Television shows, generally, have a lengthy gestation period. There’s the early development and writing, the dealings with networks, casting and pre-production, among many other stages. Filmmaker Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu is getting close to delivering his latest project – One Percent – to the small screen, however, courtesy of series producer Media Rights Captial.
With plans to take the project out to buyers shortly, MRC is hoping to package quite a formidable range of talent to boost interest. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu is directing the series, which he co-created along with Nicolas Giacobone, Armando Bo and Alexander Dinelaris. Ed Helms (The Office), Ed Harris (Snowpiercer) and two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby) are apparently circling main roles in the production.
The story takes place within the organic farming community, and centres on a young couple – fighting to keep both their business and personal lives afloat. While the premise sounds a little mundane for an hour-long episodic project, it is always heartening to see a proposed TV series that isn’t focused on crime, zombies, or a dangerous pathogen getting loose. In fact, it could be argued that the perception of the mundane where One Percent is concerned says more about the constant diet of melodramatic chaos that we are fed and sensitized to than it does about Inarritu’s project.
A quick check back over Inarritu’s body of work to date should help the concerns to dissipate. Babel, 21 Grams and 11’09’01 – September 11. Serious? Absolutely. Mundane? Not in the slightest. If this project comes to fruition and appears on our television screens some time in 2015, we can prepare ourselves for something introspective and intimate, while the creators look to skewer societal and economic pressures on middle America. One Percent is shaping up to be something new, original and fresh which – by the time it reaches broadcast status – will be most welcome.
