Yahoo Lifestyle Lena Dunham Strikes Creative Partnership With Netflix, Reveals ‘Too Much’ First Look
Lena Dunham and Netflix have announced a new creative partnership ahead of the premiere of the “Girls” creator’s first show for the streamer, “Too Much.”
During the Next on Netflix event in London on Wednesday, Dunham made an appearance to reveal that her production company Good Thing Going will continue to develop serialized first-look projects for Netflix. “Too Much,” a scripted comedy series, is set to premiere this year and predates the new partnership. A first-look image of the show was also unveiled, featuring lead Megan Stalter (“Hacks”).
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“Working with Netflix to bring ‘Too Much’ to life has been a dream; the trust, support and creative freedom they offer are rare and precious,” Dunham said in a statement. “My producing partner Michael P. Cohen and I are deeply excited to begin the next phase of Good Thing Going with Netflix as our home, one that supports artists and makes so many of the shows that we love as viewers. From the first chat with our Netflix team, we have been aligned in the vision to lean into classic genres and serve them up with a twist, always informed by surprising points of view. We are thrilled to be working across the U.S. and the U.K., and hope to engage with Netflix globally to tell a range of stories, set in new and compelling worlds.”
Added Jinny Howe, vice president of drama series at Netflix: “Lena’s authenticity and singular voice have redefined storytelling for this generation. She’s a creative powerhouse, weaving together complex and nuanced narratives that are as thought-provoking as they are entertaining. We look forward to delighting audiences with more of the deeply relatable stories they love from Lena.”
Dunham serves as the creator, writer, director and executive producer of “Too Much.” According to its official synopsis, the series follows Jessica (Megan Stalter), “a New York workaholic in her mid-30s, reeling from a broken relationship that she thought would last forever and slowly isolating everyone she knows. When every block in New York tells a story of her own bad behavior, the only solution is to take a job in London, where she plans to live a life of solitude like a Bronte sister. But when she meets Felix (Will Sharpe) — a walking series of red flags — she finds that their unusual connection is impossible to ignore, even as it creates more problems than it solves. Now they have to ask themselves: do Americans and Brits actually speak the same language?”
Dunham shared during a Q&A session that her own experience moving to London “did kick start the concept for the show.” She co-created it with her husband, Luis Felber, who she said is a “large part of why I stayed in this country besides, you know, crumpets and rain.”
“While the lead characters, Jessica and Felix, as well as the people who surround them, definitely started out with these sort of glimmers of inspiration from my life, once I cast them… It’s almost like you create this baby and then hand it off to the actor to raise it,” she continued. “That’s the most exciting and inspiring part, seeing where they take the character in places that you never imagined.”
Though it was revealed that she does make an appearance in the series, Dunham wanted the focus to be on Stalter’s character, Jessica.
“What I love about Meg is she has this warmth and openness and this sort of Midwestern charm that just makes her inherently likable,” she teased. “And even when she’s, you know, acting naughty or hysterical or making well meaning mistakes, you are still on her side. And that’s what we needed for this role.”
The cast also includes Michael Zegan, Janicza Bravo, Richard E. Grant, Leo Reich, Daisy Bevan, Adele Exarchopoulos, Dean-Charles Chapman, Rita Wilson, Andrew Scott, Prasanna Puwanarajah, Andrew Rannells, Rhea Perlman, Emily Ratajkowski, Stephen Fry, Kaori Momoi and Adwoa Aboah.
Executive producers include Working Title’s Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, Good Thing Going’s Cohen, Surian Fletcher-Jones and Bruce Eric Kaplan.
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