Chuck Lorre is going big with CGI and sci-fi.
The veteran comedy writer has lifted the lid on the latest spinoff of The Big Bang Theory – titled Stuart Fails to Save the Universe – at the Banff TV Festival, mocking Warner Bros.’ DC Studios in the process.
Lorre has teamed with his Big Bang Theory co-creator Bill Prady on the series, which is still technically in development at HBO Max. But he revealed today that he and Prady, as well as The Avengers’ Zak Penn, have written ten episodes of the show, which will feature a “lot of CGI”.
“There’s a lot of special technical stuff. For me, in my career, a big production number was two people sitting on a couch drinking coffee. This is different. This is trying to incorporate some of that world of science fiction, fantasy, into a comedy. I’m completely out of my element, which is what I wanted, which is what I was hoping to do, something that I had no experience with, and maybe I can learn as we go,” he said.
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Stuart Fails to Save the Universe comes from Chuck Lorre Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television where the company is based.
Kevin Sussman is joined by fellow Big Bang alums Lauren Lapkus, who plays Stuart’s girlfriend Denise, Brian Posehn (Bert Kibbler) and John Ross Bowie (Barry Kripke). Because the series is still awaiting a green light, the quartet are not formally cast in it but have talent holding deals with WBTV with the purpose of starring in the spinoff once it’s picked up.
Lorre joked that he had an argument with DC Studios about Green Lantern, which is being adapted as a series – Lanterns – for HBO. “We had an argument with them recently. They’re very protective of the Green Lantern. All of a sudden we were making fun of the Green Lantern in scripts, and it’s like, really the Green Lantern? Even when I was 10, I knew that stunk,” he said.
Lorre admitted that he was late to the “whole idea of IP”. “I’m just trying to make people laugh,” he noted.
He added that despite having a Big Bang Theory universe, he doesn’t want to be “engaged in exploiting IP”. “That’s bullsh*t,” he added. “What I want to do is make a good show, and if there’s a good show to be made, that is exciting and fun to work on.”
He admitted that when he goes home, he watches shows that feature “blood and guts, violence and people behaving horribly,” naming titles such as The Last Of Us, Adolescence and MobLand.