Will it be a renaissance or a return to the dark ages for Silicon Valley in 2026? AMC Network’s “The Audacity” aims to explore all the power, drama and influence exuding from San Jose and its surrounding areas.
Stars Billy Magnussen and Simon Helberg attended Variety’s annual summit at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on January 7th to preview the drama, scheduled to air April 12th on the AMC network. Created by Jonathan Glatzer, an alum of AMC’s “Better Call Saul” and HBO’s “Succession,” “The Audacity” revolves around Magnussen’s character as an ambitious tech CEO and Helberg, a successful but deeply alienated founder and inventor.
AMC Networks Chief Content Officer and President of AMC Studios Dan McDermott and “The Audacity” Executive Producer Gina Mingacci also participated in the session featured on today’s episode of Variety’s “Strictly Business” podcast.
“In many ways, this show is a return to AMC’s storytelling roots, like ‘Mad Men,’ ‘Breaking Bad,’ ‘Better Call Saul,’ and ‘Killing Eve,'” McDermott explains. “We’re focused on three main things. One is a lightning-in-a-bottle character that can go viral and become part of the cultural conversation. You put it on a billboard and everyone knows it’s Duncan (Magnussen’s character) from The Audacity.” The second is to take the audience into a unique world or subculture that we’ve never seen depicted before or depicted in this particular way. And third, of course we want it to be funny and fun, but we also want our shows to have real cultural meaning, to be stable, and to be about something important. ”
Mr. Magnussen’s enthusiasm for his role as leader of a start-up data mining company is clear. He was immediately drawn to the subject and was captivated by Glatzer’s script.
“There were times in history when there was a renaissance, and Silicon Valley is one of the defining times for humanity in our time,” he said. “There’s no better place to make a dark comedy than in that place that’s developing our society at this time. Having been in this industry for 20 years, when I see a script written by Jonathan Glatzer, I think, ‘Damn, this is great.'”
Strictly Business host Cynthia Littleton, Audacity stars Simon Helberg and Billy Magnussen, AMC Networks’ Dan McDermott and executive producer Gina Mingacci (Photo by Brenton Ho/Variety via Getty Images)
Variety (via Getty Images)
Helberg was asked if he did a lot of research into Big Tech and AI to bring his character to life. “I didn’t have to study so much that I was lonely,” he joked.
“My character, Martin, is a bit of a maladjusted genius, probably like a lot of people in the Valley. He went to Stanford University at 15, made a lot of money early in the tech industry, and now he spends every waking moment locked in his garage with an AI companion he’s developing to help marginalized teenagers,” Helberg explained. “But he has an alienated teenage daughter that he completely ignores, and so do everyone else around him. He’s a little withdrawn. And there’s a loneliness deep inside all of the characters, and they’re all trying to connect, and they’re trying to connect through technology, and there are some pitfalls.”
“The Audacity” is a big change for AMC and its producers at a time when it’s very difficult to launch completely original concepts amidst the flood of IP-based material swirling around linear and streaming TV. Mingach, a former AMC executive and executive producer of the BBC America/AMC drama “Killing Eve,” said the high bar is why he pursues projects that are fresh and distinctive.
“Actually, it was the same challenge as ‘Killing Eve’. I mean, we don’t have as much money as the others and we don’t have as much time to accomplish it. But you guys want to be here. You guys want to play here and hopefully we accomplished that,” Mingach said. “There’s no one better than AMC to bring morally complex characters to life, and these are very special shows that are difficult to produce right now.”
The episode also features highlights from Variety’s CES conversation with Anthony Wood, founder, chairman, and CEO of Roku.
(Top photo: “The Audacity” stars Simon Helberg and Billy Magnussen, AMC Networks’ Dan McDermott)
