Showtime for Spielberg and Cody's United States

It looks like Steven Spielberg has found a home for Tara

By Josh Grossberg Jun 05, 2008 2:29 PMTags
Toni Collette, United States of TaraShowtime

It looks like Steven Spielberg has found a home for Tara.

Showtime has ordered 12 episodes of The United States of Tara, an original series dreamed up by the Tinseltown titan about a wife and mother who struggles to find stability while suffering from dissociative identity disorder, more commonly referred to as multiple personality disorder.

Juno's Oscar-winning scribe, Diablo Cody, is executive producing the half-hour single-camera comedy with tube vet Alexa Junge, who's also serving as show runner.

Tara stars Toni Collette in the title role, with Sex and the City's John Corbett as her husband, Max. They and their two teenage kids must deal with her numerous and volatile identities that may appear on any given day.

"Showtime is known as the home of several shows featuring flawed main characters, and we welcome Tara—and all her alternate personalities—to the fold," Showtime's entertainment president Bob Greenblatt said in announcing the pickup.

"What a pleasure to watch Diablo Cody and Toni Collette work together, a combination of inspired writing and acting that raises this show from just a curiosity to a compelling examination of a modern family."

Cody wrote the pilot as well as two additional segments, and is expected to pen up to a half-dozen of the season's episodes, which will start filming this summer.

No word yet from the cable network on a premiere date.