Writer Jill Soloway Pens Pilot Starring Jeffrey Tambor as a Trans Parent

Emmy-winning writer and director Jill Soloway (Six Feet Under, The United States of Tara, Afternoon Delight) has signed a deal with Amazon to produce a pilot about being a transgender parent — with Arrested Development's Jeffrey Tambor in the title role, according to Deadline.

The 30-minute pilot for Transparent — get the pun?! — will introduce viewers to Mort (Tambor), a middle-aged parent who sits his three adult children down for a revealing, personal conversation. Mort has been secretly living a double-life as a woman, and is eager to introduce the family to their new, authentic parent. One of those three children has already been cast in Gaby Hoffman of Veronica Mars. The other two children, a son and a daughter, have ye to be cast.

Of course, Mort's revelation comes as a surprise to the family, who are then forced to re-examine their own relationships to each other, to other people, and to the world as a whole. The pilot, which Soloway is both writing and directing, explores themes of gender, sex, intimacy, and boundaries, according to Deadline. 

The pilot is expected to begin shooting next month. Whether or not the series itself will get picked up remains to be seen, but the pilot has been optioned by Amazon Studios — which entered the original content game shortly after rival Netflix announced it, too, would debut original, exclusive scripted content. It would appear that Tambor prefers the freedom and flexibility these instant channels can provide over the major networks, as Tambor recently reprised his role as patriarch George Bluth, Sr. in Netflix's much-lauded fourth season of Arrested Development. Tambor also starred in another pilot for Amazon, leading the team of Onion News Empire. 

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