Among the many things dangled before our eyes at the TV Critics winter press tour last month, one of the easy standouts was for Showtime’s planned “Happyish.”
It starred Philip Seymour Hoffman as a middle aged ad man getting crushed in an age of young social media savants and billionaires. We only saw a clip of a few minutes, but from that we could tell it went way beyond “The Crazy Ones,” lashing out scatologically at those who would exile the Keebler elves to advertising history.
A big part of its greatness of course was how typically first rate Hoffman was in the trailer.
Just as he did nearly every role in his life, Hoffman’s performances created strong impressions that stay with you. The devastating news of his death Sunday at 46 brought to mind such a long line of movie roles that made such an impact.
The most recent, probably, was in “The Master,” one of the few movies I tracked to find on cable to see after it fell out of theaters too quickly last year. In its breadth, complexity and sheer length it brought to mind that other recent doozie that was on cable not too long ago and will likely continue to return despite an approach that flummoxed many: Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York,” about an obsessive, gifted theater director that kept wanting to stage his own life.
Hoffman provided a better Lester Bangs than probably the real Bangs did, appearing as kind of an advising angel of cool in the movie “Almost Famous.” His malevolent role in “Magnolia” made that film linger in the mind longer than it usually would.
Yes, he won the Oscar for “Capote,” but that seemed in many ways such a restrained performance, restricted by the imitation he had to do of a public figure. What struck me more personally was his work as a brother trying to deal with the decline of elderly parent in “The Savages.” I remember so clearly going by myself to see him in “Before the Devil Knows You’re Gone” because going to a movie by myself is something I so rarely do, and that performance was so haunting.
And he stood out too among the chilling vignettes in “Happiness” with one of the bravest performances.
Even when he wasn’t star, he left his mark in supporting roles of dozens of films, from “Moneball” and “Ides of March” to “The Big Lebowski” and that menacing figure in “The Talented Mr. Ripley.”
Just scanning his roles over the last 20 years brings up a list of films he did that Istill haven’t seen, to start packing in the queue on Netflix.
But I sure was looking forward to “Happyish,” which in the style of Hollywood, had its first pilot made before they’d return to do the rest of the run, that was expected to start on Showtime later this year.
Showtime entertainment president David Nevins said they had waited until they could get Hoffman before doing the show, which they had in hand for some time.
“I mean, ‘Happyish’ was a script that I’ve loved for a really long time, and it took us a while to get to Philip Seymour Hoffman,” Nevins said in his executive session Jan. 16. “Could we really get Phil Hoffman to it?” ‘I don’t know.’ ‘I don’t know.’ And it was a long process. But we didn’t have to rush, and we could wait and slowly bring him in, and make it totally worth it for the waiting.”
Except for what happened.
Showtime hasn’t said exactly said what it will do with “Happyish,” written by Shalom Auslander and which co-starred Kathryn Hahn and Rhys Ifans, though they will likely make it now with another actor. In their only statement Sunday, the network said, “It was a great privilege and pleasure to work with him and we are all absolutely devastated by this sudden loss. Our thoughts go out to his family at this very difficult time.”