All six of the main New Girl cast members reunited at a special event on Saturday night, but that’s not the only re-teaming on the horizon.
Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr., who co-starred on the hit series as well as in 2014 film Let’s Be Cops, are coming back together for a Hulu pilot inspired by The Cable Guy, a 1996 dark comedy starring Jim Carrey and directed by Ben Stiller. The announcement for the untitled project was made in June, with Johnson and Wayans Jr. both leading and executive producing.
“In a world of endless streaming, binging and algorithms, old-school cable technician Chip Douglas (Johnson) languishes alone — until Steven Stephens (Wayans) calls to have his cable turned back on, reconnecting Chip with a childhood friend he never forgot,” reads the show’s logline. “The relationship gives each man something he’s been missing — until Chip’s enthusiasm turns into obsession. Inspired by the movie, the show explores the darkly absurd side of modern-day male friendship.”
As the New Girl cast came together at the Chrysalis Butterfly Ball over the weekend, Johnson offered some insight on how the pilot came to be — which started when the New Girl alums united to celebrate to celebrate Max Greenfield’s wife, Tess Sanchez, and her book, We’ve Decided to Go in a Different Direction, at a party at Chateau Marmont.
“I hadn’t seen Damon in a bit and he was on a show with his dad [Poppa’s House for CBS], and he and I were walking out to the car and I said, ‘If the show with your daddy goes away, let’s do a TV show together.’ And he said OK; two days later and he called and he goes, ‘Just got cancelled,'” Johnson told The Hollywood Reporter. “So we then told our agents we would like to pair up.”
He continued, “The Cable Guy script came our way and we didn’t want to just make a remake of the movie, so we got a New Girl writer — executive producer Rob Rosell, who’s unbelievable — to come on board and reshape it a little bit. It was just using that as a starting point, then what they wrote was really funny. … We pitched it and Hulu bought it and shot a pilot. It’s really fun.”
And as Johnson and Wayans Jr. were joined by Greenfield, Zooey Deschanel, Lamorne Morris and Hannah Simone on the charity event carpet, Greenfield admitted to some jealousy of the two reuniting on their own, admitting he hopes to appear on the show — if it’s ordered to series — “if they’ll have me. Maybe tonight I’ll pitch some characters.”