''American Gigolo'' is an American

neo-noir Neo-noir is a film genre that adapts the visual style and themes of 1940s and 1950s American film noir for contemporary audiences, often with more graphic depictions of violence and sexuality. During the late 1970s and the early 1980s, the term ...

crime drama Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

television series developed by David Hollander. It is based on the 1980 film of the same name written and directed by

Paul Schrader Paul Joseph Schrader (; born July 22, 1946) is an American screenwriter, film director, and film critic. He first became known for writing the screenplay of Martin Scorsese's ''Taxi Driver'' (1976). He later continued his collaboration with Scor ...

. The series stars

Jon Bernthal Jonathan Edward Bernthal (; born September 20, 1976) is an American actor. He came to prominence for portraying Shane Walsh on the AMC horror drama series '' The Walking Dead'' (2010–2012; 2018), where he was a starring cast member in the f ...

as Julian Kaye, the protagonist of the original film, alongside

Gretchen Mol Gretchen Mol (born November 8, 1972) is an American actress. She is known for her role as Gillian Darmody in the HBO series '' Boardwalk Empire'' (2010–2014). She also appeared in the films ''Rounders'' (1998), ''Celebrity'' (1998), ''The Thir ...

Lizzie Brocheré Elizabete D'Clouassam Brocheré (, born 22 March 1985) is a French actress, writer and producer. Her English language credits include '' American Horror Story: Asylum'' (2012–2013), ''The Strain'' (2015), ''Versailles'' (2015–2017), '' Falli ...

Gabriel LaBelle Gabriel LaBelle (born September 20, 2002) is a Canadian actor. He is best known for his leading role as young aspiring filmmaker Sammy Fabelman in Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical film ''The Fabelmans'' (2022), for which he received accl ...

Leland Orser Leland Jones Orser (born August 6, 1960) is an American actor, director and writer. He has appeared in numerous film and television roles since his debut in 1991, notably as Lucien Dubenko on the television series '' ER'' (2004–09), Father Rome ...

, and

Rosie O'Donnell Roseann O'Donnell (born March 21, 1962) is an American talk show host, comedian, and actress. She began her comedy career as a teenager and received her breakthrough on the television series ''Star Search'' in 1984. After a series of television ...

. ''American Gigolo'' premiered on

Showtime Showtime or Show Time may refer to: Film * ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film * ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur Television Networks and channels * Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...

on September 11, 2022. In January 2023, the series was canceled after one season.

Premise

Julian Kaye a 38 year old former male escort is exonerated 15 years after being framed and arrested for murder. Struggling to find his footing in the modern-day Los Angeles sex industry, he seeks the truth about the frame that sent him to prison in 2007 and hopes to reconnect with his one true love, Michelle.

Cast and characters

Main

as Julian "Johnny" Kaye **

as young Julian "Johnny" Kaye / Colin Stratton *

as Michelle Stratton *

as Isabelle ** Harlow Happy Hexum as young Isabelle *

as Richard Stratton *

as Det. Joan Sunday

Recurring

Wayne Brady Wayne Alphonso Brady (born June 2, 1972) is an American comedian, actor, and singer. He is a regular cast member on the American version of the improvisational comedy television series '' Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' He was the host of the daytim ...

as Lorenzo ** Kondwani Phiri as young Lorenzo * Alex Fernandez as Panish * Laura Liguori as Elizabeth Shannonhouse *

Sandrine Holt Sandrine Claire Holt (born Sandrine Vanessa Ho; 19 November 1972) is a Canadian actress. She was born in London and raised in Toronto. Early life Holt was born Sandrine Vanessa Ho in Croydon. Her middle name was later changed to Claire. Her fa ...

as Olga Desnain *

François Chau François Chau (born October 26, 1959) is a Cambodian and American actor. He is known for his roles as Dr. Pierre Chang in ABC's '' Lost'', Quick Kick on '' G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'', Dr. Chang in the film '' 21 & Over'', Shredder in '' ...

as Don Clyborne * Yolanda Ross as Lizzy * Jay Washington as Luther *

Patrick Fischler Patrick Fischler (born December 29, 1969) is an American character actor known for his roles as Jimmy Barrett on the drama series '' Mad Men'', Dharma Initiative worker Phil on the drama series '' Lost'', and Detective Kenny No-Gun on the poli ...

as Theodore Banks *

Heather McComb Heather McComb (born 2 March 1977) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Maggie on ''Party of Five'' (1998–1999) and Frances Malone in '' Profiler'' (1997–1998). Career McComb started acting at age two in a commercial ...

