“True Detective” creator Nic Pizzolatto will team with Amazon on an untitled Western drama series which has landed a series commitment at the streamer and is being fast-tracked.
Amazon’s head of U.S. series and development Nick Pepper reportedly wants to make this the streamer’s version of Paramount’s “Yellowstone” mega-franchise.
Said to be in the tradition of ensemble Westerns with larger-than-life characters robbing and conning each other, it revolves around a former outlaw who must reckon with a threat from his past in order to keep the life and family he has worked so hard to build.
He begins an epic journey uniting a formidable gang of indelible figures to face an even greater danger that forces this former criminal to become the hero he’s been pretending to be.
Pepper is writing the drama and will executive produce alongside Mark Johnson (“Breaking Bad”) who is currently overseeing AMC’s Anne Rice universe and its acclaimed “Interview With the Vampire” series.
Pizzolatto has experience with westerns, having penned Antoine Fuqua’s “The Magnificent Seven” remake starring Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt and Ethan Hawke.
This will mark Pizzolatto’s first project since he exited a first-look deal at FX and Touchstone Television in early 2021. He sold the series “Redeemer” to FX which was to reunite him with Matthew McConaughey, but when the latter dropped out the plans for the series were scrapped.
Pizzolatto remains an executive producer but is not creatively involved at all in the Jodie Foster-led fourth season “True Detective: Night Country” which premieres this year and is being creatively overseen by writer/showrunner Issa Lopez and “Moonlight” helmer Barry Jenkins.
Source: THR
