Russell Brand Gets Two Major TV Deals In One Day

(Written for BritScene)

It was a busy day for Russell Brand yesterday. First Fox picked up an animated comedy co-created and voiced by the British comedian, and then cable sibling FX announced that Brand had signed a deal for an unscripted late-night series.

For Fox‘s new animated comedy, the concept is still being kept well under wraps so there’s not a lot that we have to tell you about this one. It is being rumored, however, that it is based loosely on Brand’s life in his 20s.

Fox has handed an order for a presentation and a script to the project, which will be written by Dan Fybel and Rich Rinaldi, writer-producers on Fox’s animated series Bob’s Burgers, and the project will be produced by 20th Century Fox TV and studio-based Chernin Entertainment. Brand, Fybel and Rinaldi will also be executive producers for the series with Peter Chernin and Katherine Pope, as well as Nik Linnen and Beau Bauman of Brand’s Branded Films company.

For the untitled, unscripted series for FX, the concept is still being tweaked, but we do have more solid information for this one, knowing that the taped show will feature Brand on stage in front of live audience, making commentary on a variety of topics from current events, politics and pop culture as well as interacting with his audience members. This one sounds a bit like Brand’s UK BAFTA nominated comedy series, Ponderland, but that was a great series so we can hopefully expect the same here.

Brand, who made his film debut in Forgetting Sarah Marshall as rockstar Aldous Snow, who he again played in Get Him To The Greek, is starring in Adam Shankman’s musical Rock of Ages, which is set to be released on 1st June, 2012.

“I am so excited I’m on the point of climax, in fact I will put the ‘O’ into FX, which spells FOX, which is actually the channel’s real name,” said Brand. “That’s the only thing that worries me about all this to be honest. At least I’ll be able to have a Christmas drink with Bill O’Reilly.”

The series will also be produced by FX Prods, in association with Brand’s Branded Films and Dakota Films, and the executive producers for the series will be Brand, Troy Miller, and Nik Linnen, with Miller serving as director of the series.

“We’re very excited to add Russell Brand’s bracingly funny, original, and honest voice to the FX comedy line-up,” said FX’s EVP original programming Nick Grad. “We look forward to supporting Russell and his partner Troy Miller’s ambition to strip down the hosted comedy format to its most fundamental elements and to create something daring and unfiltered for the FX audience.”

The show will consist of six half-hour episodes, and is set to premiere in Spring. We’ll let you know more when we know more.