After making "The Social Network," the story of a bunch of nerds creating Facebook, into an unlikely box office and awards season hit, producer Scott Rudin seems to hope he can take that same formula to the small screen.
After earning some good reviews out of the Sundance Film Festival (including one from us), it looks like the ride is just beginning debut feature doc filmmakers James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot. They are heading out of Park City with their film picked up one of the biggest producers in Hollywood, with Deadline reporting that Scott Rudin has nabbed the remake rights to "Indie Game: The Movie." The documentary chronicles the development of three independent three games, and the four individuals who are working on them, ranging from the eccentric Phil Fish to the philosophical veteran, Jonathan Blow. But Rudin won't be bringing this tale to the big screen.
Instead, the producer is pairing up with HBO to turn the premise into a half-hour comedy series on the network. Not a bad idea at all. Certainly a workplace comedy set in the gaming world, could be something refreshing, and certainly there are enough quirky personalities to make it both fascinating and hilarious. It's all early days with more to come, but it's yet another exciting prospect brewing at HBO. For Rudin, it continues a recent tear of projects at the channel as he's also get the upcoming Aaron Sorkin penned "The Newsroom" and the Noah Baumbach/Jonathan Franzen collaboration "The Corrections" in the works. As for Swirsky and Pajot, Sundance fairy tales don't get much better than this.