Jake Johnson will play the lead role in an animated comedy that has been ordered to series at Netflix, Variety has learned.
Titled “Hoops,” the series centers on a hot-headed, foul-mouthed high school basketball coach (Johnson) who thinks turning around his God-awful team will take him to the “big leagues.” Netflix has ordered 10 episodes of the half-hour series.
Johnson will also serve as an executive producer on the series in addition to voicing the main character. The actor is best known for his role as Nick Miller on the popular Fox comedy “New Girl,” which concluded earlier this year after seven seasons. Johnson has also recently lent his voice to the Netflix animated series “BoJack Horseman.” On the film side, he recently appeared in “Jurassic World” and “The Mummy.”
He is repped by UTA, 3 Arts Entertainment, and Jackoway Tyerman.
“Hoops” is created and executive produced by Ben Hoffman, who previously wrote for “The Late Late Show with James Corden,” “Archer,” and multiple Comedy Central roasts. He is repped by UTA and 3 Arts.
Phil Lord and Chris Miller will also executive produce via Lord Miller Productions along with Seth Cohen. Aubrey Lee will oversee the project for Lord Miller, which is also repped by UTA and Ziffren Brittenham. 20th Century Fox Television will produce the series, with Bento Box serving as the animation house.
This marks the latest in a string of animated series pick ups for 20th TV. The studio also has “Central Park” with a two-season order at Apple, “Solar Opposites” with a two-season order at Hulu, and “Bless the Harts,” which was ordered straight-to-series at Fox and also hails from Lord Miller.