As much as I would absolutely love to see Deadwood return, I've been hesitant about getting my hopes up too much about HBO's potential revival movie, but, it's beginning to look as though the Deadwood movie may actually happen. While speaking at the Television Critics Association winter press-tour, HBO's President of Programming Casey Bloys offered an update on the much-anticipated revival, which may actually begin shooting sometime this year.
Assuming we can get the actors — their deals and schedules lined up — and the budget, which I think is close, we’re going to do this possibly in ’18 sometime. There are a lot of logistics that have to come together. The actors are on different shows. Assuming we can get them together, it’s looking very good.
Casey Bloys also confirmed that the Deadwood movie is exactly that, a two-hour feature, so don't get your hopes up for a mini-series. Deadwood series creator David Milch delivered a script for the movie last year, which Bloys praised as "terrific," and is currently working on a rewrite which "he and the producers are talking about." Despite the optimism, Bloys still says that "a lot of things have to fall into place for [production] to happen."
Several cast-members, including Ian McShane, Paula Malcomson, Kim Dickens, W. Earl Brown, and more have already commented on the script, but it was Malcomson, who plays Trixie, who offered up a small tease when she revealed last year that the Deadwood movie would be a "big Valentine to Trixie and Al [Swearengen]." Malcomson says that she was also impressed with how David Milch was able to step right back into Deadwood's world after so much time away.
The thing that makes Trixie so fun to play is she’s so loved by David. David loves her so much. I can’t believe her voice is still so present. It’s just right there. It’s really beautiful when you play a character that the writer [adores]. It just goes so deep for him. And I love her [too]. It’s 10 years [later], so it’s going to be really interesting.
Here's hoping that the next piece of Deadwood news I write up finds the project officially entering production.