Netflix preps Zellweger thriller

The Break with Michelle Wolf has been cancelled

Streaming giant Netflix has ordered a drama series starring Renée Zellweger (Bridget Jones’s Diary), but has cancelled two of its high-profile comedy shows.

Social thriller What/If looks at the consequences of seemingly reputable people doing disreputable things. The morality-focused series will draw on culturally significant themes each season to show how people’s actions can drastically alter their lives.

The 10×60’ series is produced by US indies Page Fright, Atlas Entertainment and Compari Entertainment in association with Warner Bros Television. It has been written by Swingtown scribe Mike Kelley, who also serves as showrunner and executive producer.

Also exec producing are Melissa Loy from Page Fright, Atlas Entertainment’s Alex Gartner and Charles Roven, and Robert Zemeckis and Jack Rapke of Compari Entertainment.

Meanwhile, Netflix has pulled comedy shows The Break with Michelle Wolf and The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale after short runs.

Wolf’s series arrived on Netflix to much fanfare earlier this year following her notorious performance as host of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. The 10-episode run landed in May but has not performed well enough to earn a return.

McHale’s show, which launched in February, ran for 13 weekly episodes before six further episodes fronted by the Community star were dropped simultaneously.

Netflix has been ploughing into the comedy genre of late, ordering numerous global specials and bringing high-profile names to the service through shows like Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and David Letterman’s My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.