as Rachel *

Melora Walters Melora Walters (born October 21, 1959) is an American actress and filmmaker, best known for her starring roles as Wanda Henrickson on HBO's ''Big Love'' (2006–2010) and Kathy Kone on Hulu's '' PEN15'' (2019–2021). She has frequently collabora ...

as Maryanne Henderson * Taylor Blackwell as Lisa Beck

Guest

* Jay Alan Christianson as Kevin Finnegan * Juliana Joel as Zoe *

M. Emmet Walsh Michael Emmet Walsh (March 22, 1935 – March 19, 2024) was an American actor who appeared in over 200 films and television series, including supporting roles as Earl Frank in '' Straight Time'' (1978), the Madman in ''The Jerk'' (1979), Captai ...

as Coleman. This was Walsh’s final television appearance. * Heather Mazur as Anne *

Lothaire Bluteau Lothaire Bluteau (born 14 April 1957) is a Canadian actor, active in film, theatre, and television. He won the Genie Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his portrayal of the title character in Denys Arcand's ''Jesus of Montreal'' (1989) ...

as Guy

Episodes

Production

Development

A television adaptation of the 1980 film ''

American Gigolo ''American Gigolo'' is a 1980 American neo-noir crime drama film written and directed by Paul Schrader, and starring Richard Gere and Lauren Hutton. It tells the story of a high-priced escort in Los Angeles (Gere) who becomes romantically ...

'', written and directed by

and starring

Richard Gere Richard Tiffany Gere ( ; born August 31, 1949) is an American actor. He began appearing in films in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in ''Looking for Mr. Goodbar (film), Looking for Mr. Goodbar'' (1977) and a starring role in ''Days of Hea ...

, was announced as being in development on October 29, 2014.

Jerry Bruckheimer Jerome Leonard Bruckheimer (born September 21, 1943) is an American film and television producer. He has been active in the genres of action, drama, comedy, fantasy, horror and science fiction. After working in advertising out of college, Bruck ...

, a producer on the original film, was set to executive produce the potential series, with

Paramount Television Studios Paramount Television Studios, formerly the second incarnation of Paramount Television, was the television arm of American film studio Paramount Pictures, a division of Paramount Global, founded on March 4, 2013, by its predecessor, Viacom, fol ...

serving as the production company. On November 2, 2016, it was announced that

had set up the project for development, with

Neil LaBute Neil N. LaBute (born March 19, 1963) is an American playwright, film director, and screenwriter. He is best known for a play that he wrote and later adapted for film, ''In the Company of Men'' (1997), which won awards from the Sundance Film Fest ...

attached as writer. The project was subsequently ordered to pilot on March 11, 2020, after going through multiple different incarnations, with ''

Ray Donovan ''Ray Donovan'' is an American crime drama television series created by Ann Biderman for Showtime. The drama, starring Liev Schreiber in the title role, is set primarily in Los Angeles (during seasons 1–5) and in New York City (during seaso ...

''s David Hollander set to produce the series as well as write and direct the pilot. On June 15, 2021, it was announced that Showtime had given the project a 10-episode series order, with Hollander set as

showrunner A showrunner is the top-level executive producer of a television series. The position outranks other creative and management personnel, including episode directors, in contrast to feature films, in which the director has creative control over th ...

. On April 23, 2022, it was announced that Hollander had left the project after an on-set misconduct investigation. The series premiered on September 11, 2022. On January 30, 2023, Showtime canceled the series after one season.

Casting

After a casting search took place in early 2020,

was cast as the lead alongside the pilot order announcement in March 2020. In November 2020,

was cast in a lead role, with

added in a starring role the following month.

, and

joined the main cast in January 2021, with

set to star in a recurring capacity that same month.

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

began on July 12, 2021, in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. On April 27, 2022, it was reported that production was shut down for four days due to Hollander's dismissal and an actor being unavailable at the moment. On May 12, 2022, it was announced that production was shut down again for at least two weeks as David Bar Katz exited the series.

Reception

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

reported a 35% approval rating with an average rating of 5.2/10, based on 37 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Wasting

's considerable charms on a tedious murder mystery, this ''American Gigolo'' is more dud than stud."

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 50 out of 100 based on 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* * {{Showtime Network programming 2020s American crime drama television series 2020s romantic drama television series 2022 American television series debuts 2022 American television series endings American romantic drama television series American English-language television shows Live action television shows based on films Male prostitution in the arts American television shows about prostitution Showtime (TV network) television dramas Television series by Paramount Television Television series set in the 1980s Television series set in the 2020s Television shows about murder Television shows filmed in Los Angeles Television shows set in Los Angeles