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EXCLUSIVE: The marijuana legalization movement gained major momentum in the recent November elections as measures to regulate the drug made it to the ballot in three Western states and passed in two — Colorado and Washington — with several others working on similar legislation. Now the grass-roots campaign will serve as the backdrop for a comedy in development at Fox. The Happy Tree, from former Entourage executive producers Rob Weiss
, Mark Wahlberg and Steve Levinson, centers on a brilliant young corporate attorney who, after a nervous breakdown, quits his job and seeks a life of peace and serenity on Venice Beach only to find himself the unlikely voice for the marijuana “legalize it” movement. The project will be produced by 20th Century Fox TV and stems from Weiss’ blind script deal there. He will co-write the script with Jay Leggett and Blake Leibel, who co-executive produce with Lawrence Longo. In addition to Entourage, Weiss, Wahlberg and Levinson also executive produced together another HBO series from actor-producer Wahlberg’s Closest to the Hole and Levinson’s Leverage banners: How To Make It In America. Weiss, repped by UTA and Hansen Jacobson, is currently working with Wahlberg on the feature The Switch for Universal. Leggett is repped by Liberman Zerman Management; Leibel by WME and attorney Sean Marks; Longo by Marks; Wahlberg and Levinson by WME and Sloane Offer.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
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This is actually a really fun idea for a show. Please don’t involve any cast members from Entourage and it has a chance of being good.
I wonder if Cheech & Chong will come out of retirement? lol
*coughweedsripoffcough*
Holy Smoke!:) Great effin’idea and if I wasn’t so chronic, I would have thought of that after my 2nd box of Entemenn’s Crumb donuts…what?
Curse you for reminding me of those delicious, round, crumb covered, doughy, odes to joy. Now transplanted from NY to Texas where Entermans is hard to find and only supplies us with a small selection of previously frozen treats.
Tears of sadness thinking of all the tasty things I have abandoned.
Rob is a talented writer and a good man. Sounds like a very cool project. Best of luck!!
hello. the Hearst mansion right up the coast would be a beautiful location for a protest movement, against the lobbying by this special interest to Congress, to outlaw hemp production from the paper industry.
I need to be involved with this show…I have been on Weeds, Super High Me, How Weed Won the West, Green Leaves, Haunted House of Chronic, American Drug War, Emperor Wears NO Clothes, Totally Baked and many more….
Congrats to Rob and to Fox for getting on this one.
But why’s it on Network? that eliminates the chance of it being good.
What happened to the days of quality network programming? Thirty Something, Northern Exposure, West Wing? I’d be into this as long as the network stays out of the way.
Congrats to Blake and Lawrence. Blake is one of the funniest people I know and is a fantastic comedy writer. This is well-deserved and I can’t wait to watch this show!
Maybe they will get a take on cannabis culture that’s not ridiculousness.
Hopefully it’s going to be on FX and not Fox so it’ll be good. I agree it’s crazy to even think of putting this on network tv if you want it to succeed. FX would be *PERFECT* though, and they generally support their original series and don’t cancel them after a few episodes if they don’t get mega ratings. I’ll definitely be checking this out if it makes it.
I have a feeling they are going to try to use this show to discredit marijuana legitimacy…like Reefer Madness 2012. It’s Fox…they are definitely anti-pot. This is not a good thing.
Where do you get the idea FOX is anti-pot? You obviously don’t watch FOX. Even half of the reporters on FOXNEWS have said they favor legalization and they are not FOX network. “Family Guy” is on FOX and they are very pro pot. If you get your news from MSNBC and other big government news outlets, you will usually sound uninformed!
Not everything from News Corps is part of some insidious conservative plot. Rupert Murdoch is interested in things that make money, and he already has Fox News, Wall Street Journal, NY Post, and several other platforms to push his political agenda.
Is this the same Blake Leibel that created Syndrome and United Free Worlds?!?
Maybe they could get Cheech & Chong for the wacky neighbors?
focuz on trend-make money, pay no attention to social implications
unless Fox has a redeeming script that itemizes the negative impact on society by using this drug, it is no better than the rest
The show will be about a nation of shameless, lazy, stoned, semi-literate losers who feel entitled to the wealth of other people.
Oh great. The actors, producers and crew get to smoke pot for the show. Great ideas from the juvenile republic. I am so tired of deplorable dialogue, substituting sex for creativity, and generally stupid plots. It is a formula from film school punks.
This idea has high potential–couldn’t resist–it really does. I hope is is honest and touches of the limitations of pot use, but the even greater limitations of making it illegal. I would be interesting to examine the effects on the pushers, as that industry will be most opposed. It could be done in an interesting, fun informative way, but the possibility to screw it up is, er, also quite high.
Decriminalize not Legalize.
Decriminalization takes the power out of both gangs’ hands.
Drug cartels and bikers making bank on growing weed will get out of the business when everyone and their grandmother grows it in their back yard.
The government will use the tax dollars to fund another massive beaurocracy used to limit your freedom.
Fox it sure would be great if your comedy poked fun at our Federal Government that did not learn it’s lesson from Alcohol Prohibition… instead of furthering the stereotype of a lazy stoner like Jeff Spicolli back in the day… Also pretty ironic that our governments arguement against pot is that there is absolutely no medicinal use for it, but then they hold the patent on medicinal marijuana that if you will read it, says the direct opposite and specifically spells out the medicinal uses of it… which I believe to be ONLY the beginning… there is plenty of Comedy in the way our government has handled this issue and brainwashed unknowing public on the evil of a natural plant that God put on this earth and is safer to use than alcohol and takes no distilling or other process than simply a green enough thumb to grow a plant. Check out Hemp farming Pre-Prohibition… It has a multitude of uses including taking money away from big pharma… which is the REAL reason of prohibition, our government broken because is controlled by big money instead of the little people they were actually supposed to represent.
This looks like a great plot for a movie, but a little thin for a TV series. My guess is a great pilot, followed by a season long downhill slide to cancellation.
A TV comedy about pot. Welcome to 1977.
The green industry is born. now make paper like benjamin franlkin, cotton, oils, gasoline…meds…an entire industry waiting.
I pitched this idea 4 yrs ago to Nicole Saint Claire now this comes up Really. No loyalty
Being right at the center of the legalization movement out here in Colorado, I can say that some of the real stories that happened during these last three years would make for excellent drama TV.
One of the cooler ones is how one, young, soon-to-be lawyer really buckled down to become a behind-the-scenes power.
My story is a little more boring. I am the most successful cannabis related campaign manager in Colorado. I’ve been involved in many elections ranging from 80 to 2,000,000+ voters. Yawn. I am going to bed.