Joe Swanberg, the unofficial king of super-talky indie film, has signed a deal with Netflix to write, direct, executive produce and probably provide craft service for an original show for Netflix, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The eight-episode, half-hour, single-camera comedy, dubbed Easy, is being described by the streaming network as an “anthology series that explores diverse Chicago characters as they fumble through the modern maze of love, sex, technology, and culture.”
Over the course of his decade-long career, Swanberg has already made seventeen films, including Hannah Takes The Stairs, Drinking Buddies, and Digging For Fire. And that’s not even counting the 33 episodes of the web series Young American Bodies—a show which appears to be thematically similar to Easy—that he co-directed with his wife, filmmaker Kris Williams. So, one would have to imagine that the 34-year-old director can knock out all eight episodes of this over the course of a long weekend.
Marc Maron, Hannibal Burress, and Orlando Bloom are among the many name actors who will appear in the show’s first season. Others include Malin Akerman, Michael Chernus, , Elizabeth Reaser, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jake Johnson, Aya Cash, Dave Franco, and Jane Adams. Joe Swanberg is one the biggest names in the “mumblecore” movement, a subgenre of independent cinema known for its extremely low budgets, often-improvised dialogue, and frank depictions of relationships and sexuality. Netflix’s relationship to the movement goes all the way back to 2005, when it distributed SXSW Audience Award winner The Puffy Chair, helping to launch the careers of Jay and Mark Duplass in the process.