In a gender switch from the original series, Jillian Bell (22 Jump Street) is set as a lead opposite Ben Schwartz in The Wrong Mans, Showtime’s remake of the British series created by and starring James Corden & Matthew Baynton. The U.S. version hails from The Late Late Show host Corden, Baynton, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Prods., Warner Bros. TV and BBC Studios.
Written by Corden, Baynton and U.S. TV writer Ian Maxtone-Graham (The Simpsons) and directed by the original series’ director Jim Field Smith, The Wrongs Mans is an action-comedy about two ordinary office workers who have their menial existence turned upside-down by a chance phone call and a case of mistaken identity: “If you are not here by 5 o’clock, we will kill your wife.” As the only people who can help, these two unlikely characters must find their inner hero in their quest to save not just themselves, but their loved ones and ultimately their whole town.
Bell will play Anna, based on the role of Phil, played by Corden in the original. A co-worker of Sam (Schwartz), Anna is a somewhat deluded fantasist who lives with her mother and has such an empty life that she leaps at the opportunity to join Sam in saving the kidnapped woman. Whereas Sam just wants to get on with his quite ordinary life, Anna is desperate for excitement and extremely unrealistic about her capacity as an action hero.
