How rare is it for someone with no showrunning experience to land a showrunner position? Pretty darn rare. But Alex De Rakoff, first-time showrunner on Crackle’s Snatch, based on Guy Ritchie’s 2000 film about a diamond heist and assorted scalawags, is up for the challenge of adapting the iconic film to TV.
“When I heard Sony/Crackle was making a play for it, I jumped on it straightaway,” he said.
De Rakoff promises the series will be very much its own thing, with “its own spirit, its own feel, its own tone,” he said.
The series also has Rupert Grint, a.k.a. Harry Potter’s old pal Ron Weasley. “He’s really never gotten to play this kind of character before,” said De Rakoff of Grint’s gangster role.
De Rakoff is grateful to Crackle for giving him the means to execute the show the way he wants. After a background in music videos and then feature films, De Rakoff seems pretty pleased in TV Land. “This is the space I want to be in,” he said.
Meanwhile, across the Irish Sea, Amy Huberman, star of the new Irish drama Striking Out, is enjoying her place in television, too. Four episodes have aired in Ireland, and Acorn TV had Striking Out premiering in the States on St. Patrick’s Day.
The series starts with Huberman’s character Tara coming home a bit early from her bachelorette party, only to find her fiancé in bed with another woman. Huberman says Tara is relatable as she forges on in terms of her work (she’s a lawyer) and personal affairs. “You can be a voyeur,” she said. “You can wonder, ‘How would I deal with that?’ ”
Huberman had done almost all comedy work previously, and was eager to try her hand at drama. “You always want to challenge yourself,” she said. “I was ready to approach my job in a different way.”
She was excited about the show’s St. Patrick’s Day launch in the U.S. “It makes me smile, knowing we’re going off on such an important day,” she said.
