Casting Couch: Thomas Jane to Star in HBO's "Hung"

HBO's comedy pilot Hung has, er, found its leading man.

Thomas Jane (The Punisher), in a move that marks his first television series role, has signed on to star in the Blueprint-produced comedy pilot Hung, from creators Dmitry Lipkin (The Riches) and Colette Burson (who happens to be Lipkin's wife) and director Alexander Payne (Election).

Jane will play Ray, a struggling high school basketball coach and divorced father of two who is still living in the shadows of his glory days as a star athlete, popular guy, and ladies' man. Struggling to make ends meet, he attends a Learning Annex seminar on marketing yourself and decides to use his only asset: his well-endowdedness. Teaming up with a local poet (a former one-night stand), Ray embarks on a quest to reinvent himself as a gigolo with the, ah, most goods.

I was at an industry event yesterday where Lipkin said that Hung wasn't "salacious," except for the rather unconventional set-up and, having read the script a few weeks back, I have to agree. While the high concept plot certainly isn't family-friendly, Hung itself is a look at a today's America, a land where most of the country is feeling disenfranchised and lacking in motivation, self-esteem, and self-worth; it's also an exploration of how the US "likes to build people up and then abandon them," according to executive producer Michael Rosenberg of Blueprint.

Jane previously worked with HBO for the telefilm *61, where he played Mickey Mantle.

Stay tuned.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Ghost Whisperer (CBS); Most Outrageous Moments/Most Outrageous Moments (NBC;); Friday Night SmackDown! (CW; 8-10 pm); Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (ABC; 8-10 pm); The Fog (FOX; 8-10 pm)

9 pm: NUMB3RS (CBS); Dateline (NBC; 9-11 pm)

10 pm: Swingtown (CBS); 20/20 (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8:30 pm: Doctor Who on Sci Fi.

Season Four of Doctor Who concludes tonight with Part Two of its two-part season finale ("Journey's End"), the Doctor, Donna Noble, Martha Jones, Sarah Jane Smith, Captain Jack Harkness, and Rose Tyler battle the Dalek race and Davros in order to save the universe from destruction.

10 pm: Swingtown.

On tonight's episode ("Swingus Interruptus"), Tom and Trina attempt a closed relationship just as Susan and Bruce open their own marriage up to Brad and Sylvia... but their foursome is interrupted by the arrival of Laurie and Doug.