Hollywood developing dark comedy about Rob Ford

A TV series about Toronto’s famously controversial mayor, Rob Ford, is in the works in Hollywood.

A dark comedy about the late politician is in development at AMC, the cable channel confirmed with CBC News on Tuesday. The project was first reported by Variety.

A spokesperson also confirmed American comedian Jim Gaffigan, 53, has been tapped to play the lead.

The project has some Canadian connections. Toronto-born Jesse McKeown (The Sinner, Letterkenny) is attached as writer and executive producer, while Montreal-based Michael Dowse will direct should the series move forward.

Dowse is best known for directing the cult favourite mockumentary Fubar, the comedy Stuber and the 2013 romantic-comedy The F Word (released as What If in the U.S.), starring Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan.

Ford, who served as Toronto’s mayor from 2010 to 2014, died at age of 46 after battling cancer. He made international headlines when a video surfaced which appeared to show him smoking crack cocaine. In 2013, he admitted to having used the drug and eventually took a leave of absence for rehabilitation.

The series won’t be the first project to tell his story.

The dramatic film Run This Town was released in March, starring Damian Lewis as the embattled mayor.

Ford’s story was also told in reporter Robyn Doolittle’s bestselling book Crazy Town: The Rob Ford Story, for which the movie rights were bought in 2014.

No timeframe for possible production on the AMC series has been set.

CBC