John Hawkes

LOS ANGELES -- First FX showed its love for Minnesota by producing the TV version of "Fargo," which debuts April 15. Now, the network has announced production for a pilot for "Here and Now," a comedy starring Minnesota native John Hawkes, who will play a TV host who can explain how and why a nuclear reactor works, but is cluess about life. The show, which also stars Michael Cera, was created by Charlie Kaufman, who lived in Minneapolis in the late 80s -- and even answered phones at the Star Tribune -- before writing the script for "Being John Malkovich," among other credits.

I mentioned to FX president John Landgraf that Hawkes, who starred in "The Sessions," has been underrated, he nodded in agreement.

"He's long overdue," Landgraf said. He also mentioned that in the 19 drama pilots that he's greenlit in the past 10 years, only three didn't become series. Hawkes starred in one of them.

The pilot goes into production in three months.