Deadline reports that Ben Stiller is set to star in The Band, an hourlong dramedy series in development at HBO. Although Stiller has made plenty of small screen appearances over the years, this would be his first regular role in a TV series since The Ben Stiller Show in the ’90s. He also played the recurring role of Tony Wonder on Arrested Development and himself on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
The Band has been created by Sarah Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers, co-creators of Search Party. The series “offers an inside look at the music industry centered on Oscar (Stiller), a pop impresario and talent mogul beset by scandal who is tasked with forming a new act in order to save his career – and perhaps his soul.” The new act will be a boy band, with Stiller’s character sharing a few similarities with Simon Cowell.
These days, Stiller’s most well-known contributions to television are behind-the-scenes, executive producing and directing Apple TV+’s acclaimed sci-fi thriller series, Severance. The series stars Adam Scott as Mark Scout, who leads a team at Lumon Industries “whose employees have undergone a severance procedure, which surgically divides their memories between their work and personal lives. This daring experiment in ‘work-life balance’ is called into question as Mark finds himself at the center of an unraveling mystery that will force him to confront the true nature of his work… and of himself.”
The second season debuted last month on the streaming service, and from the sounds of things, it’s just as good, if not better, than the first. Our own Alex Maidy was full of praise in his review, “The second season of Severance does not disappoint and achieves the rare feat of improving upon the debut season,” Maidy wrote. “The cast is exceptional, and the direction, led by Ben Stiller doing the best work of his career, improves on what came before it. This is such a rich world that has deepened what the audience knows without sacrificing any quality along the way. Each episode is full of character development that makes you care deeply about what happens to each member of the MDR team and even gives reasons to care about the antagonists as well.“
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