UPDATED: While he hasn’t committed to doing more seasons of his HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David is back in business with HBO. At the pay cable’s TCA executive session, HBO’s Richard Plepler announced that HBO will do David’s upcoming movie. Originally set up as a feature at Fox Searchlight, the film will now be produced by and air on HBO. The film, which, like Curb, will feature improv elements, will be directed by Greg Mottola, with David co-writing and attached to star alongside rumored Jon Hamm and Michael Keaton. While David’s attention will now be focused entirely on the movie, “I don’t think he’s closed the door to doing more Curb (after he completes the movie)”, HBO’s Michael Lombardo later said, with Plepler reiterating that David has a “carte blanche” to do more seasons of the show whenever he wants to.

Lombardo announced that the network will do a Rolling Stones documentary tied to the band’s 50th anniversary. Brett Morgen (The Kid Stays In The Picture) is directing the docu, which is done with the full cooperation of current and former band members and chronicles Rolling Stones’ rise from the local club scene to worldwide stardom.

HBO also announced that its comedy series Enlightened and Girls will return in January, taking over the slot vacated by cancelled Luck. “When we made a decision to pull the plug on a second season we did not have a backup plan”, Lombardo said. The network didn’t have a drama series available for January, but “Girls was going to be ready, and Enlightened was ready, so we decided to pair them both and put them on in January”.

Nerd
3 years
Larry and Jon Hamm working together? Sign me up. Sounds like a home run.
Chris
3 years
script must have been bad
firebrand
3 years
Girls and Enlightened together? Ugh. A TV Duo of pure, unadulterated crap.

Plepler and Lombardo also gave an update on the Entourage movie. (Series creator) “Doug Ellin is on page 65″, Lombardo said, cautioning that the network has only heard “a very general pitch” and needs to see the completed script and make deals with the cast before making a decision to go forward. After the session, Lombardo stressed HBO’s commitment to the movie, noting that they will start looking for a studio immediately after Ellin’s script is in.

Lombardo said that the network has had conversations with David Simon about a potential fourth season of Treme as the show’s filming schedule needs to be worked out around hurricane season.

Asked about HBO’s recent decision to end the overall deal of feature producer Scott Rudin, who executive produces the network’s series The Newsroom and has had about two dozen projects in development, “I think the issue was capacity”, Plepler said. “He wanted to move on some things we weren’t ready to move on, and we felt it was the right thing to do. It gives Scott the flexibility he wanted to move on with other things; it works well for him and works well for us”.
Plepler and Lombardo both dismissed the fact that there is no broadcast drama nominated for best series this year as “an anomaly.” Lombardo said he was surprised that CBS’ The Good Wife didn’t land a nomination and that he liked a couple of broadcast pilots this year, singling out Fox’s The Following.