There was a big bidding war, George Clooney went head to head with Robert Downey Jr, and the show’s writer, Jesse Armstrong, presumably got pretty excited. “I think it’s now available again so let’s make this interview an advertisement that someone else can option it,” Armstrong told Yahoo Movies UK, sounding a wee bit sad. “It’s not currently being made. It’s in development hell! It’s not progressing but we do [want it made].” Unfortunately, it’s an all too common story for hundreds of decent sounding ideas. Movie rights to TV shows, newspaper articles and books are often snapped up by Hollywood producers (just to stop someone else getting there first), and nothing ever comes of them. Does the fact that it sounds a bit too similar to Cary Fukunaga’s upcoming Maniac have anything to do with it? Either way, if you have a few million and a bit of sway in the film industry, Jesse Armstrong wants to hear from you.
