When “Casa De Mi Padre” dropped last spring, it more or less died on the vine, and was forgotten about. And that’s a shame, because in my opinion, it was outrageously hilarious and go for broke, in the way that only a spoof of Mexican telenovelas could be. It was absurd, surreal and bonkers in the way that Will Ferrell does best (joined by game co-stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna), but perhaps the niche of its comedic target put people off. Well, whatever the reason, Ferrell is giving the parody soap opera concept another spin, this time with a more American flavored riff.
Ferrell will be joined Kristen Wiig and Tobey Maguire in the IFC miniseries and awesomely titled, “The Spoils Of Babylon,” inspired by “The Thorn Birds” and “Winds Of War.” Produced by Funny Or Die and set to be directed by Matt Piedmont (who directed ‘Casa’ and co-wrote this script with Andrew Steele), the show will follow the oil rich Morehouse family and the orphan Devon Morehouse (Maguire), taken in when he was young, but goes on to run Morehouse Enterprises, the seventh largest company in the world, alongside his step-sister Cynthia (Wiig). Fighting off their feelings for each other, they will also have to deal with the Shah Of Iran, who will be played Ferrell, which will be awesome.
So yeah, this sounds like a perfectly calibrated concept to let these three go off, and we’re especially curious to see Maguire exercise some rare comedy chops, especially in something this seemingly arch or broad. No word yet on when the six-part series will start production, but once again, it’s cable bringing the business instead of the movies. [Deadline]