Showtime Orders Pilot for Don Cheadle Comedy ‘Ball Street’

Showtime has ordered a pilot for half-hour comedy Ball Street, starring Don Cheadle and Andrew Rannells. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg will direct and executive produce the pilot.

Ball Street was created by David Caspe (Happy Endings) and Jordan Cahan (My Best Friend’s Girl), who will be executive producers and showrunners. Production on the pilot is scheduled to begin in February. The project is a co-production between Showtime and Sony Pictures Television Studios.

Ball Street will take viewers back to Oct. 19, 1987, also known as Black Monday, the day of a horrific stock market crash. The show tells the story of how a group of outsiders took on the old-boys club of Wall Street and “ended up crashing the world’s largest financial system, a Lamborghini limousine, Don Henley’s birthday party, and the glass ceiling,” said Showtime.

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“When the global economy incinerates itself, people always wonder why. Ball Street is a dream project rising from the ashes of that disaster,” said David Nevins, president and CEO, Showtime Networks Inc. “In Don Cheadle and Andrew Rannells, we have two of the most dynamic performers in the world today–the question is which one of them lit the match. With Seth, Evan, David and Jordan at the helm, we are primed for the launch of something memorable.”

Cheadle plays Rod “The Jammer” Jaminski, a self-educated, self-made master of the universe. He previously starred in Showtime series House of Lies. Rannells plays Blair Shmerman, a fresh-out-of-Wharton trading prodigy. Rannells had a regular role in HBO’s Girls.

Rogen and Goldberg co-created and executive produce the television drama Preacher, directing the pilot and several episodes, and have written and produced such films as Superbad and Pineapple Express.

Caspe created and executive produced Happy Endings, as well as Marry Me, on which Cahan was supervising producer. Cahan also wrote My Best Friend’s Girl, starring Kate Hudson.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.