Chris O'Dowd, Ray Romano team up for Epix's new 'Get Shorty'

A professional killer heads for Hollywood to make a fresh start as a novice movie producer in Epix's new “Get Shorty,” based on both the 1995 film and Elmore Leonard's novel.

Chris O'Dowd plays the hitman, and Ray Romano stars as a has-been filmmaker who reluctantly agrees to become his partner. The serio-comic show premieres Sunday, Aug. 13.

The new version of “Get Shorty” expands on the original themes in the same way as another big-screen property developed for TV, “Fargo.” The main characters have been renamed. (“Shameless” and “In Treatment” alum Davey Holmes did the adaptation.)

“I saw the pilot, and I did not care for it,” deadpans O'Dowd, whose work has included “Bridesmaids” and HBO's “Girls” (in a recurring part). “No, I thought it was really terrific. It's got a very specific kind of style, with these long tracking sequences that are four or five minutes at a time, and the music sounds like (the movie) 'Birdman.' It's very exciting to watch.”

For Romano, whose post-”Everybody Loves Raymond” work has involved “Men of a Certain Age” and “Parenthood,” straddling the line between comedy and drama is familiar.

“'Washed-up,' I can identify with,” he muses of his “Get Shorty” role. “'Producer' is a stretch. I've got to be honest, I don't think I ever saw the movie back then. I've seen it now because of the show, and I loved it ... but the show is closer in tone to the book. I describe it as 'Fargo'-esque, quirky and funny but intense.”

O'Dowd also hadn't seen the John Travolta-Gene Hackman “Get Shorty” movie when he was cast for the series, though he allows he “had a general idea of what it was about. I wasn't that interested in playing a Mafia guy, because it sounded like there was an awful lot of that around already ... but Davey asked to meet, so I did, and he pitched me this idea of an ex-Irish paramilitary guy who became the heavy for a crime syndicate outside Vegas. It felt like a fresh take on that world, then I read the script and loved it.”

Romano believes “Get Shorty” fits his current career wheelhouse. “I don't say that I'll never do a straight comedy again,” he reflects, “but I won't do a sitcom again. I've been offered some, and I don't even want to revisit that, because I don't have to follow what I've done. I respect and love that genre, but I want to leave my sitcom legacy alone. And I'm really drawn to doing something that also has drama in it.”