'Rolling Stone' Docuseries in Development at Showtime in Wake of El Chapo Controversy

Remember that little El Chapothing that no one really talked about earlier this year? Apparently enough people talked about it to make Showtime pay attention, as the Hollywood Reporter has now confirmed that a Rolling Stone docuseries is currently in development. Sadly, for those of us (i.e. everyone) hoping the series will focus on El Chapo, the seemingly good news comes with a nice helping of disappointment.

Showtime ordered a half-hour pilot of the so-called "nonscripted television project," with the general idea being that each episode would pull its topics straight from the TV-ready pages of Rolling Stone. The pilot, if ordered to series, is believed to follow the format mastered by VICE's lucrative HBO co-sign with a more "pop culture focused" twist. Gus Wenner, Rolling Stone's digital boss and son of founder Jann Wenner, will serve as an executive producer on the untitled series.

"I have a regret that the entire discussion about this article ignores its purpose, which was to try to contribute to this discussion about the policy in the War on Drugs," Sean Penn, who had a pretty big role in Rolling Stone's internet-pausing El Chapo scoop, told Charlie Rose in a candid interview shortly after the notorious drug lord was recaptured. Adding that he believed the controversial article was a total failure, Penn also took aim at the "state of journalism in our country."

However, Penn's El Chapo scoop isn't the first time the publication has found itself mired in controversy. In November of last year, Phi Kappa Psi’s University of Virginia chapter filed a $25 million defamation lawsuit against Rolling Stone and writer Sabrina Erdely​. That suit, of course, stemmed from the magazine's swiftly discredited and eventually detracted "A Rape on Campus" story.