Roku has just announced a comedy reimagining of a popular 1950s drama series named Tightrope! According to Deadline, Ty Burrell (Modern Family) is slated to star, and Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) will serve as executive producer.
As per Deadline, Roku stated that the new Tightrope! “reshapes the drama of the vintage 1950s series into a slapstick comedy, where Burrell plays a lone wolf detective following cases city to city, while he searches for his long-lost love who got away.”
Deadline notes that the president of Roku Media, Charlie Collier, said in a statement, “Since Tightrope! is a comedy about a detective (and finding a Wallenda seemed off brand) we’re thrilled to have Ty Burrell and Bryan Cranston join us at Roku for this imaginative, funny series. What a joy to welcome Ty and Bryan to the Roku Originals lineup, along with the Moonshot and Desert Whale teams and our partners at Village Roadshow Television. We’re pleased to add Tightrope! to our growing originals slate to delight our audiences.”
Cranston will executive produce the series under his banner, Moonlight Entertainment, along with James Degus (Sneaky Pete). Since founding the company in 2013, Cranston has created many titles such as, Sneaky Pete, Electric Dreams and Dangerous Book for Boys for Amazon, Your Honor for Showtime, All The Way for HBO and SuperMansion for Crackle.
Deadline also notes Cranston’s thinking behind bringing the series to fruition as he said in a statement, “I was inspired by the on-the-nose old drama series of the 50’s, to mess with the whole thing and create a new version of a lunatic comedy, never seen before in a TV series. Tightrope is a result of a fever dream, and conceived over a bowl of chili at Chasens, savvy?”
Burrell then added, “I’m so thrilled to be working with Bryan, and Roku Originals, on this bonkers (in the best way) idea of a show.”
Burrell is also set to executive produce under his banner, Desert Whale Productions. Village Roadshow Television produces Tightrope! Other executive producers include Fax Bahr (In Living Color) and Adam Small (Walk the Prank), who will also direct the series.
Tightrope! will be overseen by Morgan Pichinson (Mimi Dating Women) from Roku Originals.