Zach Braff took his sweet time between his two directorial efforts, 2004’s Garden State and 2014’s Wish I Was Here. Of late, however, he’s upped his productivity behind-the-camera significantly. His third film, Going In Style, is already finished and set for release next spring, and he announced his fourth film, Bump, just a couple months ago. But that’s just Braff rolling up his sleeves. He set up his next TV project, Start Up, a new ABC comedy pilot he’ll not only star in, but direct as well.
Start Up is based on Alex Blumberg and Lisa Chow’s podcast StartUp, which starts its fourth season this October. The podcast chronicles “the human side of business,” and it follows Blumberg as he starts his own business. The show will follow a similar plot. It sees what happens when a man (Braff) decides to quit his job and starts his own company. He experiences all that comes with the entrepreneur lifestyle, particularly in how it affects the character’s wife and two children.
The new show shouldn’t be confused with Crackle’s new series StartUp, which starts next week. Don’t be surprised if they change the title altogether, though, to avoid all confusion. Blumberg will serve as an executive producer alongside Braff, Chris Giliberti and Matt Lieber, as well as John Davis and John Fox of Davis Entertainment. The single-camera comedy reunites the actor/director with Matt Tarses, a co-executive producer on Scrubs who’ll write the teleplay for the pilot, as reported by Deadline (via Slashfilm). There’s no word yet on when it’ll film.
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This new comedy series finds Braff reuniting with ABC as well, as they aired the final eighth season of Scrubs after NBC’s cancellation. What’s that? There’s a ninth season, which ABC also aired? I’m sorry, you’re mistaken. In addition to leading Bill Lawrence’s cult favorite sitcom, Braff also directed seven episodes between 2004-2009. Does Start Up mean Braff is no longer working on Bump? The report doesn’t say. It seems like it’s either delayed or no longer happening with Braff, which is a shame. It seemed like it was right up his alley, but he certainly has enough keeping him busy these days. As long as it’s better than Wish I Was Here, that’s all that counts.
