Showtime Greenlights Diablo Cody’s The United States of Tara

Posted by on June 5th, 2008   Filed under: Comedy, TV
Source: The Hollywood Reporter

diablocodyshowtime.jpg

After the Oscar-nominated Juno turned Diablo Cody into one of the hottest writers in Hollywood, everyone has been wondering what she will do for an encore. Strangely, it now looks like the next Diablo Cody project that we see may actually be on the small screen rather than the big screen. Although the movie Jennifer’s Body, directed by Karyn Kusama and starring Megan Fox, is currently in development and planned for release sometime in 2009, Cody’s TV series The United States of Tara has just been picked up by Showtime and is looking at a debut early next year.

The series is described as a single camera comedy about a dysfunctional family grappling with “the various identities that might appear on any given day and range in age, temperament and even gender”. Toni Collette has signed on to star as a woman with dissociative identity disorder, while John Corbett will play her husband. Steven Spielberg is listed among the executive producers, while Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl) directed the pilot. Sound interesting? I’ll definitely check it out. I just hope this isn’t another show about a family in therapy, because there’s just been way too much of that on cable networks lately.



  • Ryan

    I’ll check this out. As much as I’d like to hate on Cody for the way she came up and for winning an Oscar in ten seconds flat, Juno did actually have a good script.

  • Juno did NOT have a good script. watched it again the other day and pissed me off more the second time. Still, there’s obviously potential and originality. I’d be interested in seeing what’s next.

  • I liked Juno a lot, but I can’t help the feeling that Diablo Cody is too hip for me. Something tells me this show will miss me as it’s target audience. I don’t have cable anyway though, so whatever.

  • I find just the idea of Diablo Cody and her schtick so infintely annoying. “Juno” got entirely too much praise. And I think it’s an embarrassment that it actually won an Oscar.

    Don’t mind me– I am just a frustrated screenwriter.

    Eh, I guess good on her for getting a career going.

  • I’ve only seen Juno once but it ultimately won me over in the second half when it switched to being more of a drama than a comedy. I go back and forth on the dialogue. On the one hand it annoyed me pretty consistently. But I think Roger Ebert makes a good point; it’s refreshing to hear dialogue that tries to inject some wit and intelligence into everyday drone. It’s written the way Diable Cody wishes people spoke. Making up catch phrases and plays on words. No one ever complains that James Joyce’s dialogue is over written.

    Anyways this show is doomed because someone from Lars and the Real Girl is involved. That is a film that should be banished to the woods to be eaten by wolves.

    Also, Hershel Gordon Lewis is better than George Romero? Seriously? That’s just lame.

  • Did you seriously just compare Diablo Cody to James Joyce?

    But I do agree with your thoughts about “Lars and the Real Girl”– it was shit.

  • No way, Lars and the Real Girl ruled! I will admit, I am a bit apprehensive to give it a second viewing though.

  • I’m “comparing” them, not “equating” them.

    Sean, one day you’ll end up rewatching that and you’ve got a rude awakening int store.

  • Hey Jon Rocks, how many oscars did James Joyce win anyways.

    I win.