Another face fresh off the Oscar stage has been cast in a comedy pilot at Fox. Nat Faxon, who walked away with a gold statue for his co-writing credit on The Descendants has just been handed the role of the Ned Fox himself in the pilot for Ned Fox is My Manny - he would have been playing Ben Fox, but the name has been changed to Ned, reason unknown.
Faxon is still basking in the glory of a his Oscar win but it seems he’s willing to set the little guy on the mantle and move on to his next gig. Deadline says he came on board for the project today. He will join Missi Pyle over at Fox – she also shared the Oscar glow this past Sunday as one of the cast of Best Picture winner The Artist - since she was cast in another comedy pilot there, Prodigy Bully. Faxon isn’t a new face around Fox. He starred in Happy Hour, a comedy that didn’t quite make the grade.
Ned Fox is my Manny will also star Lucy Punch, who recently starred in Bad Teacher with Cameron Diaz. The plot follows a woman who is struggling with single motherhood and whose brother moves in to help her with the job of raising her daughter. It sounds like a personality clash of classic sitcom proportions, with the sister being “uptight” and brother Ned quite the opposite. I can’t say I would ever use the term “manny” for my brother, but then again, I wouldn’t use the term at all.
