HBO orders comedy pilot skewering superhero franchises from Veep creator
Oscar winner Sam Mendes will direct the satire of the "dysfunctional, nonsensical, joyous hellscape" of franchise filmmaking
In a fascinatingly meta move, HBO has greenlit The Franchise, a new comedy pilot from Veep creator Armando Iannucci to be directed by Academy Award winner Sam Mendes. The series will skewer the superhero industrial complex under the same parent company that has recently come under fire for its repeated bumbling in the superhero space.
Per Variety, the show “follows a hopeful crew trapped inside the dysfunctional, nonsensical, joyous hellscape of franchise superhero movie-making. If and when they finally make the day, the question they must face—is this Hollywood’s new dawn or cinema’s last stand? Is this a dream factory or a chemical plant?”
These are the questions on everyone’s mind (if you’re a movie buff, anyway), especially since Martin Scorsese drew first blood way back in 2019. Given that Sam Mendes is coming to the TV for the first time with this satire, one might surmise where he falls on the issue. (Though he is a franchise veteran himself with two James Bonds under his belt.) Given how defensive the Marvel guys have been in this ongoing back-and-forth, the pilot is likely to ruffle a feather or two.
Agree or disagree on the “superheroes aren’t cinema” front, skilled satirist Iannucci is surely the perfect person to take this on. He wrote the pilot story alongside Jon Brown (Succession), and Keith Akushie (Ten Percent), who penned the script. Brown will serve as showrunner and executive producer while Akushie is also onboard as a writer and EP.
It’s easy to point fingers at the Marvel machine as the behemoth that changed the way the industry operates, but DC has had plenty of juicy behind the scenes drama that is ripe for ridicule. And HBO has a history of making fun of its parent company: on Sunday, John Oliver greeted his “new business daddy” Warner Bros. Discovery, saying he got “the vague sense that you’re burning down my network for the insurance money.” At least someone out there is still greenlighting new Armando Iannucci material!