The Duplass brothers Mark and Jay are on their way to becoming the most important brothers in entertainment since the Marxes (okay, fine, the Baldwins). In between their acting gigs on highly acclaimed TV shows and movies, HBO has announced a two-season pickup of Animals, an animated series produced by Duplass Brothers Television that premiered at Sundance earlier this year. The show is about the dregs of New York City — the rats, pigeons, and bedbugs — as they wrestle with existential questions. “Jay and I have been excited … to have our first real experiment land at a place like HBO for two seasons is beyond what we could have imagined,†Mark Duplass said in the understated statement of the year.
Animals joins their other HBO show — Togetherness, starring Mark Duplass and Amanda Peet, which also got renewed for a second season earlier this year. It was also a very busy Sundance for the Duplasses, as that was also when they signed a four-feature film deal with Netflix. This is in addition to another film they’re producing for the streaming service: 6 Years, a film written and directed by Hannah Fidell announced at SXSW. Basically, you give a Duplass a festival, and he’ll give you a franchise.