While cinematic spoofs took a complete nosedive into awfulness once Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg rose to fame, the comedic sub-genre is alive and well on TV. With the IFC miniseries Spoils of Babylon, creators Matt Piedmont and Andrew Steele (Funny or Die) put forth one of the most pitch-perfect television series I’ve ever seen, perfectly aping the bloated novel-adapting productions of the 1970s and 1980s. Fans will be extremely jazzed to hear that IFC is reteaming with Piedmont, Steele and executive producers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay for another tale lifted from the words of (faux) bestselling novelist Eric Jonrosh (Ferrell). Get ready for The Spoils Before Dying!
While this is a follow-up series, it’s in no way a direct sequel, and followers of the Morehead family and their tawdry history will just have to make do. As Deadline reports, The Spoils Before Dying will be “based on” Jonrosh’s first bestselling novel of the same name, which centers on “a 1950s jazz pianist-turned-private eye, who becomes embroiled in a murder investigation." While I loved the first series, I can’t deny that kind of sprawling storytelling isn’t something I’m too fond of; but these guys taking on the detective noir genre could make for one of the greatest TV projects of my lifetime.
One of Spoils of Babylon’s biggest draws, of course, was its supersized cast of actors. Beyond Ferrell, the series starred Tobey McGuire, Kristen Wiig, Jessica Alba, Tim Robbins, Val Kilmer, Steve Tom, Haley Joel Osment and many more. The latter proved himself to be quite the comedic foil as Wiig’s dastardly son. Steele and Piedmont are reportedly going to incorporate an entirely new star-studded lineup for The Spoils Before Dying, but it’s hard to imagine Ferrell being the only actor who returns. More Kilmer! More Robbins!
As you might have guessed, everyone involved had their own amusing comment to make about IFC bringing the project back to airwaves. Piedmont, who will return to the director chair, humorously claims “television audiences haven’t clamored this much for a second season since After M*A*S*H, while McKay said “The first Spoils miniseries beat the NFL and Big Bang Theory in ratings (adults: ages 74-92) and changed the way Americans talk, think and prepare meat.”
Expect to find The Spoils Before Dying when it returns to IFC in the summer of 2015.
