In the continued history of Hollywood feeding upon itself, another project looking to satirize blockbuster filmmaking is following The Bubble. Sam Mendes and Armando Iannucci are leading the team behind new HBO comedy pilot The Franchise.
The potential 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?
Iannucci concocted the story with Jon Brown and Keith Akushie, with the latter pair writing the pilot itself. Unlike, say, Avenue 5, Iannucci will not be running the show, with that job falling to Brown. Marina Hyde is also on board as a writer and executive producer.
As for Mendes, he's making his first directorial foray into TV with the pilot, after producing several small screen series including Penny Dreadful.
We suppose it was only a matter of time before giant franchise filmmaking on the Marvel scale was the target of satire. Whether we'll see what the team comes up with depends on how good the pilot is…