The Americans showrunners are back at FX and they’re bringing Steve Carell with them. The Disney-owned basic cable network has hande
The Americans showrunners are back at FX and they’re bringing Steve Carell with them.
The Disney-owned basic cable network has handed out a 10-episode order for a half-hour limited series called The Patient, starring The Office alum and written by The Americans showrunners Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg.
The Patient revolves around a psychotherapist who finds himself held prisoner by a serial killer with an unusual request: curb his homicidal urges. But unwinding the mind of this man while also dealing with the waves of his own repressed troubles creates a journey perhaps as treacherous as his captivity. Carell will play Alexander Strauss, a psychiatrist who has recently lost his wife. Behind his cerebral, sensitive exterior, he has yet to plumb the depths of his own pain and loss.
In addition to writing, Fields and Weisberg will exec produce The Patient alongside Carell, Caroline Moore and Victor Hsu. FX Productions will produce the series in-house.
“We are excited that Joe and Joel are back with their next series for FX after the great experience of working with them on six amazing seasons of The Americans,” said FX entertainment president Eric Schrier. “Their creative instincts and mastery of plot and character are on display again with The Patient, which will showcase Steve Carell’s remarkable talents as an actor, producer and creative collaborator.”
The Patient arrives as Carell also is readying season two of his Netflix comedy, Space Force. The series, which, at the time of its early 2019 order, saw Carell earn north of $1 million per episode when adding fees for co-creating, exec producing and acting, is being creatively retooled for its second season. The series moved production from L.A. to Vancouver in a bid to trim the show’s budget with Norm Hiscock (Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine) boarding the series as co-showrunner alongside co-creator and Carell’s The Office collaborator Greg Daniels. Season two will premiere in 2022.
Weisberg created The Americans and exec produced alongside co-showrunner Fields. Throughout its run, the Peabody-winning spy drama earned 18 Emmy nominations, taking home four.
Carell, repped by WME, Media Four Management and Ziffren Brittenham, currently co-stars in Apple’s The Morning Show. His next feature, Minions: The Rise of Gru, bows next summer.
The Patient joins a roster of recently ordered FX limited series that also include Fleishman Is in Trouble, Class of ’09 and Under the Banner of Heaven. The cabler’s scripted roster includes the upcoming final season of Better Things, Ryan Murphy’s American Stories banner, Atlanta, Dave, Breeders, Mayans, Reservation Dogs, Snowfall, What We Do in the Shadows and its FX on Hulu content Y: The Last Man and The Old Man, among others.
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