Javier Bardem was a relative latecomer to the now-apparently-inevitable wave of “movie stars” making their way to the world of prestige TV; he didn’t make the jump until teaming up with Ryan Murphy and Netflix for Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story in 2024, followed by his recent starring role in Apple TV’s Cape Fear adaptation. Bardem’s apparently gotten a taste for the small screen, though, as Deadline reports today that he’s signed on with Ozark co-creator Bill Dubuque for a new HBO show titled The Spread.
Rather than our first assumption—a horror project about malevolent, sentient margarine contaminated by alien DNA—the show sounds like it’ll be a tad closer to Dubuque’s previous projects: The synopsis sent out by HBO today describes “a visionary billionaire,” presumably Bardem, attempting to turn Miami into a new financial powerbase in America, gathering “the brilliant, the hungry and the dangerous” to him in an effort to “shift the center of economic gravity to Miami—and decide how long the party lasts.”
Which, yes, sounds like something Bardem could have a pretty good time chewing the scenery on, bringing together various damaged souls to give terrifying speeches to about his idea of success for the people of southern Florida. Interestingly, The Spread apparently came from a bit of a bold hail Mary of its own: Dubuque, co-writer Sean Sansiveri, and director Matthew Vaughn apparently sold HBO on the show directly from a pitch, without needing a pilot or any kind of development to serve as a proof of concept, which isn’t usually how HBO does this stuff. (Deadline notes that Dubuque’s old buddies at Netflix helped kick things up into a bit of a bidding war that might have convinced HBO to take the plunge.)
Meanwhile, HBO executive Francesca Orsi, who has to make a lot of these “We’re so excited about whatever the hell this latest show we’re spending money on is” statements, gave one for The Spread that was so specific that it kind of caught us off guard: “Having long wanted to set a scripted series in Florida,” Orsi wrote, expressing a hitherto unknown ambition for Floridian TV domination, “HBO couldn’t be more excited to explore the gilded chaos of Miami and bring it to life with this kaleidoscope of extraordinary, visionary talent who is as fearless as the story itself.”
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