At this year’s Television Critics Association Summer press tour, Showtime unveiled one of the most interesting-sounding projects the network has attached itself to in years. (R.I.P. Chew.) They announced they’ll be backing a pilot for an older generation coming-of-age series called Trending Down, which has attracted some major talent in Philip Seymour Hoffman and Kathryn Hahn.
Via ComingSoon, Trending Down is a darkly comedic drama created by essayist and This American Life contributor Shalom Auslander, who also wrote the pilot. The project was developed by Ken Kwapis (He’s Just Not That Into You), who will executive produce with Auslander. Helming this first episode will be actor/writer/director John Cameron Mitchell, responsible for the vastly different films Hedwig and the Angry Itch, Shortbus and Rabbit Hole. Nearly everybody attached to this project looks like they’ll make it a winner. It’ll just take a really good plotline to bring it over the edge, and it sounds as if that’ll be the case.
Hoffman will star as Thom Payne, a man forced to reconcile with his disappearing youth after his ad agency is taken over any another company and the youth culture that he helped create is quickly passing him by. Hahn will be playing his hopefully understanding wife Lee. Thom has a new boss, a prescription for erectile dysfunction pills and a biological clock that he needs to reset in order to coincide with the world around him. It’s said best in the show’s description itself: “Because in a world where any Kardashian is trending up, perhaps the wise among us would heartily embrace trending down.” Granted, a title like Trending Down sounds a little too modern and non-timeless, but I expect Auslander’s dark point of view to make this show as wittily biting as it is introspective.
"We are taking a markedly unconventional approach to process and content - a cross between the BBC series model and a theater workshop. And a meth lab," Auslander explained. "I wasn't particularly interested in doing TV, and fortunately, neither was Phil. When Showtime said they weren't either, we knew we had something. We don't know what that is, but at least we know what it isn't." And we’ll be watching, except when we aren’t watching.
Hoffman’s career is just as strong as it’s ever been. Following last year’s Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, he’s got a busy upcoming schedule with the highly anticipated The Hunger Games: Catching Fire coming out this November. He’s also got a trio of thrilling dramas coming up, including Child 44, God’s Pocket and A Most Wanted Man.
Hahn is no less busy with Rawson Marshall Thurber’s We’re the Millers hitting theaters next week, and the adaptations of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and This is Where I Leave You on the way next year.
The Trending Down pilot is set to begin production this fall on the East Coast.
