HBO is going on a Run.
The premium cable outlet has given a series order to a comedy by that name from Killing Eve and Fleabag writer Vicky Jones and the creator of those two shows, Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
Run, from Entertainment One, stars Merritt Wever (Godless, Nurse Jackie) as Ruby Dixie, a woman living a humdrum existence. She functions like clockwork but feels like a fraud. One day she gets a text inviting her to fulfill a youthful pact promising true love and self-reinvention by stepping out of her life to take a journey with her oldest flame.
Domhnall Gleeson (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) also stars as Billy Johnson, a successful life guru from a wealthy Irish family who deftly combines a boatload of charisma with a boundless need for approval. Waller-Bridge will have a recurring role as a character named Flick.
Jones, who also worked with Waller-Bridge on the latter’s series Crashing (no relation to Pete Holmes’ HBO series of the same name), created Run and will executive produce with Waller-Bridge via their DryWrite company. Emily Leo of Wigwam Films and pilot director Kate Dennis (The Handmaid’s Tale, New Amsterdam) will also exec produce.
Run is the first series order for HBO since parent company WarnerMedia named former NBC head Bob Greenblatt chairman of WarnerMedia Entertainment (the show was in development long before that), with a mandate to increase volume across the company’s brands, which also include TNT, TBS, TruTV and a forthcoming streaming service.
HBO’s current comedy roster includes Ballers, Barry, Crashing, Divorce, High Maintenance, Insecure, Silicon Valley and Veep, along with the forthcoming Los Espookys. Multiple Emmy winner Veep begins its final season March 31.
