Hollywood makes hawks and hounds of the best of us, if any movie made since the inception of Tinseltown is to be believed. (See:The Player,Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, and of course,Sunset Boulevard.) There’s a reason filmmakers and TV writers return to those hallowed hills time and time again: they know, better than any of us, that the place is full of sociopaths and psychos.
It’s fitting, then, that Roku’s newest original series, announced today, will be calledSwimming With Sharks— because, yep, that’s Hollywood. The series exhumes the dark underbelly of Hollywood, centering on a familiar conceit: the power struggle between a beleaguered assistant and their awful boss. But there’s a compelling twist. The assistant, played byKiernan Shipka, turns the tables on her boss (Diane Kruger).
A release from the streamer tees it up as follows: “The series is full of psychological twists and turns as viewers follow intern Lou Simms' (Shipka) extreme obsession with her boss (Kruger) and the great lengths she will do to get close to her.” Sounds like one helluva wild Hollywood ride.
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The series' creator and showrunner, actor-turned-writerKathleen Robertson, had this to say about the cutthroat series:
“Historically, Hollywood has always represented reinvention, rebirth. Starting over. There has never been a better time to embrace that. My goal was to subvert this story and come at if from a place of both wonder and corruption, through the eyes of two complex female perspectives. Their performances are quite extraordinary. Nobody will ever see Kiernan Shipka as “Don Draper’s daughter” ever again. We are beyond thrilled for this to premiere on The Roku Channel.”
The series will feature six thirty minute episodes, and air exclusively for free on The Roku Channel in the United States, Canada, and the UK in April. Along with Shipka and Kruger,Donald Sutherland,Thomas Dekker,Finn Jones,Erica Alexander,Ross Butler, andGerardo Celascoround off a strong ensemble.Chris Cowles, Liz Destro, Stephen Israel, Jay CohenandDana Brunettiserved as executive producers.
Here’s the official synopsis forSwimming With Sharks:
“When Lou Simms (Shipka) starts her internship at Fountain Pictures she seems like a naïve Hollywood newcomer, awestruck by the studio’s notorious CEO, Joyce Holt (Kruger). In truth, Lou has done extensive research on Joyce and landing this internship was no happy accident. As Lou’s obsession grows, she will do anything to get close to her idol.”
