After scoring over 3.5 million viewers for the season five premiere of Mad Men this past Sunday, things are looking pretty good for the show’s creator and executive producer Matthew Weiner. THR has just informed us that the big TV man is planning on shifting his focus to the big screen, and he’s bringing along Zach Galifianakis and Owen Wilson for the adventure.
Titled You Are Here, the dramedy “centers on a weatherman who is dependent on a best friend for his good times. When the friend inherits a business and some land from his father, the weatherman is forced to get his own life in order.” Weiner also wrote the script, which he penned before his work on Mad Men or The Sopranos began. Amy Poehler is also in talks to join the film in an unidentified role.
This project sounds like a big shift from his television work, but I’m not worried, as he’s already casting some big comedy heavyweights for the film. Since the project is dubbed a “dramedy”, I’m sure we’ll see Galifianakis and Wilson embody a lot of the charm and wittiness Weiner has brought to his Mad Men characters over the years.
Weiner will be working with a significantly smaller budget than he’s used to — he scored $30 million for the final three season of Mad Men –but his extensive production experience, also on Becker and Andy Richter Controls the Universe, should make this an easy transition. Gary Gilbert, Jordan Horowitz and Scott Hornbacher will produce the long-awaited project, with production hopefully starting sometime next month in North Carolina.
What do you think of Weiner’s transition to film?