories from his childhood.
Each tale (or two) frames an episode, which might focus on his adolescence in Hawaii, when a 10-year-old Rock (played by Adrian Groulx) idolized his pro wrestler father, Rocky (Joseph Lee Anderson), and abided by his mom,...
- 2/16/2021
- by Ben Travers
- Indiewire
Nahnatchka Khan grew up watching wrestling legends like “The Iron Sheik” with her Iranian immigrant family on Saturday nights in the 1980s. Fast-forward to now, and the showrunner of NBC’s “Young Rock” is hoping you’ll sit down with your family and watch her adaptation of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s life on Tuesday nights.
Khan is in familiar territory, as she was also the creator and executive producer of ABC’s “Fresh Off the Boat,” another sitcom inspired by a real person. But, retelling and reimagining in a way that felt revealing for someone as well-known as “The Rock” was a unique challenge.
Ahead of the series premiere of “Young Rock,” Khan talks with Variety about those challenges, including writing and casting real-life icons.
What was the process like to sit with Dwayne and get his real-life stories to use in the script?
We had a bunch of...
Khan is in familiar territory, as she was also the creator and executive producer of ABC’s “Fresh Off the Boat,” another sitcom inspired by a real person. But, retelling and reimagining in a way that felt revealing for someone as well-known as “The Rock” was a unique challenge.
Ahead of the series premiere of “Young Rock,” Khan talks with Variety about those challenges, including writing and casting real-life icons.
What was the process like to sit with Dwayne and get his real-life stories to use in the script?
We had a bunch of...
- 2/15/2021
- by Mónica Marie Zorrilla
- Variety Film + TV
Several recently greenlit Fox comedy projects have casting directors under contract, Backstage has learned. The first, a project with the working title “Dads,” written by Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild and hailing from Seth MacFarland’s Fuzzy Dorr shingle, is being cast by Lisa Beach and Sarah Katzman. The project has received a strait-to-series order for six episodes. It centers on two successful 30-something roommates whose lives are upended when their dads move in with them. So far the only actor cast in the project is Brenda Song, who will play an assistant to the two protagonists. In addition to the new series, four pilots are also set to begin casting. Anya Colloff and Michael Nicolo of Cfb Casting will cast “Two Wrongs,” about a man who must convince his family that their hatred of his girlfriend isn't justified — despite the fact that she left him at the altar several years ago.
- 2/1/2013
- backstage.com
Five CBS pilots now have casting directors attached, Backstage has confirmed.The high-profile pilot for “Beverly Hills Cop,” an hour-long comedic action drama that continues the Eddie Murphy film franchise on TV, will be cast by Wendy Weidman and Rebecca Mangieri of Creative Casting. The project from “The Shield” creator Shawn Ryan stars Brandon T. Jackson as police officer Aaron Foley, the son of Murphy’s iconic character Axel Foley. Murphy is expected to make a cameo in the pilot to help launch the potential series. The shoot date and location are still to be determined, but the casting directors are based in L.A.Casting is also underway on four CBS comedy pilots. The first is “The McCarthys,” a single-camera comedy about a loud, tight-knit, sports-crazed Boston family, written by former Backstage “Comic to Watch” Brian Gallivan. Los Angeles-based casting directors Tim Payne and Lisa Ystrom, who also cast...
- 1/30/2013
- backstage.com
Two off-cycle network pilots have CDs attached Two off-cycle pilots ordered this development season now have Los Angeles-based casting directors attached. NBC's "After Hours," which focuses on a group of former Army doctors who find themselves reunited on the night shift at a Texas hospital, is set to be cast by Junie Lowry-Johnson and Libby Goldstein, of Junie Lowry-Johnson Casting. The drama, from writer/producer team Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah, starts shooting in November in Albuquerque. Meanwhile, ABC's "Trophy Wife" will be cast by Anya Colloff and Michael Nicolo, of Cfb Casting. The comedy features a former party girl (Malin Akerman) who falls in love with a charming older man (Bradley Whitford) and must learn to deal with his three manipulative kids and two ex-wives. Marcia Gay Harden is also set to star. It starts shooting in November. There have been four off-cycle pilots ordered by the networks this season,...
