Jeffrey Walker is in New York directing the first four episodes of a comedy executive produced by Amy Poehler and commissioned by streaming service Hulu.
Difficult People stars Julie Klausner and Billy Eichner (both of Funny or Die and Billy on the Street, which airs in Oz on The Comedy Channel) as best friends whose irreverent behaviour lands them in awkward situations.
The series is the first collaboration between Hulu, a joint venture of Disney, 21st Century Fox and NBCUniversal, and Universal Cable Prods. The project had been in development at NBCUniversal’s USA Network. Klausner wrote the pilot and is co-exec producing with Poehler and Dave Becky (Louie).
After that the Los Angeles-based Walker will make his feature directing debut on The Cartographer, based on the Australian novel by Peter Twohig, produced by South Pacific Pictures’ John Barnett.
The Water Diviner’s Andrew Anastasios and Andrew Knight are writing the screenplay. Set in Melbourne in 1959, the novel follows a nameless child who handles the terrors of his life by copying the attributes of fictional pop culture characters he admires. Subsequently he recreates himself as a superhero who saves himself by mapping but is forced to give up his persona so another may live again.
Last year Walker helmed four episodes of Banished, the 7-part series set during the establishment of the penal colony in Sydney in 1788, created by Jimmy McGovern and commissioned by BBC First and BBC.
Walker’s US credits include Modern Family, Bones, Rake, Raising Hope and Rebel Wilson’s Super Fun Night.