Tom Waits is set to star in a new pilot for a show on Hulu, to be directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, winner of the 2015 Sundance grand jury prize award for the teen drama about terminal illness Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl.
The pilot is for a new supernatural drama called Citizen, set in a “supernaturalized” Los Angeles, according to Deadline. The show is billed as a hero origin story with elements of magical realism, and will see Waits playing Cesar, a priest who runs a guerrilla humanitarian outfit with questionable legality from his church in Boyle Heights. His character is described as a “proudly anti-authoritarian man”.
For Waits, this marks his first acting stint since appearing in the 2012 dark comedy Seven Psychopaths, alongside Colin Farrell and Sam Rockwell. He’s since also completed a vocal guest appearance on The Simpsons.
As an actor, Waits is best known for 1986’s Down By Law, his collaboration with arthouse film-maker Jim Jarmusch, but he’s also had parts in superhero spoof Mystery Men and The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus.
For Gomez-Rejon, the project is his first since his debut feature, Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl. Before directing his breakout, he worked in television, helming episodes of Glee and American Horror Story. He is serving as executive producer on Citizen.
