Dramedy from Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner no longer in development at FX
Matthew Weiner's new dramedy series is no longer happening at FX.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter's TV's Top 5 podcast that is slated for release on Friday, FX CEO John Landgraf said that the project from the Mad Men creator was "not moving forward." In a separate interview with Deadline, Eric Schrier, President of FX Entertainment, said the potential show was a casualty of COVID, and that the decision by the network was not made recently. "There is all this development that was tracking and that was on par before COVID. Some things continued on and some things fell apart as part of the last two years," he told the outlet.
The project, which did not yet have a title, was first announced in 2020 and was slated to be a half-hour dramedy to be written, directed, and executive produced by Weiner. Plot details were never officially revealed, but per Deadline, it was described as "having a mystery element and Charlie Kaufman-type odd and quirky comedic tone."
The dramedy created a lot of commotion when it was first announced due to sexual harassment and workplace misconduct claims made against the Mad Men creator in 2017. At the time, a staff writer on the show and former personal assistant to Weiner, Kater Gordon, told The Information that during a late night of working together, Weiner told her that she owed it to him to let him see her naked. Former Mad Men writer and consulting producer Marti Noxon later publicly said she believed Gordon's claims, and said their former boss was an "emotional terrorist."
Weiner has strongly denied the claims. "The allegations are not true, and [this] is a very important topic and a topic that I have devoted — it has been an obsession of mine, in my work and in my life, for like 92 hours of the show; we wanted people to be having this conversation," he said at the time.
A representative for FX did not immediately respond to a request for comment, meanwhile, a rep for Weiner declined further comment.
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