While Michael C. Hall is headed in the direction of the unproduced Stanley Kubrick screenplay God Fearing Man, his Dexter co-star Jennifer Carpenter is headed to the other side of the world for her next project. (At least, a set that’s presented to look as if it’s on the other side of the world.) Carpenter has signed on for USA’s hour-long political drama Stanistan, which was given a pilot order back in May.
Stanistan will take place in the Middle Eastern country of the same name, “where State Department workers, covert CIA officers and journalists strike a delicate balance of danger and levity,” according to Deadline. Sounds like the kegs are going to be in a perma-tapped state in Stanistan, where the wit is more present than street dust, am I right?
Carpenter will play Marcie Post, a Public Affairs Officer and daughter of a highly respected diplomat. Her job becomes spinning all of the U.S. government’s activity in the country, which I’m sure makes her everyone’s best friend from the very beginning. The Middle Eastern setting and politically-tinged subject matter bring to mind series like Showtime’s Homeland and FX’s Tyrant, but the whole “public relations” angle makes me wonder if this will be a more tabloid-ish affair. All that levity has to go somewhere.
Coming from Universal Cable Productions, the same company behind Suits and Satisfaction, Stanistan was written by Andy Parker, who will serve as supervising producer alongside executive producer Steve Scheffer. It’s one of several pilots currently vying for places in USA’s primetime schedule, along with Carlton Cuse’s alien drama Colony and the computer hacking drama Mr. Robot. Given how little attention the network gives to genre shows, I’m betting Stanistan is the only one that makes it to air out of this group.
Carpenter spent eight seasons as Debra Morgan, and tried to get right back into TV after that awful finale with the murderous ABC pilot Sea of Fire. That pilot never went anywhere, obviously. We’re guessing it’s because Carpenter couldn’t pull out her key performance talent: dropping mad F-bombs, as the video below shows.
Carpenter then landed a role in Christian E. Christiansen’s religious thriller Where the Devil Hides, which is set to come out this year at some point. She’ll also be voicing one of the characters in the highly anticipated horror video game The Evil Within from Shinji Mikami, the creator of the Resident Evil series. Will we ever see a Stanistan video game? Probably not, but we’ll keep you posted on it regardless.
