
Diane Keaton is set for the title role and Ellen Page has signed on to co-star in Tilda, HBO’s half-hour comedy pilot from Bill Condon. The project centers on Tilda (Keaton), a powerful female online Hollywood journalist with a no-holds-barred style. (Hmm, wonder where the inspiration for that character came from.) Page will play Caroyln, a morally conflicted creative assistant caught between following the corporate culture of the studio she works for and following Tilda, who has taken a keen interest in her. Condon and Tell Me You Love Me creator Cynthia Mort wrote the script and are executive producing the pilot, which Condon is attached to direct. Filming is slated for June in Los Angeles. Both Keaton and Page have recent history with HBO. Keaton, who has never starred on a TV series, was attached to another half-hour project about a feminist icon launching a sexually explicit magazine for women. And Page in the fall teamed with the pay cable network for Stitch N’ Bitch, a single-camera comedy she is writing with two other young actors, Alia Shawkat and Sean Tillmann. Page next co-stars opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Christopher Nolan’s summer tentpole Inception, while Keaton’s next stars in Bad Robot’s Morning Glory. Both are repped by WME. Page is managed by Kelly Bush.





First off, I love Page… honestly one of the sweetest women in the business.
But with that said… why is she doing TV when she has the makings of an incredible film career? I don’t really understand.
HBO doesn’t change anything. She can still have the great feature career that she deserves.
‘Cause of the chance to work with a great veteran actress on a network that has produced some of the best programming in the past decade?
It’s 2010, not 2001. How to Make It in America and Hung and True Blood are not Sex and the City, The Sopranos, and Curb.
i don’t know. true blood, treme, the pacific and bored to death are all pretty darn entertaining
Maybe because she isn’t being offered good roles?
Television is much kinder to women than the film world is.
why shouldn’t more Hollywood stars go to TV? it’s been a much better place for creative and ambitious storytelling than those lame movies for years! especially for actresses, who usually got stuck playing the same supportive, no nonsense wife or girlfriend, TV women characters are dynamic. obviously cable have better parts for actresses, but even the network soaps give much more meaty roles for actresses than movies. TV gives actress better material, more dimensional characters that otherwise reserved for men on the big screen, so i’m glad more actresses realized that they can do so much more on TV.
“an incredible film career”? Really?
Apres “Juno” Page’s incredible film career consists of “Smart People”, “Peacock” and the DOA known as “Whip It”. She’s not the star of “Inception”. I find her absolutely adorable and cute as a button, but guys don’t want to date her and in Hwood that’s the kiss of death.
Plus, shooting “Tilda” for 2 months will leave her 10 months to do films – if she wants.
rename it “Finke” and call it a day.
WORD!
Or Deadwoodline.com
Really? Will Nikki get residuals? Will the world be destroyed if she does a cameo?
Regardless, sounds like good stuff.
Liked it the first time when it was called “The Devil Wears Prada.”
Sounds interesting and both Keaton and Page are great actresses but I am most interested in what Nikki Finke thinks of this Tilda character.
I guess that depends on how Ms. Keaton portrays Nik…Ur, I mean “Tilda”. If it’s a fair portrayal, I’m sure it will be a fair critique. Otherwise, head for the hills if it’s anything but.
With True Blood, Treme, Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones and now this, Showtime and AMC better watch out because HBO is back in the zone!!!!
AWESOME!!! Diane Keaton i could watch on a LOOP…i don’t know what the extent of Ellen Page’s role but adding her into the mix really takes it to a cool place. Well done H-B-O!
When will HBO stop making tv shows about Hollywood? Yes, Entourage and Curb Your Enthusiasm were successes. But then Unscripted, The Comeback, Extras — all duds.
So the ratio of 2 hits to 3 misses is enough for you to say this genre does not work? Possibly dumbest comment ever written
Unscripted, The Comeback, and Extras were all EXCELLENT shows.
The Comeback and Extras were diamonds on the rough!
LOVE The Comeback. What a mistake canceling that show. I know so many people who have bought it on DVD. It is HBO’s Big Lebowski.
The Comeback was unbelievably genius. Too smart for most audiences. An amazing show.
The first two were successes in spite of being about Hollywood. The latter three (and don’t forget Project Greenlight) all didn’t work because middle America doesn’t care to know the inner workings of Hollywood. Trust me, this will sink like a stone. No one outside of our industry even knows who NF is.
Same with Fat Actress, On the Lot, Action, Studio 60, etc. And go ahead and chalk up that puppet Hollywood show MTV is about to roll out that nobody is going to watch.
Oh, and for the record “The Comeback” was a perfect 10 and really needs to return for the 9 of us that loved it. More Valerie pls thx.
Why on earth is Ellen doing TV shows? I thought she would be more successful after Juno, but I guess not. This is definitely a step down for her.
Sounds great. Hopefully, another HBO comedy that really will live up to its promise.
Diane Keaton is playing you, Nikki? Ah, that is too cool!!
So does this hurt Page’s chances to do Girl With the Dragon Tattoo? I know she wanted it and I’d love to see her in it.
