For such a hard-working actor (his face or voice tops four current flicks, including the #1 Happy Feet), Hugh Jackman is turning into a very busy TV producer. And he must have made some friends over at CBS when he helped bring the Tony Awards sort of back to life, because he's now got two series in the works at the network-- with a deal for a third.
The latest is called Voyages, and it's set on a high-end cruise ship. Sorry, guys, it's not an update of the Love Boat.
They say it's a drama, told Rashomon-style (see our Moviegasm guy here). Hugh promises his production partner Max Makowski (AKA the guy who does the work) has found "a new way to tell a story on the small screen." How new? Well, while a show like Lost changed the landscape with its successful serialized story lines, this series will combine serialization with self-contained story lines (until the combination doesn't work and Les Moonves orders them to make the episodes completely self-contained).
So maybe there's a bit of Love Boat after all. Or as they'd say in the pitch meeting, "Lost meets Love Boat."
(Hugh's company is also reworking the UK series, Viva Blackpool for CBS. He'll do a guest spot in that one.)