MUCH IN COMMON
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Casting directors for a TV spinoff of the movie “Nothing in Common” had just finished looking at 520 actors who have “everything in common”--they all look like Tom Hanks.
Rastar Productions narrowed contenders for the Hanks role to five finalists last week, ending a four-city search (L.A., NYC, Chicago and Toronto). NBC already is committed to a pilot.
Rastar TV prez Doreen Bergesen said the company decided a series depends on finding a Tom Hanks clone--or at least an actor with the same self-deprecating charm: “The game plan was to find that perfect actor and write to him.”
Sources say that Garry Marshall, the film’s director, has been penciled in to guide the pilot.
Marshall said the TV version would “take the advertising side of the movie and run with it.” The movie’s crucial father-son conflict between Hanks and Jackie Gleason will be downplayed on the small screen. Marshall said he’s “very interested” in guiding the pilot but ruled out a return to the network TV wars.
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