Rhys Ifans has become the latest actor cast in the new Showtime pilot Trending Down. Trending Down will star and be executive produced by Philip Seymour Hoffman. John Cameron Mitchell will direct the pilot. Trending Down is an attack on our youth-obsessed culture, with a darkly comic look at what it means to matter, or not. The series will center on Thom Payne, played by Hoffman, a man who feels stuck and obsolete after his advertising agency is taken over. Kathryn Hahn will play his wife, in the first comedy pilot to be picked up by Showtime this year. It joins two other upcoming dramas, The Vatican and The Affair.
There is little known about Rhys Ifans' role in the show so far, other than that he will be playing Thom's boss, Jonathan. Ifans spent a while gaining independent film credits including roles in Human Nature and Greenberg, among others. Recently, he has gone more mainstream, appearing in the latest Harry Potter film and playing the villain in The Amazing Spider-Man. The plot of the series sounds very current and appealing to audiences, who feel as if society is changing before their eyes. This also marks the first television series for Ifans and veteran actor Hoffman, who has a number of award nominations.
