I just got off the phone with Armando Iannucci, director and one of the writers of this year’s flat-out brilliant Oscar nominee In the Loop. One of the funniest movies I have seen in years, In the Loop is a head-spinning satire filled with the most amazing insults and swear words that may have ever been uttered on film. Seriously, it’s the kind of film that changes your very approach to language. You should buy it from CHUD by clicking here.

In the Loop spins off from a British TV show called The Thick of It; after asking Iannucci about the possibility of finally getting The Thick of It on DVD in the States (people are looking into it, he says. Expect the Oscar nom for In the Loop to hurry that process), he mentioned that the show had been briefly up for a remake at ABC, but that language restrictions obviously made things tough. Specifically it was ‘terrible,’ according to Iannucci.

But then Iannucci said that he had been talking to HBO about a comedy set in Washington. I asked if we might see some of In the Loop‘s Washington characters show up, and Iannucci said,

“I like the State Department [as a setting]. It gives you the big and the small all together – it gives you the office politics and the international politics all at once. And it’s important, and it wants to be important, but it can be ignored when the President wants to ignore it. So they’re insecure about what their status is in everyday politics. That’s interesting and that gives you something to work with.”

How amazing would it be to have James Gandolfini return to HBO not as Tony Soprano but as General Flinstone? And to have David Rasche bringing weekly magic? Anna Chlumpsky would surely be happy to come back, and maybe Iannucci could import Chris Addison or Tom Hollander to reprise their roles. And just like that I’ve slipped into fancasting… but anyone who has seen In the Loop will forgive me immediately. Then they’ll start thinking about revisiting Zach Woods’ Chad every week and smile.