Philip Seymour Hoffman was cast in new Showtime comedy 'Happyish'

Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died Sunday morning in New York of an apparent drug overdose, had been cast in a new Showtime comedy, "Happyish," which had just been announced at the recent TV Critics Association tour. 

Showtime's statement: 

Philip Seymour Hoffman was one of our generation's finest and most brilliant actors. He was also a gifted comedic talent. It was a great privilege and pleasure to work with him and we are all absolutely devastated by this sudden loss. Our thoughts go out to his family at this very difficult time.

  "Happyish" starred Hoffman as Thom Payne, an advertising executive confronting -- with considerable bitterness -- the "youthification" of his industry, notably in the executive suite, thus rendering him increasingly irrelevant. A clip was shown at the tour and apparently went over well. Hoffman represented a fresh wave of major big-screen talent migrating to the small screen (Michael Sheen on "Masters of Sex," or Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey on HBO's "True Detectives" as immediate examples) if only for a brief run. "Happyish" had a 10-episode order, which would almost certainly have been accorded numerous Golden Globe and Emmy nods; after all, Philip Seymour Hoffman was attached.