When you’re sharing the screen with the formidable Sir Patrick Stewart, you’d better be up to the challenge. Fortunately, Jacki Weaver has the chutzpah for such a task, and she’ll be his co-lead on the upcoming Starz comedy Blunt Talk, created by Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy) and Jonathan Ames (Bored to Death). Who said all the good parts go to young people?
Blunt Talk centers on Stewart’s Walter Blunt, a British expat who is dead set on becoming a superstar in the American cable news community. Stopping him from doing so is a steady reliance on alcohol, which inspires his less-than-ideal decision-making skills, both on his show and in his daily life. A drunken Patrick Stewart is definitely what TV is lacking these days.
According to Deadline, Weaver will play Blunt’s longtime manager Rosalie Winter, who treats her client like a son, but with a no-bullshit attitude, and plays a big part in forming his Blunt Talk news series. It’s worth noting that in the 20 years that she’s been his manager, there was one time when the two of them knocked boots for an evening. Expect that to get played for laughs.
Joining the Australian actress is The King’s Speech and Edge of Heaven star Adrian Scarborough. The British actor will play Harry Chandler, Walter’s manservant who is said to rival him in debauchery. While Bored to Death had its moments of filth, MacFarlane’s influence on this show is presumably going to take things to some particularly dark and explicit places.
Weaver has been a star of the stage and screen for over 40 years, but has had a fairly prolific resurgence in film and TV in the past few years, earning Oscar nominations for her roles in 2010’s Animal Kingdom and 2012’s Silver Linings Playbook. She stars in Marjane Satrapi’s upcoming horror comedy The Voices with Ryan Reynolds, and Alan White’s thriller Reclaim with John Cusack. She’s currently filming the Drake Doremus’ sci-fi drama Equals with Kristen Stewart and Guy Pearce. Next up, however, she can be seen on Fox’s upcoming murder drama Gracepoint, an adaptation of the critically acclaimed British series Broadchurch.
In a rare move for a cable network, Starz initially gave Blunt Talk an order for two seasons, meaning we’ll be seeing at least 20 episodes of Stewart and Weaver’s companionship. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait until some point in 2015 for the first season to begin. I might just have a drink in the meantime.
