Ben Stiller is taking a break from the “Severance” director’s chair to play the lead character in a new eight-part limited series on Apple TV+.
Stiller directed the first two seasons of “Severance,” which is now Apple’s most popular original series. While Stiller won’t be directing any episodes in the third season of the series, he will still be involved as a hands-on executive producer.
Stiller’s new starring vehicle is an a new eight-part limited series called “The Off Weeks.” He will star alongside Jessica Chastain as a college professor going through a bad divorce and becomes involved with a mysterious woman played by Chastain.
“I’m at the point in my life where I’m like, ‘The clock is ticking,’” Stiller told The Los Angeles Times, “Sixty sounds old. It’s hard to get around it. And of course, it’s that other thing of, like, you know what the next one is.” He laughed. “‘Oh, s—.’”
“The Off Weeks” is from Stiller’s production company Red Hour. Production is still in its early stages, so the series likely won’t make an appearance on the streaming service until at least some time in 2026.
Stiller also has two new feature films in the works, including a World War II film, and a new “Meet the Parents” sequel, “Focker-in-Law.”
A documentary film Stiller made about his parents, the comedy team Stiller and Meara, will premiere on Apple TV+ in October. The new documentary, “Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost” will be available for streaming on October 24.
Stiller’s “The Off Weeks” co-star Jessica Chastain also has multiple project coming to Apple’s streaming service.
Chastain is about to premiere her first Apple TV+ project, “The Savant,” in which Chastain stars as a woman who is known as “the Savant” who infiltrates online hate-groups in order to prevent large-scale public attacks. “The Savant” will premiere September 26.
Chastain will also star alongside Adam Driver in “The Dealer,” a series described as “a biting exploration of power, class, seduction and culture set inside the glittering world of the high-end art market, told through the eyes of an aspiring super gallerist, played by Jessica Chastain, and the tangled relationship with her most gifted and unnerving artist, played by Adam Driver.”