While nothing is official yet, Deadline reports that Oscar-nominees and former co-stars Jonah Hill and Emma Stone are in the works of joining Maniac, a new dark comedy series from Paramount Pictures, Anonymous Content, and award-winning director Cary Fukunaga.
Maniac is based on the 2014 Norwegian series and follows the story of a man who lives a fantasy life in his dreams, but in reality is a patient in a mental institution. Both Hill and Stone will play patients at said mental institution should the project be picked up.
The project boasts a talented cast and director. Hill was nominated for an Oscar for his performances in Moneyball and The Wolf of Wall Street, and Stone was also nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Birdman. Fukunaga holds both film and TV credits. He recently wrote, directed, and produced Beasts of No Nation, which received critical acclaim and was Netflix’s first original feature film. In TV, the director worked on True Detective for which he won and Emmy.
This series would mark both Hill and Stone’s debuts as TV regulars. It would also be a reunion for the two actors who previously worked together in the 2007 feature Superbad.
The project is still in the early stages and has yet to be picked up by a network. There is strong speculation that Netflix might pick up the series since Fukunaga already has a working relationship with the online streaming service due to his work on Beasts of No Nation. However, the director also has ties to HBO since he serves as director and executive producer for the network’s show True Detective.
Deadline reports that the minds behind the series are hoping for a straight to series order, or maybe even an order for 2 full seasons.