The Rock's New HBO Half-Hour 'Ballers' TV Show Similar To 'Entourage?' Not Necessarily, Says Showrunner
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's new show "Ballers" premiered on HBO on Sunday, June 21 night and since then; he has been stirring conversations on social media.
"The Brahma Bull" posted a new video on Twitter inviting UFC's new Heavyweight king, Fabricio Werdum out to a lunch date - Looks like the UFC heavyweight champion will soon be breaking bread with The Rock.
"Ballers" is a new HBO half-hour, but it's not compulsorily a comedy. The show strikes an interesting goal starring The Rock as a former NFL star who's got a new gig as a Miami financial advisor. The series about athletes living in Miami is not just interested in their on-the-field performances, but also interested in the minds of athletes as well as ex-athletes, their insecurities and their egos, Yahoo noted.
According to the show's executive producer Evan Reilly, The Rock and the rest of "Ballers" cast and crew are gearing up for multiple seasons.
"He's over-the-moon about the material and the fact that he can invest in a character over the course of several seasons, rather than it being a two-hour movie where you kind of have to jam it all in," Reilly told TheWrap about The Rock.
Reilly noted that landing the WWE superstar-turned Hollywood actor, which took place between Steve Levinson penning the pilot and Peter Berg signing on to direct, was indeed a big deal.
"The primary thing that interested me in the project was the fact that Dwayne was going to have an opportunity to do television... an opportunity for him to stretch ... to show comedic chops and dramatic chops," Reilly said.
Along with Johnson, veteran comic Rob Corddry is slated to lend his chops to the premium TV summer offering, funniness as well as comedic street cred to the project.
While Reilly bragged about the "Childrens Hospital" star's "comedic brilliance," he assured that Corddry's Joe will grow over the course of Season 1.
"It's not all jokes and gags... his character may come across that way early on, but he's a real serious player in this business world," Reilly said. "We didn't want his character to be just a comic foil, we did our best to really ground him."
It may seem fairly easy to draw comparisons between "Ballers" and "Entourage," as the former takes place in the sports world and the latter in entertainment. Apart from their HBO home and some shared producers, Reilly does not see any likeness.
Evan Reilly told TheWrap, "I understand the comparisons or how the comparison might be made, but to me, they're two completely different shows."
"Once people get past, after a little while, they're going to see that," he noted.
