Philip Seymour Hoffman was working on Showtime series at time of death

Let this be one more layer in the pretty sad story of Philip Seymour Hoffman. While it has been pretty well-documented at this point that he was working on “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay,” and even had a key scene or two to still film in the second part of the movie, what has received a little less attention as of late is the still-important news that he was actually being considered for a Showtime Original Series, which was getting some good internal buzz.

Hoffman was set to star in “Happyish,” a project about a man in the advertising agency whose entire life is sent in a new direction after his company is completely taken over. We suppose that there are hints in there that make this somewhat similar to this past season of “Mad Men,” but Hoffman has a reputation of playing things differently. But, the major difference here is that this show was conceived to be more of a comedy versus the heavy drama of Matthew Weiner and company.

At the time of Hoffman’s death, only a pilot for the show had been filmed; but still, early indications were that this could have been a project that netted him a great deal of recognition and attention.

In a statement following the news of his passing, Showtime lauded “one of our generation’s finest and most brilliant actors… It was a great privilege and pleasure to work with him and we are all absolutely devastated by this sudden loss.” Hoffman’s TV work also included the miniseries “Empire Falls,” which netted him an Emmy nomination. While he was known much more for his film work, he, like many other actors of our time, was starting to see more and more the value of the small screen as a way to tell great, unique stories.

Hoffman will be greatly missed, not just for the work that he had completed, but what could have come even beyond this project.

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Photo: Showtime