Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Death Mean Uncertain Future for Happyish
The shocking and unfortunate death of
Philip Seymour Hoffman has affected not only fans and peers alike, but also put into question the future of
Showtime’s new series
Happyish, which the actor was set to star in.
David Nevins, Showtime’s President of Entertainment, described the series as, “a very personal comedy starring one of the really great actors of our time,
Oscar-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Happyish is about the fear — in this world of 25-year-old CEOs and 27-year-old billionaires — of becoming culturally irrelevant at a surprisingly young age. Hoffman plays Thom Payne, a successful but self loathing creative director at a New York ad agency.” The show, which co-stars
Kathryn Hahn and
Rhys Ifans, has only produced the pilot episode, which received critical accolades, particularly for Hoffman’s performance, when made available to critics attending the TCA just a few weeks ago.
Showtime has remained vague on the future of the series, only issuing a statement concerning Hoffman’s death, “Philip Seymour Hoffman was one of our generation’s finest and most brilliant actors. He was also a gifted comedic talent. It was a great privilege and pleasure to work with him and we are all absolutely devastated by this sudden loss. Our thoughts go out to his family at this very difficult time.”
With news so sudden as this it will take time for the network to consider the proper ways to handle the unfortunate situation. Will the network continue production and recast the role? Or was Hoffman’s presence central to the series’ survival? We’ll have to wait and see. All we can do is mourn the loss of a great artist and celebrate the legacy he left behind.
