EXCLUSIVE: Natasha Rothwell (The White Lotus) has joined Hulu’s untitled Cable Guy pilot, inspired by the 1996 Jim Carrey movie of the same name, from Hulu and Sony Pictures Television. The show explores the darkly absurd side of modern-day male friendship.

The project’s logline: In a world of endless streaming, binging, and algorithms, old-school cable technician Chip Douglas (Jake Johnson) languishes alone — until Steven Stephens (Damon Wayans Jr.) calls to have his cable turned back on, reconnecting Chip with a childhood friend he never forgot. The relationship gives each man something he’s been missing… until Chip’s enthusiasm turns into obsession.

Rothwell is set to play Gina, Steven’s (Wayans, Jr.) sister. She’s an oddball with a dark sense of humor who lives at home with their parents in the aftermath of an injury.

In addition to leading the series, Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr. also executive produce. Rob Rosell and Joe Piarulli, and Luan Thomas serve as co-showrunners and co-wrote the pilot. Additional executive producers include Neal H. Moritz and Pavun Shetty (Original Film, under overall deal at SPT). The series is produced by Sony Pictures Television.

Rothwell is the creator, executive producer, and star of the Hulu series How to Die Alone. She is best known for her twice Emmy-nominated performance in HBO’s The White Lotus, which she recently reprised her role as Belinda Lindsey in the third season of the series. She has a genre-bending feature, along with several other projects, in development at her production company, Big Hattie Productions—founded in 2020 to focus on creating, producing, and developing projects that champion marginalized voices in subversive ways. Rothwell is represented by CAA, Untitled Entertainment, and Jackoway Austen.

EXCLUSIVE: Partnering with Entertainment 360, Atari has signed a deal with Universal Pictures giving the studio first look at developing ten classic Atari video game properties for the big screen. Universal has bought the first project from the new partnership, a feature film based on Atari IP which will be produced by Entertainment 360’s Guymon Casady from a screenplay by Matt Reilly and Carl Hampe. Both of them will also be producers.

“For more than five decades, Atari has created games and worlds that have remained part of popular culture long after their original release,” said Wade Rosen, Chairman and CEO of Atari in confirming for Deadline. “We are excited to work with Universal and Entertainment 360 to bring the spirit of our iconic brand and games to a new medium.”

The 10 properties include the ones we grew up playing until we were bleary eyed: Asteroids, Adventure, Berzerk, Breakout, Centipede, Crystal Castles, Millipede, Missile Command, Pong, and Yars’ Revenge. The aim is to use the IP to create big scale action adventure fare.

The catalyst was an original spec by Reilly, the longtime studio exec at Universal who pivoted to screenwriting and producing, and Hampe, whose script work includes the franchises Hellboy and Jungle Cruise.

“Matt Reilly and I grew up playing Atari 2600 games and have remained fans ever since,” said Entertainment 360’s Casady. “The best Atari games dropped you into a world and let your imagination do the rest. Carl and Matt saw an opportunity to take that same spirit and build an original, large-scale adventure around it. From the moment we read the screenplay, we believed there was a great movie here.”

Atari is represented by IAG and Vanderkloot Law. Universal did not comment.