Is this a sign of the times? Major movie star Halle Berry may be switching gears and heading to the small screen for a drama series being shopped around to premium networks like HBO and Showtime.
The series, dubbed Higher Learning, would find the Oscar-winning actress as a college professor. (That’s really all we’ve got at this point, but of course my imagination adds in Berry’s sex appeal and translates that minimal description into a premise that, much like Californication did for David Duchovny for a season, would allow Berry to play the sexy professor role.) The folks behind the show want a quick turnaround, according to Deadline, so the decision on whether or not the series spec makes the grade will likely come about soon.
Could Berry’s potential career shift have something to do what many critics are calling The Golden Age of Television? Some are venturing further to say that while TV continues to blossom, film is suffering. Perhaps that explains it? Of course, the reverse of that argument is that Berry hasn’t exactly been on fire for the past few years, she’s had a couple of films here and there, and while she’s got a few on deck for 2011 and 2012, you could say her career is simmering a bit. Television is typically a refuge for actors (especially women) when their film careers start to die down a bit. (Hello, Glenn Close on Damages, Toni Collette on United States of Tara, Steve Buscemi on Boardwalk Empire…the list is endless.) Then we have folks like Zooey Deschanel, whose stars are far from tarnished, turning from film to television for their next projects. Berry’s potential series just brings this recent shift into greater light. Maybe the grass is greener on TV, maybe we really are in this supposed golden age of television after all?
Source: Deadline
