Wednesday, December 11, 2024

“Friends” Star David Schwimmer Producing TV Pilot “Big Love” Style About Ultra Orthodox Jews

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Does this sound Kosher? I’m told “Friends” star David Schwimmer is producing a TV pilot about ultra Orthodox Jews who live in the insular community of Fishkill, New York. He thinks it could be the “Big Love” of the Hasidic community.

The show will be called “Fishkill” I’m told, and Schwimmer’s Dark Harbor Productions has optioned it through their partner Tom Hodges. Lisa Davis, a writer from Providence, Rhode Island, wrote the script. The great actor-director Bob Balaban has signed to direct the pilot.

The main characters in “Fishkill” are named Moishe, Lev, and Bathsheba. I’m not making this up, and this isn’t a Mel Brooks skit. Lev is a diamond dealer in the city. Bathsheba supposedly meets a transgender person while shopping for wigs. There is going to be nudity and sex among the wigs, they say. I do hope there’s a suped-up Mitzvah mobile, and a hora here or there.

The word is, they’re looking for actors who speak Yiddish. Oy vey!

Hey, you never know what will work!

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

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