HBO chief praises David Milch’s “terrific” Deadwood movie script

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

I've been trying not to get my hopes up about the potential Deadwood movie, because, hey, you never know, but as the project inches closer and closer to reality, it's hard not to get excited. When the HBO series was cancelled over a decade ago, there was talk of some sort of continuation or conclusion to the series, but the likelihood of any sort of resurrection grew rather slim as the years wore on. Then, rumours emerged that Deadwood creator David Milch was having "very preliminary conversations" with HBO about bringing the series back as a movie, and HBO later gave Milch the green-light.

David Milch's script for the two-hour Deadwood movie was was delivered to HBO several months ago, leaving it in the network's hands. Ian McShane, who played Al Swearengen on the series, joked that "if they don’t deliver [a finished product], blame them," later adding that HBO seemed "quite keen" to deliver. Casey Bloys, President of Programming at HBO, told reporters at the Television Critics Association summer press-tour that he was impressed by Milch's script, which he was hoping would also appeal to viewers who hadn't watched the original series, something Milch which has apparently done.

I wanted a script that would stand on its own … I’m happy to say that David totally delivered on that. It’s a terrific script.

However, that doesn't mean that the Deadwood movie is cleared to proceed, there's also the matter of getting the rather large cast together, coming up with a budget, and finding a director. "If we can do it for a budget that makes sense for us, if we can find a director and we can get the cast together — it’s no easy task — we’re inclined to do it," Bloys said. Many of the Deadwood actors are quite busy with other projects and are frequently in demand, so rounding all of them up will likely be a challenge, but I have to hope that HBO will make every effort to get this project up and running. It'd be a damned shame if it all came crashing down when we're so close.

Which Deadwood character are you most excited to see again?