Television development news continue to be the greatest source of excitement in the off-season.
(via THR) FX is moving forward with a Fargo adaptation. Network president John Landgraf announced during his first upfront presentation Thursday that it will launch a 10-episode adaptation of the 1996 best picture Oscar nominee as a limited series during spring 2014.
The move comes as the network looks to push into limited series and mini-series fare, a bid to compete with premiere channel HBO and to fill a void left by the increasingly tentpole-focused film industry. To hear Landgraf tell it, there is a “huge opportunity” for content that falls between between those feature films and FX’s long-running series, or “90-hour movies” as he often dubs them.
Fargo hails from from My Generation’s Noah Hawley, who will pen the script as well as executive produce. Additionally, Joel and Ethan Coen, the writers, directors and producers behind the film starring Frances McDormand, William H. Macy and Steve Buscemi, are on board to exec produce alongside former network chief-turned-producer Warren Littefield. Production on the effort from MGM Television and FX Productions is set to begin this fall. (MGM Television will be the lead studio and will handle worldwide distribution of the series outside of the U.S. and Canada.)
“For years, people have tried to adapt this Academy Award-winning gem into a TV series with no success,” Langraf said. “I have always loved Fargo and I was skeptical about this as a series, but Noah Hawley’s script made me a believer. This script is so good and so true to the tone of the original movie.”
…The FX entry will follow a new case and new characters, all entrenched in the trademark humor, murder and “Minnesota nice” that has made the film an enduring classic.
Does anyone know: Is this supposed to be a sequel or a prequel? As in will Marge have a baby now, will she just be starting on the force? What?
Also Charlie Kaufman has a FX 30 minute comedy series he is going to show-run. To me this is welcomed news and actually makes me wonder if the ‘show-runners as auteurs’ theory is going to move forward with more people like Kaufman (perhaps too jaded by the creative process of movies) talking their stories to TV in the way people we often place as movie actors have jumped to TV.
If she’s available, they should get Edie Falco again- I’ve never seen that pilot, but I can’t imagine a better fit other than Frances McDormand herself, of course.
She’s in Nurse Jackie still (which is by no means a bad program and if anything has gotten better over time) but once I found that out (in a podcast that dedicated an episode to Fargo) I was trying to think of who else could play Marge besides McDormand herself. Falco fits (I wish she was able to break out into movies, she was excellent in Sunshine State) and I feel like there has to be an actress (who I hope is at least cast at McDormand’s age during the movie which was late 30s) in that same vein. Unfortunately, I am blanking on possible fits.
I want to see more of the motel prostitutes.
If this ethics scandal forces her out of Congress in disgrace, would be fun stunt casting to see Michele Bachmann do a cameo as a Minnesota hooker. “Well, the little fella, he was kinda funny lookin’.”
I’m almost sure that a pilot for a TV series based on “Fargo” was shot on the late 90’s (or early 00’s) starring Eddie Falco (yes, Eddie Falco) on the role created by Frances McDormand on the screen. It was seen by a small group of people, rejected, and never surface to the public eye.
But right now I could not check that.