UPDATE: After Chris Matthews backed out, the creators of the show decided they would take this scene in a different direction that doesn’t feature known pundits. Sorkin and his team expressed interest in having Breitbart on in a future episode, should the show go to series.
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There has been some speculation over the last 24 hours that Andrew Breitbart will be making an appearance as himself in Aaron Sorkin’s upcoming HBO project “More As This Story Develops,” and that is indeed the case. “More,” which will star Jeff Daniels, is a dramatic pilot based on the world of cable news. Originally, Breitbart was to be in a debate scene opposite MSNBC anchor Chris Matthew, but MSNBC has squelched Matthew’s participation. New York Magazine reports (emphasis mine):
Vulture hears that plans for Matthews to shoot a roundtable debate scene in Develops alongside conservative muckracker/ Weiner-eater Andrew Breitbart have had to be scrapped because, according to a production insider, Matthews’s bosses at MSNBC nixed the idea.
It’s not like MSNBC has a blanket no-scripted-programming order for their anchors: Matthews played an MSNBC reporter two years ago in the Russell Crowe pic State of Play. And a guest spot on Sorkin’s show would likely be good for publicity; assuming it goes to series, Develops will likely boast an audience filled with the sort of left-leaning smarties targeted by the news-and-opinion network. So what was the problem? Our spy speculates that even though Sorkin’s ideology meshes with MSNBC’s, the network’s brass may have taken issue with the way More portrays the world of cable news and its corporate culture.[…] (UPDATE: Our source has further elaborated to us that MSNBC also didn’t like the fact that parts of the show seemed to be skewering left-leaning media.)
NY Mag describes the lead character, an anchor to be played by Daniels, as “a passionate, liberal Keith Olbermann-esque character.”
Sorkin won an Academy Award for the Social Network last year.
More as this story develops….
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