Emma Stone, Jonah Hill TV Series From Cary Fukunaga Lands at Netflix

March 23, 2016 6:15pm PT by Lesley Goldberg

The reboot of 'Maniac' has scored a 10-episode, straight-to-series order at the streaming giant.

Days after it hit the marketplace, Netflix has snapped up Maniac, the dark comedy TV series starring Emma Stone and Jonah Hill.

Produced by Paramount Television and directed by Emmy winner Cary Fukunaga (True Detective), the project is based on 2014 Norwegian comedy series Maniac. A search for a writer is underway, with Stone and Hill set to star and Fukunaga set to direct every episode. Paramount TV and Anonymous Content executive produce via the latter's overall deal with the independent studio. 

The original Maniac revolves around Espen, a mental patient at a psychiatric ward who escapes reality and lives in a fantasy world in his mind. In addition to starring, Stone and Hill would executive produce alongside Fukunaga, Anonymous Content's Michael Sugar and Doug Wald.

The comedy hails from Anonymous Content and Fukunaga's overall deals with Paramount. WME packaged the project.

Fukunaga is fresh off Beasts of No Nation, with Maniac set to serve as a reunion for the helmer and True Detective producers Anonymous Content.

Oscar nominees Hill (Moneyball, The Wolf of Wall Street) and Stone (Birdman) would also reunite on Maniac after co-starring in the feature Superbad.

For Netflix, Maniac joins recently picked up comedy series Santa Clarita Diet — starring Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant — at the streaming service. The order comes as the streamer is investing $5 billion into original programming in 2016. Netflix has been making an aggressive push into comedy, with an order this week for Easy, a comedic anthology from mumblecore guru Joe Swanberg. Santa Clarita Diet joins a comedy roster that also includes Aziz Ansari's Master of None, Judd Apatow's Love, Sophia Amoruso's #Girlboss and sketch comedy The Characters, in addition to more broad-skewing fare like Fuller House.