FX Picks Up New Charlie Sheen Show
FX Picks Up New Charlie Sheen Show
By BILL CARTER
Charlie Sheen will return to television next summer in an adaptation of the 2003 movie “Anger Management,” the FX cable channel announced Thursday.
The project has been the subject of extensive speculation in the television business since Mr. Sheen signed on to star in it, after being fired from the CBS hit comedy “Two and a Half Men.” Adding to the interest was that the studio developing the comedy show, Revolution, hired the veteran comedy producer Bruce Helford (“The Drew Carey Show”) to run it.
FX said Thursday that it had acquired the series and would commit to a 10-episode run starting in the summer of 2012. But the deal also calls for FX to order an additional 90 episodes should the initial 10 reach a predetermined ratings level. A commitment to such a large number of episodes is highly unusual for television.
Mr. Sheen will also have an ownership interest in the series, which will be produced by Lionsgate Television, the home of such series as “Mad Men.”
For the past several months, Mr. Sheen has been attempting to find a home for the new comedy, after he lost his previous job as the star of “Two and a Half Men.” He lost his role on that show after a long series of incidents involving drugs and women and ultimately a nasty public feud with that show’s creator, Chuck Lorre.
But Mr. Sheen received a flood of attention surrounding that firing, and his appearance in a celebrity roast on the Comedy Central channel last month was the highest rated in that network’s history. And FX has received strong ratings for repeats of “Two and a Half Men” starring Mr. Sheen since it began carrying them last year.
In “Anger Management” Mr. Sheen will take on the role played by Jack Nicholson in the movie, an anger management therapist with anger issues of his own.
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