Woman on Meadow

EXCLUSIVE: FX Networks has given a pilot order to Man Seeking Woman, a half-hour comedy pilot from former Saturday Night Live writer/humorist/novelist Simon Rich and Lorne Michaels’ Broadway Video. The project,  based on Rich’s book The Last Girlfriend On Earth, is described as a sweet, surreal, and bitingly funny look at the life and death stakes of dating in New York City. Jonathan Krisel (Portlandia, SNL) is set to direct the pilot from a script by Rich. The two are executive producing with Broadway Video for FX Prods. If Man Seeking Woman goes to series, it will make 28-year-old Rich one of the youngest series creators ever. He already became the youngest writer in the history of SNL, where he spent four seasons, from 2007 to 2011 before segueing to a writing job at Pixar studios. Rich, son of former New York columnist Frank Rich, was still an undergraduate at Harvard, where he edited The Harvard Lampoon, when he landed a two-book deal at Random House, with his first book, Ant Farm: And Other Desperate Situations, getting nominated for the Thurber Prize for American Humor. His first novel, Elliot Allagash, was optioned by Jason Reitman. The Last Girlfriend on Earth, Rich’s fifth book, was published in January. Man Seeking Woman joins two other comedy pilots ... Read More »

If you’re looking for a little humor, romance, and horror in your day, you might want to give actors Michael Cera and Aubrey Plaza four-minutes of your time. Cera is part of a YouTube comedy collective known as JASH, which includes members Sarah Silverman and Tim & Eric and more, and the group has put out quite a number short films and oddball videos in its brief history.  This latest short is directed by Cera himself and is entitled “Failure.” It follows a young man (played by Cera) discovering a woman (Plaza) in his house. All she wants to do is “meet him” and while Plaza isn’t immediately threatening, containing herself to Cera’s staircase, you can’t help but feel just as unsettled by her as Cera’s character is; I blame those big eyes of Plaza’s. But all’s well that ends well and despite its creepy origins, it ends with the possibility of romance. Check it out below. [HitFix]