Jeff Daniels is currently in talks to take the lead role in Aaron Sorkin’s HBO pilot about a difficult, smart cable-news anchor, modeled on the likes of Olbermann, Chris Matthews, Anderson Cooper, and Brian Williams. Daniels’s jerkiest role to date, in Squid and the Whale, was such a believable, aggravating, nuanced performance of jerkiness that we’re sure he’ll be a great fit. [Deadline]