HBO has picked up two seasons of the animated series Animals produced by Duplass Brothers Television.
Created by Phil Matarese and Mike Luciano, Animals is a series of shorts about less popular creatures like rats, pigeons, and bedbugs, living in New York City. The problems that face these animals are strikingly similar to the ones humans face whether its romance troubles or a midlife crisis, according to Deadline.
The first season of Animals is currently in post-production as the project was being created before it was picked up by a network. The first two episodes were screened during the Sundance Film Festival in the Special Events section back in January and received solid critical response. HBO has acquired the rights to the first season of episodes and ordered a second season of the half hour series, according to Deadline.
“Jay and I have been excited about bringing the principles of indie film to the TV space, and to have our first real experiment land at a place like HBO for two seasons is beyond what we could have imagined,” Mark Duplass said who already has a relationship with HBO through the comedy series Togetherness.
Matarese and Luciano, who also write and direct the series, voice a lot of the characters on the show and Mark Duplass, Katie Aselton, Rob Corddry, and Nick Kroll are among the guest voices set for the series. Animals will debut on HBO sometime in 2016, according to Variety.
“Going from having made Animals in the supply closet at our day job to making Animals in a supply closet at HBO headquarters is an unfathomable dream come true,” Matarese and Luciano said who had been animating and editing the series together as a side project, according to Deadline.
Watch the Sundance trailer for Animals below.