With such feel-good dramas as Say Anything…, Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous, Elizabethtown and We Bought A Zoo on his resume, Cameron Crowe has carved out a pretty well-defined niche for himself in cinema. Now, however, it appears that the director, whose still-untitled romantic comedy with Emma Stone and Bradley Cooper is slated for release this December, is about to make the leap to the small screen. Today, we’re hearing that Crowe is collaborating with premium cable network Showtime to develop a series called Roadies.
The ensemble comedy series, to be set during a U.S. rock tour, is being produced by J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot. If the series works out, Crowe will direct the pilot later this year. The helmer’s involvement in a musically-driven show shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, given his past. Crowe worked as a Rolling Stone music journalist in the 1970s, which helped him to come up with the idea for Almost Famous. He also directed two music docs in a row with The Union and Pearl Jam Twenty. With all his exposure to the world of music, I’m sure Crowe has many more stories to tell that could work well for a television series like Roadies.
Winnie Holzman (My So-Called Life) will serve as showrunner for the project if it’s ordered to series, which seems like a very strong possibility. It would be surprising for Showtime, a network pushing to expand its original programming lineup after the end of Weeds, Dexter and (after one final season) Californication, to pass up something from a director as respected as Crowe.
Still, Roadies isn’t a done deal yet, and no actors are attached. It sounds like a promising project though, so we’ll definitely be keeping an eye on it as Crowe and Showtime work to reach a deal and finalize things, which we’d expect to happen within the next couple of weeks.
