Joe Swanberg, Chicago’s well known and most prolific micro-budget indie producer, is moving into television, with a series called “Easy,” for Netflix, which has been making an aggressive push into comedy.
Swanberg, in his signature mumblecore style, will write, EP, star and direct the half-hour, eight-episode single-camera anthology series that “explores diverse Chicago characters as they wend their way through love, sex, technology and culture,” as described by The Hollywood Reporter.
The series will debut later this year. While there’s been no official report about the series filming in Chicago, the director and crew had been seen filming here, so the chances are good that “Easy” is both set in Chicago and produced here, Swanberg’s home base.
The cast includes frequent Swanberg collaborator Jake Johnson (“New Girl”) as well as appearances by Orlando Bloom, Malin Akerman, Michael Chernus, Marc Maron, Elizabeth Reaser, Gugu Mbatha-raw, Aya Cash, Dave Franco, Jane Adams and Hannibal Buress.
Although Swanberg since 2005 has produced some 30 features (“Drinking Buddies,” “Hannah Takes the Stairs”), television is not a new genre for him. He and his wife, filmmaker Kris Swanberg, in 2008 wrote, produced and co-starred in the 23-episode web series, “Young American Bodies,” about the intersecting love lives of 20-somethings in Chicago that aired on IFC online.
