Thursday 18 August 2022 03:13 AM Bob Odenkirk and Giancarlo Esposito each get new AMC shows after Breaking Bad ... trends now
Better Call Saul, the hit spin-off series to its widely popular predecessor Breaking Bad, wrapped up its six-season run on August 15.
Witnessing the nuances they brought to their iconic characters over the years, AMC has announced that Bob Odenkirk and Giancarlo Esposito won't be leaving the network's fold just yet.
Odenkirk, who played ethically challenged lawyer Saul Goodman to perfection in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, is set to star in the network's new series Straight Man, while Esposito, the man behind the drug dealing Gustavo Fring character on both AMC shows, will be playing the lead role in The Driver.
Staying with AMC: Giancarlo Esposito (left) and Bob Odenkirk (right) have both landed the leads for new series with AMC, which will be their third with the network following their roles in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul
Based on the Richard Russo novel of the same name, Straight Man tells the story of William Henry Devereaux Jr. (Odenkirk), the unlikely chairman of the English department in a badly underfunded college in the Pennsylvania rust belt, according to Variety.
The show has been described as a mid-life crisis tale set at Railton College, amid a fractured department, told in the first person by Devereaux, who's a born anarchist.
Over the course of a single week, Devereaux will have his nose mangled by an angry colleague, imagine his wife is having an affair with his dean, wonder if a curvaceous adjunct is trying to seduce him with peach pits, and threaten to execute a goose on local television, Deadline reports. And this all happens while coming to terms with his philandering father and his recurring physical problems
Classic: Odenkirk played ethically challenged lawyer Saul Goodman to perfection in the hit AMC series Breaking Bad and then again in the spin-off Better Call Saul
New role: Odenkirk will play the role of William Henry Devereaux Jr. (Odenkirk), an unlikely chairman of the English department in a badly underfunded college in the Pennsylvania rust belt, in Straight Man for AMC, according to Variety
Aaron Zelman and Paul Lieberstein are adapting the novel for the screen and will serve as co-showrunners and executive producers on the series.
Peter Farrelly, who's known to many fans as one-half of the filmmaking duo the Farrelly brothers, is also onboard to direct and executive produce.
Along with taking on the lead role, Odenkirk will also serve as executive producer.
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