'Lake Success' HBO Limited Series Will Star Jake Gyllenhaal As A Narcissist On A Cross-Country Bus Ride

Jake Gyllenhaal will take a trip to Lake Success with a new HBO limited series. Gyllenhaal will star and executive produce the show, adapted from the novel by Gary Shteyngart. In Lake Success, the actor will play a narcissist who abandons his family to take a cross-country bus ride in search of his college girlfriend. This will mark Gyllenhaal's first foray into playing a main role in a TV series.

Sooner or later, everyone either heads to Netflix for HBO. Having already done Netflix with Velvet Buzzsaw, Jake Gyllenhaal is now jumping to HBO with Lake Success. Per Deadline, the limited series "centers on narcissistic, self-deluded and hilariously divorced from the real world, hedge fund manager Barry Cohen (Gyllenhaal) who flees his family, his past and the SEC on a cross-country bus ride in search of his college girlfriend and a last chance at romantic redemption. Meanwhile, back in Manhattan, his brilliant wife Seema struggles to raise their autistic son and begins a tragicomic love affair of her own."

The series will be produced by Gyllenhaal and Riva Marker's Nine Stories and Endeavor Content. Gyllenhaal and Marker released the following statement about the project:

"Gary's novel is a beautifully executed character study highlighting the depth of human contradiction and complication, set against the timely backdrop of America today. We are thrilled to partner with HBO, who has consistently been home to some of the most exciting and acclaimed premium content over the past two decades."

Here's the book's synopsis, which provides a bit more detail:

Narcissistic, hilariously self-deluded, and divorced from the real world as most of us know it, hedge-fund manager Barry Cohen oversees $2.4 billion in assets. Deeply stressed by an SEC investigation and by his three-year-old son's diagnosis of autism, he flees New York on a Greyhound bus in search of a simpler, more romantic life with his old college sweetheart. Meanwhile, his super-smart wife, Seema—a driven first-generation American who craved the picture-perfect life that comes with wealth—has her own demons to face. How these two flawed characters navigate the Shteyngartian chaos of their own making is at the heart of this piercing exploration of the 0.1 Percent, a poignant tale of familial longing and an unsentimental ode to what really makes America great.

While the last thing we probably need right now is yet another story about a self-centered guy who treats his wife like junk, Gyllenhaal is talented enough to potentially do something interesting here. At the very least, I hope Gyllenhaal does one of those goofy voices he's been using in his recent roles.