HBO Shows The Corrections The Red Light

It seemed like a pitch made in heaven: super-producer Scott Rudin gets Wes Anderson cohort and indie-darling Noah Baumbach to adapt a much-loved best-selling novel from the most talked about writer in America today, Jonathan Franzen. They even got the none-more zeitgeisty, twitter-hating author to co-executive produce and popped Chris Cooper and Screenrush favourite Dianne Wiest in the pilot which - according to a report in Variety - HBO duly looked at (having paid for it to me made) before giving Rudin and co. a big fat NO. The decision comes as something of a shock. The Corrections was one of the most highly anticipated prospects of the ongoing pilot season but we have to assume HBO knows best. After all, having just renewed both new Sunday night comedy shows Girls and Veep for second seasons (yay, and yay respectively) and getting ready to launch a fifth season of True Blood, third seasons of Treme and Boardwalk Empire and a brand new, eagerly anticipated show from The West Wing creator and The Social Network scribe Aaron Sorkin, The Newsroom - they're certainly proving that when it comes to quality drama and comedy there's very little in the way of competition.