- 11/1/2012
- backstage.com
Two network series set to start taping this summer have found casting directors.After Susan Edelman cast the successful pilot, Jeff Greenberg has been brought in to cast the first season of ABC’s “How to Live With Your Parents for the Rest of Your Life,” Back Stage has learned. The half-hour comedy stars former “Scrubs” mainstay Sarah Chalke as Polly, an uptight recent divorcee who, because of the bad economy, moves in with her laidback parents played by Elizabeth Perkins (“Weeds”) and Brad Garrett (“Everybody Loves Ramond”).The series begins shooting in August and is set for a mid-season debut. Meanwhile, a new Fox comedy kept its casting director after the pilot was picked up. Anya Colloff, of Cfb Casting, was retained for the first season of “Ben and Kate.” The single-camera comedy stars Nat Faxon as Ben Fox, a shiftless man-child who moves in with his sister Kate,...
- 6/25/2012
- by help@backstage.com (Sean J. Miller)
- backstage.com
With some of the major networks' fall shows scheduled to go into production as soon as July, the process of hiring casting directors has begun in earnest. Due to their generally lower cost and smaller scale, the comedies tend to gear up first, and several CDs have already put pen to paper.Among those sticking with their pilots are Lisa Miller Katz, who will be casting "Don't Trust the Bitch at Apartment 23" for ABC (she's also doing the TBS comedy "Wedding Band," for which she also cast the pilot); Tim Payne and Lisa Ystrom, who are sticking with "Suburgatory" for ABC (good move, at least judging from the trailer); Koczara/Shevchenko, who are doing ABC's "Work It" (all two episodes of it before it gets canceled); Susie Farris, who has signed on to "Whitney" for NBC; Anya Colloff, who will cast CBS's "How to Be a Gentleman" sans former partner Amy.
- 6/13/2011
- by help@backstage.com (Pete Keeley)
- backstage.com
Casting director Amy Britt, who along with partner Anya Colloff cast one of Showtime's signature series, Weeds, has been tapped as the pay cable network's new head of casting. Britt, who has been named Svp Talent and Casting, succeeds Showtime's longtime head of casting Beth Klein, who is leaving at the end of this week. Based in Los Angeles, Britt will oversee casting for Showtime's's original series, reporting to entertainment president David Nevins. “I’ve known and admired Amy for many years now," Nevins said. "She has impeccable casting taste, a keen eye and a great sense of humor." Britt, who formed Cfb Casting with Colloff in 1998, has cast such series as Monk, Party Down, Childrens' Hospital and Hung. Her feature credits include Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story; An American Crime; Baadasssss!; Sundance standout The Chumscrubber; as well as the upcoming Bad Teacher starring Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake and Jason Segel.
- 4/15/2011
- by NELLIE ANDREEVA
- Deadline TV
PARK CITY -- There is nothing new under the creative sun in this slight satire of California suburbia. Fried dry with a mordant sensibility, "Chumscrubber" should skim some teenage appreciation from nouveau cineastes who might enjoy sendups of their environs, but more sophisticated and seasoned viewers will be less-than-dazzled by its puffy plottings.
If nothing else, "Chumscrubber" should be a front-runner for the worst title of the year award. What does the title mean? It's not worth explaining.
Set smack dab in one of those Golden State environs that seems a cross between "E.T". burgs and "Edward Scissorhands" blocks, "Chumscrubber" centers on Dean (Jamie Bell), a sullen loner who discovers his closest acquaintance hanging from the rafters of his pool house. Dean neglects to tell anyone that his neighbor has offed himself. His indifference is partly prompted by the fact that anything he says his to self-absorbed father (William Fichtner) crams into psychobabble best sellers. Not that anyone would listen to Dean anyway, because he is bereft of friends, and all the adults in the neighborhood are too daft or tranked to comprehend.
Screenwriter Zac Stanford's lightweight scenario revolves around drugs, spinning out around the dead kid's stash. A gang of three, who might in more Disney-esque times resemble the Apple Dumpling gang, kidnap a tyke who they think is the hanged-one's little brother. Their idea is to get dull Dean to retrieve the departed one's bag of pills. But, they get the wrong kid.
Nobody seems to notice the kid heist, which is, perhaps, the funniest part of this comedy. Most wickedly, the kidnapped child's mother (Rita Wilson) is too absorbed in the logistics of her upcoming wedding to miss him. Similarly, her fiance (Ralph Fiennes) is undergoing a California-style personal conversion, so he's too spaced to notice also.
Despite the tired narrative, there are some funny, dry moments as the varied goofballs of the burb go about their self-absorbed business. The cast, especially Wilson as the preoccupied mother, are the film's highlights. Additionally, Fichtner is wonderfully oily as a self-promoter, while Glenn Close's wide-eyed glaze as the dead boy's mother is amusingly wacko.
