John Goodman will star in “Alpha House” a new political comedy from Amazon Studios that will center on four senators living together in a rented Washington, D.C. house. Goodman will play a North Carolina senator and ex-venerated basketball coach whose supreme confidence is threatened when the Duke basketball coach runs against him. Writer and Pulitzer Prize winner Trudeau is most famous for penning the comic strip “Doonesbury” for more than four decades, but has also written for the screen on and off. “A Doonesbury Special” earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short while HBO miniseries “Tanner ‘88” and independent follow-up “Tanner on Tanner” match the political comedy theme that runs through all of his work.
The experimental Amazon Studios is currently undergoing its first pilot season. Their interactive model will let Amazon Prime subscribers view each pilot when it is completed, and user input will help to determine which pilots are picked up to series. It’s a huge step in an exciting paradigm shift, and all the more exciting with industry vets like Goodman embracing the new platform.
