Judd Apatow to create pandemic comedy for Netflix

The series will focus on a group of actors and actresses stuck in a pandemic bubble as they try to finish their film

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 25: Judd Apatow speaks onstage during the 72nd Annual Directors Guild Of America Awards at The Ritz Carlton on January 25, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
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Comedy maestro, Judd Apatow, 52, is set to create a pandemic-based comedy for Netflix.

The producer behind Trainwreck, Girls, Bridesmaids and Superbad is set to develop the comedy for the global streamer, which centres around a group of actors and actresses who find themselves stuck inside a hotel in a pandemic bubble, while trying to finish a movie.

With a whole new world and lexicon having been created by lockdown conditions, Apatow will certainly have a deep well of inspiration to draw from.

Social distancing, face masks, hand sanitiser, bubbles, showing off sourdough starters on Instagram and binge-watching are all likely to be used to comedy effect in the series, which Apatow will co-write with South Park writer Pam Brady. Apatow's business partner Barry Mendel will executive produce the project.

We're hoping for a parody of Wonder Woman actress, Gal Gadot's hugely derided Imagine video, which went viral for all the wrong reasons at the start of the pandemic back in March.

Revealing to Vanity Fair that she had hoped to "send light and love into the world", the video, which featured a number of A-list names, including Kristen Wiig, Natalie Portman, Zoe Kravitz, Jamie Dornan and Mark Ruffalo, was roundly criticised for featuring a group of millionaire celebrities urging their followers to "imagine no possessions" when people were facing financial woes and the threat of losing their homes.

Apatow, who also produced and developed cult TV show, Freaks and Geeks, as well as Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, has been kept busy during the pandemic. It was announced in August that he was producing a two-part documentary for HBO about the late George Carlin, a famous US stand-up comedian who hosted the first ever episode of Saturday Night Live back in 1975.