In the first Charlie Sheen news since he agreed to be roasted on Comedy Central, Lionsgate has announced that Sheen will be starring in their new sitcom, Anger Management. The sitcom will be based on the 2003 film by the same name. Charlie Sheen will be playing a role similar to that played by Jack Nicholson in the film -- an anger-management therapist with anger issues. One of the film version's producers, Joe Roth, who has worked with Sheen several times in the past for the big screen, will be teaming up with Sheen again for the new sitcom, something both men have expressed excitement about.
Another particularly noteworthy detail for the show that is otherwise still network-less and writer-less is that Sheen will have a "significant ownership stake" in the show. The Lionsgate subsidiary, Debmar-Mercury, which will be a distributor of the show, is known for developing and using this model. TBS looks like a potential network candidate for the show: they've worked with Debmar-Mercury and Joe Roth in the past. They also, until recently, held the off-network rights to Two and a Half Men.
While Sheen may be a volatile personality to have involved with any project, his personal stake in the show and, most importantly, the massive amounts of instant attention he brings to anything he touches these days tells me that Lionsgate won't have much trouble finding writers and a network. In fact, the press release made a point of bringing this up, mentioning that Sheen set a Guinness World Record for the rate at which he was gaining Twitter followers after his infamous interview with ABC, which was more than a hundred-thousand followers per day. The release also mentioned that the rate at which his nationwide tour sold out set a Ticketmaster record. Things have undoubtedly settled down since these records were set, but it's likely that Charlie Sheen is still way too hot for many networks to pass on.
