If someone had asked me a couple of weeks ago what Rolling Stone Magazine and subscription cable network Showtime have in common, I don’t think I could have gotten much farther than guessing a rather large subscription base. This week, however, the two companies have revealed they are teaming up for a TV project that could be heading to Showtime. The project doesn’t have a name yet, but it does seem to have an interesting premise.
The currently untitled project is described as a documentary series that would be pop-culture oriented and would make use of various Rolling Stone articles that have been written over the years. As WWD is noting, Gus Wenner, Banks Tarver and Ken Druckermann are all set to be executive producers on the project, which is being conceived as a half-hour series on Showtime. It’s not really clear what the project will entail other than it will be a docuseries making use of Rolling Stone’s content, which is odd enough in itself. Currently, Showtime has only ordered a pilot for the outside-the-box project, but we’ll presumably be hearing more about whether or not it is actually workable for TV in the coming months.
Rolling Stone Magazine may not be as popular as it once was, but it does have a major component still going for it: the magazine’s incredible backlog of informative articles related to the music scene and current events between 1967 and the present. Obviously, everyone is staying hush hush about whether this would be a docuseries of a historical nature or whether it would focus on some of the controversial topics Rolling Stone is tackling today, including the outlet’s recent interview between Sean Penn and drug lord El Chapo. The pop culture aspect makes it seem like it could be the latter, in which case this program might be able to be directly compared to something like HBO’s Vice, which also airs in a half-hour format. It’s really too early to tell.
Obviously, there are a lot of programs in the works at various networks right now and many of them will not move forward to series. What the untitled Rolling Stone project should theoretically have going for it is that it should be very cheap to produce. I’m not saying Showtime is a cheapo, but there’s a reason lower budget programs can find a home for a long time.
Showtime has a lot of other projects in some stage of development including a 1980s comedy from Alan Cumming and something coming from Common. In addition, there's Cameron Crowe’s upcoming series Roadies, which has actually been ordered, plus Twin Peaks. Jim Carrey's also looking to come back to executive produce new project I'm Dying Up Here at the network. We'll let you know as new stuff keeps coming to the subscription cable network.
