Showtime Puts Through Two New Originals

LOS ANGELES: Showtime has ordered the ten-episode drama The Affair, starring Dominic West, and the ten-episode comedy Happyish, featuring Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman.

The Affair is a one-hour drama that explores the emotional and psychological effects of an extramarital affair. The stories will be told separately from the male and female perspectives. West (The Wire) stars alongside Ruth Wilson (Luther), Maura Tierney (ER) and Joshua Jackson (Fringe). Sarah Treem (House of Cards, In Treatment) wrote the original script from a story co-created with Hagai Levi. The two previously worked together on the American adaptation of Levi's show In Treatment.

Happyish is a half-hour comedy that gives a dark examination of the pursuit of happiness. Hoffman (Capote) is joined by Kathryn Hahn (Revolutionary Road) and Rhys Ifans (Notting Hill). The show was created, written and executive produced by author and This American Life contributor Shalom Auslander. It was developed by Ken Kwapis, who will executive produce, and Alexandra Beattie, who will co-executive produce, under their In Cahoots banner. John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) directed the pilot. Hoffman will also executive produce under his Cooperstown Productions banner.

"The Affair is a beautiful pilot. It is an intense exploration of two marriages and the affair that disrupts them—with great acting and a very clever, deeply-observed script by the marvelously talented Sarah Treem," said David Nevins, the president of entertainment at Showtime Networks. "Shalom Auslander and Phillip Seymour Hoffman make for a formidable and unusual comedy team. The chance to get one of the truly great actors of our time into a such an incisive and current comedy was totally and completely irresistible."