There are a ton of impressive TV projects in development out there, but few have my eyes (and ears) perked as much as Cameron Crowe’s upcoming HBO comedy, which sounds like it could be a spiritual successor to Almost Famous. Roadies, currently in the pilot stage, now has a talented new cast member entering the fray, as Mad Men star Christina Hendricks is joining Luke Wilson and the rest of the previously announced cast.
Roadies’ plot is not an outlandish one, as it takes place during a huge rock tour, only from the points-of-view of the guys who get things up and running behind the scenes. Hendricks will be playing the band’s production manager Shelli. (You can always tell the quality of a person by whether an “I” or a “y” is at the end of the name.) She’s kind of a hardcore gal that deals with her problems privately rather than publically, and she also excels at her job. Which is good, since she’s doing it all the time. I can easily picture Hendricks putting the kibosh on many an ill-advised band member’s ideas for Party Time.
For Roadies, Wilson will play the sleepless tour manager Bill, who is working through five years of sobriety, and will be partnered up with Shelli in keeping the band in line. Imogen Poots (Need for Speed) will play Kelly Ann, a bubbly and personable electrical tech, while Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider) is set to play the outspoken sound mixer. For a guitar tech, the show has Peter Cambor (NCIS: Los Angeles), whose charm is as sizeable as his grunginess. Rounding out this talented squad is Rafe Spall (Prometheus), who will play a wealthy financial advisor who tags along for the tour to keep the budget intact, regardless of the gaps in his musical knowledge.
Cameron Crowe has written the pilot for Roadies and is set to direct it as well. J.J. Abrams is also on board as an executive producer through Bad Robot, along with My So-Called Life creator Winnie Holzman. This is obviously an all-star bunch on both sides of the camera.
Hendricks, who is set to return to Mad Men in 2015, can be seen in recent features such as John Slattery’s crime drama God’s Pocket and Ryan Gosling’s fantastical directorial debut Lost River. She’ll be seen next year on the big screen in Gilles Paquet-Brenner’s adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s Dark Places, as well as Campbell Scott’s revolutionary drama A Book of Common Prayer.
Roadies is set to go into production on its one-hour HBO pilot in early 2015 in Vancouver. Somebody get Patrick Fugit involved, stat.
