HBO Developing ‘China Doll’ Family Drama From ‘Big Love’

[dale coba]

HBO Developing ‘China Doll’ Family Drama From ‘Big Love’ Creators

By NELLIE ANDREEVA
Monday October 17, 2011
Tags: Anima Sola Productions, China Doll, HBO, Mark V. Olsen, Will Scheffer

EXCLUSIVE: The creators of polygamist series Big Love are developing another unconventional family drama for HBO. Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer are behind China Doll, a show in the works at the pay cable network about a mixed-race family and their humanoid robot. The project combines Scheffer’s passion for technology and Olsen’s interest in Chinese history and politics. “It is about China, Chinese Americans, robots, the effect of technology on our lives and the China moment in American consciousness,” said Olsen, referring to China’s current economic ascendance that is changing the dynamic in the U.S.-Chinese relationship. China Doll centers on a successful California construction subcontractor, his Asian American wife who is a university professor, and a robot as they straddle both sides of the Pacific with extended families on two continents. Despite the presence of a robot, “this is not a sci-fi show,” Scheffer said. “It is ambitious but is set in the present day.” China Doll stems from CAA-repped Olsen and Scheffer’s overall deal at HBO for their Anima Sola Prods, which has been ramping up development in both TV and film. Last year, the company brought in Lisa Bellomo as a development executive.

- Dale Coba

[Karel]

HBO is interesting: I've been enjoying True Blood as a guilty pleasure for four years now, always in a slight state of disbelief that it hasn't been cancelled already. I was less guilty about enjoying Big Love, which I actually think was a more interesting show, but much more surprised that it lasted as long as it did. HBO is insulated from the ordinary pressures of television: they don't sell advertisements, so they don't care about Nielsen ratings. All of the research seems to go into the planning and development stage, and they don't solicit much feedback after that: they come out with a show that they know will appeal to people and they fund it to the hilt, at least to the third season. So if this series idea actually progresses to the point of casting and filming, then we can be assured that we will eventually see it (and the robot will not just be a cheap "metal prop" - they will spend as much money as is necessary to get the SFX right). The only question then, from our perspective, is whether the "humanoid robot" is male or female; if it's the latter, we will have at least three years of this to enjoy.