What we know about The Paper, the upcoming spin-off of American sitcom The Office
What we know about The Paper, the upcoming spin-off of American sitcom The Office
NEW YORK – It has been 20 years since the American version of The Office (2005 to 2013) debuted on NBC, where it ran for nine acclaimed seasons and endured as a pop culture juggernaut well after its finale. It lives on in countless memes and catchphrases, and the network says it remains one of its most-streamed shows.
So, it should surprise no one that the sitcom, as delightfully cringey as it is lovable, is finally getting a spin-off – The Paper (2025).
NBCUniversal revealed at its upfront presentation in May that The Paper would debut on its streaming platform Peacock in September.
The sitcom is being created by Greg Daniels and Michael Koman. Daniels was behind the American adaptation of The Office, while Koman created Comedy Central's Nathan For You (2013), alongside its star Nathan Fielder, a king of deadpan comedy.
Daniels and Koman are executive producers of The Paper, as are Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the duo behind the original British version of The Office (2001 to 2003).
Fans first caught wind of the potential spin-off in May 2024, when it was announced that Peacock had an untitled comedy-mockumentary series in the works. Production of The Paper began last summer.
Like The Office, The Paper is a mockumentary sitcom about an industry in trouble – this time, the newspaper business, as opposed to the paper business of the original.
It is also set in the same universe as the original. The same fictional documentary crew that followed the employees of Dunder Mifflin in Scranton, Pennsylvania, is now following those who work at The Truth Teller, a fictional newspaper in Toledo, Ohio, whose publisher is trying to revive it with the help of volunteer reporters.
Oscar Nunez is returning as Oscar Martinez, who will now work in accounting at The Truth Teller.
'I told Mr Greg Daniels that if Oscar came back, he would probably be living in a more bustling, cosmopolitan city,' Nunez said at the May presentation. 'Greg heard me, and he moved Oscar to Toledo, Ohio, which has three times the population of Scranton. So, it was nice to be heard.'
So far, Nunez is the only Office alum who is confirmed for the new series, but John Krasinski, who played Jim Halpert, told Entertainment Tonight that he would make a cameo if Daniels asked him. 'I will do anything for that guy,' Krasinski said. 'He calls, I'll show up.'
The new series will be led by actors Domhnall Gleeson, most famous for his role in Alex Garland's sci-fi film Ex Machina (2014) , and Sabrina Impacciatore, most famous for her role as the no-nonsense hotel manager during Season 2 of HBO's The White Lotus (2022).
Impacciatore will play the managing editor of The Truth Teller, and Gleeson will play a new employee.
The Paper will also star Chelsea Frei, Melvin Gregg, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Alex Edelman, Ramona Young and Tim Key. NYTIMES
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Straits Times
15 hours ago
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What we know about The Paper, the upcoming spin-off of American sitcom The Office
What we know about The Paper, the upcoming spin-off of American sitcom The Office NEW YORK – It has been 20 years since the American version of The Office (2005 to 2013) debuted on NBC, where it ran for nine acclaimed seasons and endured as a pop culture juggernaut well after its finale. It lives on in countless memes and catchphrases, and the network says it remains one of its most-streamed shows. So, it should surprise no one that the sitcom, as delightfully cringey as it is lovable, is finally getting a spin-off – The Paper (2025). NBCUniversal revealed at its upfront presentation in May that The Paper would debut on its streaming platform Peacock in September. The sitcom is being created by Greg Daniels and Michael Koman. Daniels was behind the American adaptation of The Office, while Koman created Comedy Central's Nathan For You (2013), alongside its star Nathan Fielder, a king of deadpan comedy. Daniels and Koman are executive producers of The Paper, as are Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the duo behind the original British version of The Office (2001 to 2003). Fans first caught wind of the potential spin-off in May 2024, when it was announced that Peacock had an untitled comedy-mockumentary series in the works. Production of The Paper began last summer. Like The Office, The Paper is a mockumentary sitcom about an industry in trouble – this time, the newspaper business, as opposed to the paper business of the original. It is also set in the same universe as the original. The same fictional documentary crew that followed the employees of Dunder Mifflin in Scranton, Pennsylvania, is now following those who work at The Truth Teller, a fictional newspaper in Toledo, Ohio, whose publisher is trying to revive it with the help of volunteer reporters. Oscar Nunez is returning as Oscar Martinez, who will now work in accounting at The Truth Teller. 'I told Mr Greg Daniels that if Oscar came back, he would probably be living in a more bustling, cosmopolitan city,' Nunez said at the May presentation. 'Greg heard me, and he moved Oscar to Toledo, Ohio, which has three times the population of Scranton. So, it was nice to be heard.' So far, Nunez is the only Office alum who is confirmed for the new series, but John Krasinski, who played Jim Halpert, told Entertainment Tonight that he would make a cameo if Daniels asked him. 'I will do anything for that guy,' Krasinski said. 'He calls, I'll show up.' The new series will be led by actors Domhnall Gleeson, most famous for his role in Alex Garland's sci-fi film Ex Machina (2014) , and Sabrina Impacciatore, most famous for her role as the no-nonsense hotel manager during Season 2 of HBO's The White Lotus (2022). Impacciatore will play the managing editor of The Truth Teller, and Gleeson will play a new employee. The Paper will also star Chelsea Frei, Melvin Gregg, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Alex Edelman, Ramona Young and Tim Key. NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
