Showtime Snags Political Drama Anthem, From Former Obama Speechwriter Jon Lovett

Politics are everywhere, both off-screen with the midterm elections and on-screen with such red-hot series as Netflix’s House of Cards and FX’s Tyrant. Now, Showtime is getting in on the action by putting its own political drama, titled Anthem, into development. Excitingly, the premium cable network will be teaming with Jon Lovett, a former speechwriter for President Obama, on the project.

Lovett, who previously created the short-lived comedy 1600 Penn for NBC, will be executive-producing alongside Brian Koppelman and David Levien. Both Koppelman and Levien are concurrently serving in the same capacity on another upcoming Showtime series, financial drama Billions.

Now, if seeing the words 1600 Penn made you roll your eyes, don’t count out Anthem just yet. Though Lovett’s past series took a goofy, comedic approach to White House politics, don’t expect his newest offering to look anything like that. In fact, the early plot description sounds both intense and potentially fascinating.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, Anthem explores “an unraveling United States of America when partisan division comes to a head on the day of a presidential election. What starts off as a normal Tuesday ends with a season on the brink of civil war.”

The set-up sounds neat and timely, and Lovett’s involvement certainly bodes well, seeing as he’s been actively wrestling with the repercussions of partisan division in his political career for years. Additionally, Lovett served as a producer on the third and final season of HBO’s The Newsroom, which would seem to indicate that the guy knows his way around high-tension dramatic fare like Anthem.

The series is just the latest project to heat up over at Showtime, which has been looking to add more high-profile dramas to its lineup now that Dexter is dead and Homeland isn’t garnering nearly as much praise as it did in its first season. A remake of In the Heat of the Night is in the works, Steve Coogan has been announced as the replacement for the late Philip Seymour Hoffman in comedy Happyish, and Billions now stars Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis.

We’ll be sure to keep you posted on all those series and let you know as more on Anthem develops.