Monday, March 21, 2011

JOSH CHARLES IS OTHERWISE BOOKED: So, how do we feel about Jeff Daniels playing the Keith Olbermann-inspired lead role in Aaron Sorkin's HBO pilot? Daniels strikes me as exactly the kind of person who should be looking for a good TV project, but I'm wondering how his oft-laconic style fits with Sorkinese.

10 comments:

  1. Benner4:05 PM

    behind the scenes of a television show . . . truly unexplored territory for Aaron Sorkin.

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  2. Heather K4:41 PM

    Whoa, I just almost formulated a whole rant on how Jeff Daniels is more than just the Dude and Shark Steak Sandwiches are why he would be good in this also some of the professor from The Mirror Has Two Faces was not so laconic if a little too Hugh Grant, but then I realized the obvious problem with my argument, and now I really want Jeff Bridges to play him.

    Jeff Daniels I jsut don't know about.  He has done a lot of theatre and good on stage has in the past often correlated with good in Sorkin.  But that just may be the good being a major characteristic of those actors.

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  3. My favorite Jeff Daniels roles:  the crooked Steinmetz teacher in HBO's movie about the Academic Decathlon scandal; Squid/Whale, Purple Rose of Cairo.<span> </span>

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  4. Anonymous8:42 PM

    His character's first special comment will denounce Michigan Gov. Snyder for his proposed elimination of film credits.

    --bd

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  5. Thank you for reminding me that Cheaters exists. 

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  6. Wait, there was an Academic Decathlon scandal?! Why Was I Not Informed?!

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  7. girard315:27 AM

    He's not Northeast enough. Olbermann/Matthews (apparently the folks who the show is based on) have the whole NY/DC is the center of the universe thing going on.

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  8. Fred App8:56 AM

    I like Sorkin, but don't love him. There's a sameness and predictability to everything he does. So while I find his stuff generally entertaining, it has a short half-life for me. Casting someone who goes against Sorkin type, like Jeff Daniels, seems to me a welcome change of pace that might make this project something more than the cable news version of "SportsNite" or "Studio 60."

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  9. (Sssh. remember The Rule!)

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  10. I was gonna say, how come you didn't mention Daniels in Broadcast News?  And, well, so.

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