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Adrien Brody, the Oscar-winning actor, is also Adrien Brody, the impassioned painter, is also Adrien Brody, the beats-mixing sound artiste. Those mediums converge in a collection of more than 30 works. Accompanied by Brody's soundscapes, the show features large mixed-media art in what he calls an autobiographical display of the gritty New York of his youth, and the culture of violence and intolerance today. It is an approach that has been met with some derision both in the art press and on social media. Made In America, on view until June 28, also includes photographs of and by his mother, acclaimed Hungarian-American photographer Sylvia Plachy – a role model for Brody, who was never formally trained in visual art. A gum wall by Adrien Brody for his art exhibition, Made In America. PHOTO: SAM HELLMANN/NYTIMES It has been nearly a decade since Brody, 52, last showed his work publicly, at Art Basel Miami. So, why now? 'I'm an unemployed actor at the moment,' he said with a half smile. 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PHOTO: SAM HELLMANN/NYTIMES His father, Elliot Brody, was also a painter, but focused on his career as a teacher. It was onto Plachy's discarded photo prints that Brody began painting as a child. As a teenager, Brody attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts for drama, after being rejected for visual arts. 'It was a good thing, obviously,' he said. 'I'd definitely be a starving artist, most likely, if I didn't have an acting career. So, it's funny ho w that happened.' In Made In America, many works feature a cartoon character – Lisa Simpson or Yosemite Sam or Bugs Bunny – brandishing a weapon. It is a depiction of the violence Brody said he grew up with culturally: an American diet of toy guns, video games an d McDonald's. In Brody's vermin series, oversized black-and-white images of rats appear to pixelate behind street art tags. People are 'either grossed out by them or they are antagonistic towards them', Brody said of the scores of rats in New York City. 'And I always felt like, 'Why doesn't anybody see what they're going through?' Weirdly, I really kind of feel for them.' Rats feature in Adrien Brody's artworks. PHOTO: SAM HELLMANN/NYTIMES That compassion, he said, comes from his mother. Plachy's sensitivity towards animals rubbed off on him. So much so that he has had a pet rat – twice. The first he bought as a child and then gifted to a friend. The second, a few years ago, belonged to the daughter of his girlfriend, designer-actress Georgina Chapman. 'They're forced to kind of hide and scurry about and forage for themselves ,' he said. 'And people are nasty to them and that always bothered me.' That message, though, appears to be muddied in its reception. 'Brody is trying to do something with mice and rats, but there's no attempt to marshal this imagery towards contemporary critique,' professor of art history Claire Bishop at the CUNY Graduate Center said in an e-mail, calling his collages 'too pretty and too even' and 'lacking bite'. 'To say they look like AI-generated images resulting from search terms '19 90s LES graffiti', ' Americana' and 'Disney nostalgia' would be too generous,' she added . 'What they actually resemble is the kind of sanitised street art that's sold on 53rd Street outside MoMA or on the sidewalk in SoHo – work aimed at tourists seeking an arty yet unchallenging New York souvenir.' And viewers on social media have not taken too kindly to Brody's painterly side. In May , one of his creations, a blue-eyeshadowed Marilyn Monroe, the Hollywood sign poking out behind a puff of her blonde hair, sold at the amfAR Gala Cannes for US$425,000 (S$546,600) . The painting became a source of mockery online, and drew criticism for being derivative. Adrien Brody preparing for his art show at the gallery Gallery. PHOTO: SAM HELLMANN/NYTIMES But Brody has his defenders. 'He's real,' said Eden Gallery's chief executive Guy Klimovsky. 'He is himself.' 'Yes, people will come because it's him,' he added, 'but they will forget. Because when I see an artwork, without knowing who made it, the artworks are rich. They're interesting. They have a story connection to the US, the story of the US, to the icon of the US.' It is all part of being an artist, his mother said. 'I think when you stick your neck out into the world, you'll have good and bad comments and that's the risk of it,' Plachy said. Sitting outside the gallery the day before the opening, Brody looked down at his hands, covered in acrylic paint. 'It's a lot of pressure to reveal this,' he said. 'I've literally been hiding the works.' 'Hiding maybe isn't the right word,' he added, 'but working quietly for a very long time and not showing, intentionally, to kind of develop this and do it at my pace. And so this is kind of ripping a Band-Aid off.' NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
