EXCLUSIVE: Tom Blyth (Billy the Kid), Chris Diamantopolous (Red Notice), Jordyn Denning (Pam & Tommy), Zach Villa (Good Mourning with a U) and Jay Mohr (The Cleaning Lady) have signed on to star in the comedy Discussion Materials, marking the feature directorial debut of TV writer, director and producer Alfredo Barrios Jr.
The offbeat comedy is based on the based on the bestselling book Discussion Materials: Tales of a Rookie Wall Street Investment Banker by Bill Keenan. It follows Bobby Sanders (Blyth), a hustling and quick-talking ex-pro-hockey-player-turned-junior-banker who navigates the quirky and somewhat surreal world of high finance as he confronts life’s meaning within this gilded cage.
Diamantopolous will play the bank’s most feared managing director, Masterson, with Denning as Michelle, the brilliant and high-flying corporate attorney that Bobby falls for. Villa will portray Danny, an investment banking analyst whose financial brilliance is only matched by his insatiable libido, with Mohr as Abernathy, a wily and golf-loving managing director who made a lucrative career out of doing hare-brained corporate deals that line his pockets and leave his corporate clients in ruins.
Barrios Jr. adapted the script for Discussion Materials, from a story he wrote with Keenan. Howard Baldwin, Karen Baldwin, Bill Immerman, Keenan, Doug Ellin and Andrew Sugerman are producing.
Barrios Jr. is perhaps best known for serving as showrunner and exec producer on the History Channel’s critically acclaimed series Six, and as one of the EPs on USA Network’s Burn Notice. He’s also written and directed episodes of such series as Magnum P.I., Justice and Just Legal, while serving on their producing teams.
Blyth currently plays the title role in Epix’s Billy the Kid and has also recently appeared in HBO’s The Gilded Age. Additional credits include the films Benediction, Scott and Sid and Robin Hood.
Diamantopoulos is an Emmy nominee perhaps best known for his turn as Russ Hanneman in HBO’s Silicon Valley. He’s next set to appear in the second season of HBO Max’s Made for Love, as well as the AMC series Pantheon and the untitled Three Stooges sequel from director Cameron Fay.
Denning has recently appeared in such series as Pam & Tommy and Grown-ish. She’ll next appear in films including Turbo Cola, The Blue Rose and Saint Grady.
Villa has recently appeared in films including Destroyer, and in such series as Archive 81, American Horror Story and Station 19. He’ll next be seen in Addison Heimann’s horror-thriller Hypochondriac, which made its world premiere at SXSW 2022, as well as the animated film The Adventures of Bunny Bravo, B.J. Novak’s horror-thriller Vengeance, Machine Gun Kelly and Mod Sun’s comedy Good Mourning with a U and Emmanuelle Pickett’s crime pic, All Souls.
Mohr is an Emmy-nominated actor and comedian whose recent credits include the series The Cleaning Lady and American Housewife and such films as Hunter’s Moon, Drowning and Hollow Point.
Barrios Jr. is represented by CAA, The Shuman Company and Felker Toczek Suddleson; Blyth by Gersh, United Agents in the UK and MJ Management; Diamantopolous by Paradigm, Untitled Entertainment, and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman; Denning by Momentum Talent and Literary Agency; Villa by Buchwald, Velocity Entertainment Partners and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller; and Mohr by A3 Artists Agency and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.