Overall, director Arie Posin's comic rendering is most effective in visualizing the lifestyle looniness, courtesy of the deadpan production design of Patti Podesta and the fractured compositions of cinematographer Lawrence Sher.
The Chumscrubber
Newmarket Films
A film by Arie Posin
Credits:
Producers: Lawrence Bender, Bonnie Curtis
Director: Arie Posin
Screenwriter: Zac Stanford
Story: Arie Posin, Zac Stanford
Co-producers: Lee Clay, Susanne Bohnet, Manfred D. Heid, Gerd Koechlin, Robert Katz
Line producer: Michael Beugg
Executive producers: Bob Yari, Joseph Lautenschlager, Philip Levenson, Michael Beugg, Andreas Thiesmeyer
Director of photrography: Lawrence Sher
Editors: William S. Scharf, Arthur Schmidt
Music: James Horner
Music supervisor: Chris Douridas
Production designer: Patti Podesta
Casting: Anya Colloff, Amy McIntyre Britt
Cast:
Dean: Jamie Bell
Mrs. Johnson: Glenn Close
Charlie Stiffle: Rory Culkin
Dr. Bill Stiffle: William Fichtner
Michael Ebbs: Ralph Fiennes
Officer Lou Bratley: John Heard
Boutique owner: Lauren Holly
Terri Bratley: Rita Wilson
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 102 minutes...
If nothing else, "Chumscrubber" should be a front-runner for the worst title of the year award. What does the title mean? It's not worth explaining.
Set smack dab in one of those Golden State environs that seems a cross between "E.T". burgs and "Edward Scissorhands" blocks, "Chumscrubber" centers on Dean (Jamie Bell), a sullen loner who discovers his closest acquaintance hanging from the rafters of his pool house. Dean neglects to tell anyone that his neighbor has offed himself. His indifference is partly prompted by the fact that anything he says his to self-absorbed father (William Fichtner) crams into psychobabble best sellers. Not that anyone would listen to Dean anyway, because he is bereft of friends, and all the adults in the neighborhood are too daft or tranked to comprehend.
Screenwriter Zac Stanford's lightweight scenario revolves around drugs, spinning out around the dead kid's stash. A gang of three, who might in more Disney-esque times resemble the Apple Dumpling gang, kidnap a tyke who they think is the hanged-one's little brother. Their idea is to get dull Dean to retrieve the departed one's bag of pills. But, they get the wrong kid.
Nobody seems to notice the kid heist, which is, perhaps, the funniest part of this comedy. Most wickedly, the kidnapped child's mother (Rita Wilson) is too absorbed in the logistics of her upcoming wedding to miss him. Similarly, her fiance (Ralph Fiennes) is undergoing a California-style personal conversion, so he's too spaced to notice also.
Despite the tired narrative, there are some funny, dry moments as the varied goofballs of the burb go about their self-absorbed business. The cast, especially Wilson as the preoccupied mother, are the film's highlights. Additionally, Fichtner is wonderfully oily as a self-promoter, while Glenn Close's wide-eyed glaze as the dead boy's mother is amusingly wacko.
Overall, director Arie Posin's comic rendering is most effective in visualizing the lifestyle looniness, courtesy of the deadpan production design of Patti Podesta and the fractured compositions of cinematographer Lawrence Sher.
The Chumscrubber
Newmarket Films
A film by Arie Posin
Credits:
Producers: Lawrence Bender, Bonnie Curtis
Director: Arie Posin
Screenwriter: Zac Stanford
Story: Arie Posin, Zac Stanford
Co-producers: Lee Clay, Susanne Bohnet, Manfred D. Heid, Gerd Koechlin, Robert Katz
Line producer: Michael Beugg
Executive producers: Bob Yari, Joseph Lautenschlager, Philip Levenson, Michael Beugg, Andreas Thiesmeyer
Director of photrography: Lawrence Sher
Editors: William S. Scharf, Arthur Schmidt
Music: James Horner
Music supervisor: Chris Douridas
Production designer: Patti Podesta
Casting: Anya Colloff, Amy McIntyre Britt
Cast:
Dean: Jamie Bell
Mrs. Johnson: Glenn Close
Charlie Stiffle: Rory Culkin
Dr. Bill Stiffle: William Fichtner
Michael Ebbs: Ralph Fiennes
Officer Lou Bratley: John Heard
Boutique owner: Lauren Holly
Terri Bratley: Rita Wilson
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 102 minutes...
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