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EXCLUSIVE: Jenji Kohan, creator/executive producer of Showtime’s flagship comedy Weeds and the series’ executive producer Matthew Salsberg have a new comedy project, Whales, in the works at the pay cable channel. The half-hour revolves around a group of brilliant and quirky young people, some of them Harvard and MIT graduates, who move to Las Vegas to live in a lavish apartment while pursuing the $10 million prize at the World Series of Poker. Kohan and Salsberg, who is an avid poker player, are writing and executive producing for Lionsgate TV where they have overall deals. Kohan most recently executive produced the Epix/Lionsgate drama pilot Tough Trade. Kohan and Salsberg also collaborated on the 2007 Fox/Lionsgate comedy pilot Me & Lee starring Lee Majors, which the two executive produced and Salsberg wrote. The project was recently resurrected by Syfy, with Salsberg and Kohan writing/executive producing a new take on it for the cable channel. Weeds, which Kohan and Salsberg executive produce with Roberto Benabib, was recently renewed by Showtime for a seventh season.
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Aren’t they at least 5 years behind the end of the whole “Texas hold ‘em” fad?
great to see them branching out, and i hope those projects are good- unlike the writers/ creators of Gilmore Girls, who proved themselves to be one hit wonders. they got their $ tho…
“brilliant and quirky young people, some of them Harvard and MIT graduates” oh $h!t, I just threw-up on myself.
“Quirky”? Wonderful! Nobody’s ever tried quirky before.
Gonna be a slam dunk. With a flushing sound. Not a straight flush, just a flush.
This just sounds like an incredibly weak concept. I’ve read a million feature scripts with this premise, and poker almost never translates well to the screen.
It may be a little late to the game, but having played against Matt for several years on those Wednesday night’s at Kevin’s, he’s certainly the right guy to try. If Matt can bring something fresh, then one last stab at a poker-themed show may be worth it – he certainly knows the world.
“Having played against Matt for several years on those Wednesday night’s at Kevin’s…” That has got to be the douchiest insider comment I’ve ever heard. Seriously, do you hear yourself? Because you played poker with Matt at someone’s house named Kevin that makes it a good show? Dude, go look in a mirror. Your head is actually a douche bag.
That said, I hope it’s a good show. Nothing against the show–just that dudes stupid comment.
Yes, they’re 5 years behind. But maybe they can do it as a period piece. Have real estate prices booming, unemployment at 4 percent. People still buy DVD’s….
Poker is actually bigger than ever now. But its not a fresh idea by any means
Typical of the networks to jump on a phenomenon 5 years after it left the zeitgeist. But there’s been twenty thousand attempts to bring it to the screen, including I believe a scripted show that aired briefly in there somewhere. The problem with taking poker from tournament broadcasts to a scripted show/movie is that in the real life broadcasts, we know the next card coming is really random chance – there’s something lost when you take a game of chance (yes, I know talent is the overriding factor) and then take away the chance (i.e. scripting it).
Looks like Salty finally found a way to write off his Full Tilt losses. Congrats on the project!
This will work if they transcend the novelty of poker much like “The League” is starting to do with fantasy football. I couldn’t care less about their fantasy football teams, however I do like the writing and the characters. Just give them context why they hang out and try to make “poker” a loose framework to fill the stories with jokes and hijinks.
Just make it about the personalities and never, ever show them playing cards.
There’s nothing more phony in the world than a scripted card game.
But the people who play poker really well are by and large sociopaths, so it could make for a good show.
Poker-themed movies don’t work, but a series might where the success of the concept rests on execution of great characters/relationships.. if anyone can pull off quirky, borderline personality-type characters with aplomb, it’s Ms Kohan. And Vegas is a rich world to mine, as the first season of the late NBC show demonstrated (downhill after that but season one was decent) Don’t know the other guy’s work but she’s da bomb.. I would watch this
This sounds really interesting, I definitely hope this happens and I will look forward to watching it!
Isn’t this the essentially the same show as 2 Months 2 Million … only scripted? Why? Because the ‘reality’ version did so well? (if it did I’m not aware)
The show is not about poker, people. It revolves around a group of people (pursuing the $10 million prize at the World Series of Poker). Given Jenji’s track record I bet it’ll be brilliant.
the other guy’s work is weeds for the last 6 years with jenji so it will be great for sure.
First thing I thought about was “The League” if done correctly. If done poorly, it could be the worst piece of dreck on TV, as poker in drenched in drama to an insider but boring as counting atoms to an outsider. A cash table in a large casino has the broadest cross section of people and cultures intermingling in American society (especially a 1-2 table). If people were forced to talk while waiting for flights, the airport would win, or riding escalators maybe the mall would win, but as they aren’t poker wins.
If this concept incorporates that co-mingling from a lifestyle perspective, (you only need look at the diversity of backgrounds of the top players) there is a lot to mine. If it’s simply about Ivy Leaguers in Vegas… yawn.
I’ve gotten to know Matt pretty well over the last two years playing many poker tournaments with him. In this short span of time I’ve watched him develop into a very good tournament player, but most of all, I’ve enjoyed his incredible sense of humor, self deprecation, that wry smile and acerbic wit when both of us are reacting to some of the many colorful, unique characters that you could only get to know by sitting at a poker table with them for twelve hour stretches. If anyone can pull this off, Matt can. Good luck my friend.
Tony Kayden, screenwriter and fellow poker player
Being a poker player myself, I can say without reservation that from the premise of the show… it sounds like they just don’t get it. Poker’s not like blackjack, where if you have the right skills, you can beat the casino and make a handsome sum. It’s a game that has a huge luck component. There are hundreds of super talented pros who have *NEVER* made the final table of the WSOP main event. People who play poker know that tournaments will devolve into crap shoots at some point. It doesn’t matter how good the structure is, at some point getting all in with Ace-4 offsuit looks like an attractive prospect. So the entire idea of a group of guys who think that by studying really hard, they can win the main event… it’s just… retarded. I will watch the show when it airs, but I expect to be gravely disappointed.
Matt’s a phenomenal writer and a damn good poker player except when he shoves against me with J6 off my open raises, so I’m sure this will be a great show. If it gets picked up, I want to play a degenerate uncle who intro’s one of the characters to poker in a flashback.