On the eve of the launch of its new Florence Pugh-led mini-series take on John Steinbeck’s classic novel “East of Eden,” Netflix and that show’s co-showrunners are set to tackle another famous American literary work.
Zoe Kazan and Jeb Stuart will return as co-showrunners for the new project, which will adapt Larry McMurtry’s 1986 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Lonesome Dove” into a Netflix series. One key difference is that this is being conceived from the get-go as an ongoing series.
Indie studio Teton Ridge Entertainment acquired the screen rights to the literary franchise back in February and brought Kazan and Stuart on board in April before the title landed at Netflix with a straight-to-series order in May.
It’s only now that Netflix has confirmed plans for the series as, according to Deadline, a “complex web of necessary rights” still had a few gaps that needed to be secured before the streamer could proceed. That’s now complete, so they can move forward.
The story follows former Texas Rangers Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call as they embark on one final, perilous cattle drive from the Rio Grande to the untamed wilderness of Montana in pursuit of a dream they have perhaps already outlived.
Along the way, they encounter an eclectic cast of characters across the American West, with themes tackling things like unrequited longing, unbreakable friendship, brutal frontier justice, and the pursuit of a meaningful life.
Thomas Tull, Jillian Share, Jen Gorton, Jon Jashni, Diana Ossana and Curtis McMurtry will all executive produce.
The property was famously turned into a four-part 1989 miniseries by CBS starring Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones – the production winning a Peabody, seven Emmys and two Golden Globes. Subsequent books in the series were also adapted into miniseries.
