Rami Malek set to star as Buster Keaton in a new series
Rami Malek is set to star as the silent picture star Buster Keaton in a new television series for Warner Bros TV. The series will be helmed by Matt Reeves who is known for directing the recent hit The Batman.
As of yet, the series remains up in the air with the only confirmed details being that Malek is set to produce the series alongside Drew Weddle. At the moment, Ted Cohen is in contention to write the series, and it may be based on James Curtis’ book Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker’s Life.
The project is being helmed by 6th & Idaho who are currently pitching the project to various streamers and networks. 6th & Idaho will be working as a subsidiary of Warner Bros. for the project.
When Buster Keaton was at his best, between 1920 and 1929, he did so much with so little that the famed late critic Roger Ebert called him “the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies”. With no audio to play with and very rarely a scrip either, Keaton somehow threw himself into the action (literally) and everything that unfurled thereafter was simply golden.
He may well have coaxed hair-raising laughs from scenes that would cause a Health and Safety inspector to enlist a progressive psychologist for assistance these days, but in truth, he could’ve silently read the phonebook and somehow even that would’ve been funny. As he said himself, “A comedian does funny things. A good comedian does things funny.”
Although cute camera tricks and industry secrets could help to fool audiences into believing a stunt was real, Buster Keaton much preferred full authenticity, and would often keep the action in one shot over a long take. As the actor himself once commented, “I like long takes,” adding, “close-ups hurt comedy. I like to work full figure. All comedians want their feet in”.
With that ethos, Keaton crafted many of the most iconic comic scenes in Hollywood history. Malek will now be tasked with bringing the human side to his story to life. But based on the lack of confirmed involvement at present, the project is still a long way off.
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