Get ready for a wild ride with Peacock‘s new comedy series Paul T. Goldman!
The streaming service recently released the trailer for the upcoming comedy series, which Jason Woliner, director of Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, has been working on for over the past 10 years.
Click inside to find out more about the new project…
Along with the release of the trailer, Jason shared a lengthy note about working with the real Paul T. Goldman on the series.
“In 2012, a man named Paul T. Goldman tweeted at me. He said that he had an incredible story to tell and had written a book — and a screenplay — about it. He asked for my help bringing it to the screen,” Jason recalled. “When I clicked on his Twitter, I saw that he had tweeted the same exact thing to hundreds of other people. I clicked on his website and watched a video he’d shot himself: He was a middle-aged, nebbishy guy delivering a monologue about how he’d been the victim of a shocking betrayal that led to a transformation “from wimp to warrior” and set him on a mission to bring down an (alleged) international crime ring. I bought the book immediately.”
Jason added, “It instantly became my favorite book I’ve ever read. The story is equal parts fascinating, hilarious, shocking, and often weirdly moving. It has endless bizarre turns, and Paul himself is the most captivating person I’ve ever encountered. He reminded me of my favorite documentary subjects: Mark Borchardt from American Movie, Timothy Treadwell from Grizzly Man, or the kind of people that appear in Errol Morris films like Tabloid and Mr. Death. They’re striking, quirky, passionate, a little ‘off’; individuals with a strong sense of purpose but perhaps an atypical form of self-awareness. After a few months of quiet observation, I responded to Paul and told him I was in.”
“The series that has resulted — a culmination of over a decade of shooting — has wound up becoming the most conceptually ambitious and personal project I’ve ever worked on,” Jason continued. “It’s in many ways an experimental show and I’m still in grateful disbelief that Peacock has let me do it. The format, combining familiar doc elements with dramatized scenes that Paul wrote about his story — starring Paul playing himself — and weaving that with behind-the-scenes footage from the making of this show (don’t worry, it’ll make sense when you watch it, I promise) was essentially my way of taking a camera inside this very unique person’s brain. At times Paul comes across as sympathetic and at other times he’s discomfiting — and it’s going to be really exciting to watch the social media response and conversation this creates as the audience debates where they stand on him and his story.”
Jason concluded, “I have always been drawn to projects that are hilarious, surprisingly moving, innovative in form and use real people to tell stories in groundbreaking ways. From my work on Nathan for You to the two years I spent directing Sacha Baron Cohen in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, I can’t deny that I love existing in uncomfortable, fascinating moments and figuring out how to capture them on camera. This is a project that has never stopped evolving and revealing new wrinkles and, after working on it for over ten years, my excitement for it only continues to grow. I can’t wait to bring the rest of the world in and I sincerely hope you enjoy this very unique series.”
The six-episode series also stars Rosanna Arquette, Melinda McGraw, Frank Grillo, Dennis Haysbert, Dee Wallace, Christopher Stanley, Paul Ben-Victor, James Remar, W Earl Brown, Josh Pais, Irina Maleeva, and Hilda Boulware.
Paul T. Goldman will debut on Peacock on January 1, 2023.
