Taika Waititi and Jude Law team for Showtime horror comedy The Auteur

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Showtime has announced that they are developing a series that has the potential to be a whole lot of fun, a "gonzo horror comedy" from WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS co-director Taika Waititi. The series is called The Auteur, and the network has already ordered scripts for multiple episodes.

Waititi will be directing the pilot episode and is writing the script with GHOST TEAM's Peter Warren. Based on a graphic novel by Rick Spears, James Callahan, and Luigi Anderson, The Auteur is also described as "a twisted romance" and "a glamorous, high wire act of biting satire". The story of the graphic novel centers on a film producer who, 

desperate to make a great horror movie after a massive bomb, accidentally traps his production on a backlot with a serial killer.

For further information, we can turn to the description of the graphic novel, which is available for purchase HERE. 

Fresh off the biggest bomb in Hollywood history, producer Nathan T. Rex enters a downward spiral of drugs and depravity in a quest to resurrect his career and save his soul. Over budget and behind schedule on PRESIDENTS DAY, he is backed into a corner by bad publicity, a crap project, and studio politics. But enlisting serial-killer-turned-murder-consultant Darwin, his trusty assistant Igor, narcotics from Doctor Love, and the lovely actress Coconut, T. Rex will stop at nothing in his quest for cinematic fame and glory. God help us all. 

Jude Law has signed on to star in the series and will be executive producing alongside Waititi, Warren, Spears, Callahan, Eric Gitter, and Dan Halsted. Endeavor Content is the studio behind the project, which is a Showtime and Legendary production.

Showtime's Amy Israel said The Auteur 

unites the wildly imaginative filmmaker Taika Waititi and the barbed wit of Peter Warren with the undeniable Jude Law in a bloody love letter to the movies that will make you simultaneously die laughing and want to run for your life."

Waititi's other directorial credits include EAGLE VS. SHARK, BOY (the 2010 dramedy), HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE, THOR: RAGNAROK, JOJO RABBIT, and episodes of Flight of the Conchords, The Inbetweeners, and The Mandalorian. JOJO RABBIT was a Best Picture nominee and earned Waititi the Best Adapted Screenplay award at this year's Oscars. 

Law has also earned a couple Oscar nominations, for his performances in THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY and COLD MOUNTAIN.