Two Canadian comedians/actors have had their pilot picked up by Comedy Central. Nicolas Wright and James A. Woods will star in Almost Vacant, a series which the two co-created. Not that it needs to be said considering the network, but the series is a comedy, and follows a couple of slackers working in a cheap hotel.
Deadline reports that the network known for low-brow comedies gave the pilot the green light today. The series takes place in upper New York, in a small-budget hotel where two friends, Jim and Nic (obviously taken from the star’s names), allegedly work but do their best to avoid actually doing anything. The cast will include several other co-workers and friends of the duo, who will create plenty of chaos and laughs.
Wright and Woods worked together on Hatley High, a 2003 film that took Best screenplay and Best Director awards at the 2005 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. Wright has done some work on U.S. television, appearing in the CBS comedy Accidentally on Purpose, and won an award for a short film at the well known Just For Laughs festival in Montreal.
Canadian comedians have a long history of making it big in the U.S. film and television industry, and these two certainly have promise. Of course, Comedy Central also has a long history of giving the greenlight to some really awful series, so it’s a toss-up as to whether this will be some of the network’s so-bad-it’s-good fare or something that will turn out to be just plain bad.
