‘Saturday Night Live’ alum Bill Hader to star in new HBO pilot

Following many years on “Saturday Night Live” and also a successful starring role on “Trainwreck” this past summer, Bill Hader may be finding a new home for himself over on HBO.

As first reported by Deadline, the funnyman is set to star in the comedy pilot “Barry” as a hitman who finds a new life for himself in Los Angeles following a stint in the midwest. For some reason, this makes us picture Hader’s character in the two puppet sketches that were put on at “SNL” during his stint both as a cast member and a host there, but we imagine this character will be a little more layered and a little less all about his time in Grenada.

This is the sort of prospect that we don’t really need to know too much about to be excited. Hader’s a consistently hilarious guy known for creating great characters, and with the support of one of the best networks in the business they could produce a great hit. Right now HBO’s still for the most part on a comedy high; “Silicon Valley” and “Veep” are two of their most-successful shows, “Ballers” was a commercial hit this summer, and they have Sarah Jessica Parker returning later this year for a show entitled “Divorce.” This is yet another chance to add to their roster someone who is extremely funny, and someone who will still have time to do other things between seasons.

It could be some time still before “Barry” is ordered to series or dismissed outright; HBO has a tendency to be patient with their pilots, which is one of the reasons why they are so well-regarded. With a few exceptions, they don’t put a show on the air until they are ready.

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