Fox loves a good outlandish project, but if you throw in the likes of Phil Lord, Chris Miller and Jason Sudeikis, it seems like an even surer thing. This week, we learned that Sudeikis, along with Suburgatory’s Cheryl Hines and Marry Me’s Tim Meadows, has signed on for Son of Zorn (which used to be called Son of Zahn). It's a weirdo crossbreed of an animated and live-action comedy project that was conceived by the two dudes who made The Lego Movie. Never was Charlie Sheen’s #winning hashtag so apt.
Here’s the wild basic premise for the comedy project. Son of Zorn will follow an animated fantasy warrior who meets his estranged wife and kid after many years. His wife and kid are different than him, because they are live-action rather than animated. In fact, much of the warrior’s world is live-action, including his boring office job and his life in the suburbs. Apparently, Zorn and his homeland are animated.
Sudeikis has nabbed the lead in the project, and will play the animated Zorn. His live-action son will be played by the formerly announced Johnny Pemberton and Hines will play Zorn’s live-action ex, Edie. Deadline reports Artemis Pebdani will play Edie’s mother. So, where does this leave the always-awesome Tim Meadows? He gets to play Edie’s brand new boyfriend. Hopefully that will equate to more Tim Meadows than less Tim Meadows, as more Meadows is always better.
It’s probably a little early to be wondering how much screen time Meadows we’ll be getting. The project has already wrapped production to try to sell to Fox, but nothing has been greenlighted, yet. Which means that even if the comedy does get a series order on network TV, it could be quite a while before we hear more about it.
Regardless, Lord and Miller do have a pretty good TV track record with Fox. Last season, they signed on for The Last Man on Earth, a new fully live-action comedy that stars Will Forte as one of the last individuals living on earth after disaster strikes. The series was critically acclaimed and did well enough in the ratings that it landed a second season order. And although Fox’s Sunday night lineup is pretty solid right now, usually Fox has room for one more in its Sunday Funday block, not to mention the rest of its schedule.
Currently, Reed Agnew and Eli Jorne are the showrunners on Son of Zorn. Phil Lord, Chris Miller and Last Man on Earth’s Seth Cohen are executive producing and Eric Appel is directing. We’ll let you know if Son of Zorn moves forward, but in the meantime, you can check out what’s happening on TV this fall.