I think Page is talented enough to have an interesting career, but you know she’s not going to have the typical starlet movie-star career because she’s not a typical starlet. She’s far more interesting than that. And what young actress would give up the chance to star with a legend like Diane Keaton just because it’s television?
HBO is pretty prestigious. I think there’s not the level of snobbery attached to doing TV on HBO that there would be if she were doing something on, say, ABC.
And to tell you the truth, TV is where some of the most interesting stories are being told lately anyways. Who wants to have a career making big, bloated Oscar-bait “epics” just because they were once an Oscar nominee? I mean, look at Nicole Kidman. She’s an Oscar-winning “movie star” who I’m sure wouldn’t even LOOK at a TV script for ANY network and her career sure is lukewarm right now.
EP is a different talent and she will have a different career. I’m already interested in the project with her in it.
You write an article about a show that has been widely reported as being based on the person who created this website and you don’t even mention the connection?
Why is that? Are you one of those lame bloggers who are not actually members of the media but just copywriters trying to play with the big boys?
You write a response to an article that mentions a upcoming tv show based on the person who created this website, and then you critisize the reporter for not mentioning this connection – even though she clearly does?
Why is that? Are you one of those lame posters, who never actually reads the complete article, before you rush to your keyboard to spew insults at the author?
Wow– I’m so glad HBO put shows with devoted followings like “Deadwood” in the shitcan and focused their attention on navel-gazing masturbatory fantasies like this. I can’t wait to never watch this.
Everyone is doing tv. The long term pay is great if it lasts a few seasons.
HBO used to have the best comedies around. Dream On, Larry Sanders, Curb Your Enthusiasm. But lately, their comedies have been not so good. Life of Tim? The one about the NYC writer/detective? The NYC garment district kids? Not so funny.
Showtime, meantime, is blowing HBO out of the water with high concept shows like Weeds, Nurse Jackie, The United States of Tara, and The Big C.
The poster who said Showtime and AMC better watch out must work for HBO. Showtime, in addition to Dexter and The Tudors, has the comedies cited above. Plus, for two seasons, the incredible documentary series This American Life. AMC has Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and the upcoming Walking Dead. What does HBO have? True Blood is great, but Treme? Really? The Tudors is beating it in the 18-49, even though Showtime has a much smaller subscription base than HBO. And the series itself is embarrassingly bad. That corny, could we be more artificial about this visit by the four big chefs in a recent episode? David Simon proved he ran out of juice when he delivered the disastrous fifth and final season of The Wire.
I love HBO, they gave us Six Feet Under, The Sopranos, Deadwood, etc., but other than True Blood, and a couple of promising shows on the horizon, they’re still second place to Showtime and AMC.
Please, please put someone in charge of your comedy division who actually understands funny. And please stop giving us safe mini-series like John Adams and The Pacific, and safe movies like the Winston Churchill biopic. Do more shows like Angels in America. Get your balls back.
Stop serving herbal tea during your development meetings, and go back to whiskey.
“Showtime… Weeds, Nurse Jackie, The United States of Tara, and The Big C.”
Showtime is the pay channel starring shows with annoying women.
Ralph Robert Moore, you’re right about the comedies mostly sucking. But, not everyone agrees with you about Treme. The critics are saying that both Treme and True Blood could get Emmy nominations this year. To top that, HBO has Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones coming up.
Dear Showtime employee, thanks for using your 30 minute break from making bad television to write a diatribe highlighting your affinity for bad television. I find it ironic that someone who clearly likes to write sooo much seems to enjoy some of the worst written shows out there.
The fact is, HBO is the only network out there that will actually attempt to make cutting-edge material, instead of relying on the same old formula for comedy. Anyone who watches Eastbound and Down knows that show is the funniest thing on TV. All in all, the problem isn’t that HBO lost its balls, it’s that they’ve gotten too big for your mouth.
I think it’s a brilliant move for Ellen– who’s a real talent. Television has far surpassed film as a medium for character-driven and comedic storytelling. Yes, film is more prestigious, but particularly for women there are so few roles that actually demand them to act. With few exceptions, mainsteam film comedy has gotten incredibly broad and mindnumbingly dull. 30 Rock, The Office, Glee, Modern Family, It’s always Sunny, Californication, Curb, brilliant comedy is happening all over the small screen on network, basic and premium cable. Very few films make anyone over 14 laugh.
I love Diane Keaton. I also love her as Annie Hall. But within Diane there is always the same core of of acting personna. You see it in everything she does. I would be interested to know who was on the short list…my choice not in any specfic order Catherine O’Hara..funny caustic and can go off like a BP infected oil well.
No no more selections Catherine Yes-Diane another project
This is awesome. I’ll definitely be waiting for this one. HBO has done it again.
Are there really any big movie stars anymore? It seems they are a dying breed with shrinking paychecks.
I agree with John, with Treme, True Blood and Boardwalk Empire, HBo is definitely back in the drama department. Now, if they could only fix their comedies. The only new comedy I like is Bored To Death.