Showtime orders Dominic West, Philip Seymour Hoffman series

CBS-owned US cable net Showtime has ordered two new scripted projects, The Affair and Happyish.

Half-hour comedy Happyish is billed as “a dark examination of our pursuit of happiness, a pursuit that might just be the very thing causing our unhappiness in the first place”. Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) stars as a middle-aged man dealing with modern life.

In Cahoots and Seymour Hoffman’s Cooperstown are on production duty.

“The chance to get one of the truly great actors of our time into a such an incisive and current comedy was totally and completely irresistible,” said David Nevins, president of entertainment, Showtime Networks.

The Affair will be a 10x1hr series based on an idea from Israeli scribe Hagai Levi, the creator of Betipul (later adapted as In Treatment for HBO in the US). In Treatment and House of Cards writer Sarah Treem write the script for the show, which relays the story of a couple’s difficult relationship from the separate perspectives of each partner. Dominic West (The Wire) and Ruth Wilson (Luther) both star.

“The Affair is an intense exploration of two marriages and the affair that disrupts them – with great acting and a very clever, deeply-observed script by the marvelously talented Sarah Treem,” said Nevins.