Although Quentin Tarantino is said to be calling his feature-film directing career quits with his next movie, that doesn’t mean he can’t lend his talents to the small-screen. Deadline has reported that Quentin Tarantino is in early talks to direct one or two episodes of Justified: City Primeval, FX’s upcoming limited-series that finds Timothy Olyphant reprising his role of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens.
Quentin Tarantino recently worked with Timothy Olyphant on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, so it’s not a complete shock that he might direct the actor in the new Justified series. Tarantino is also a big fan of Elmore Leonard, who created the character of Raylan Givens, and he also adapted Leonard’s novel Rum Punch into Jackie Brown. As I mentioned above, the director is still in early talks to direct, so I wouldn’t call it a done deal just yet. Quentin Tarantino’s last directing gig for television was a very memorable two-part episode of CSI nearly twenty years ago.
Justified: City Primeval will find Raylan Givens now based in Miami eight years after he left Kentucky behind as he balances life as a marshal and part-time father of a 14-year old girl. A chance encounter on a Florida highway sends him to Detroit and he crosses paths with Clement Mansell, aka The Oklahoma Wildman, a violent sociopath who’s already slipped through the fingers of Detroit’s finest once and wants to do so again. In addition to starring in Justified: City Primeval, Timothy Olyphant will also executive producer the series alongside showrunners and writers Dave Andron, Michael Dinner, and original Justified creator Graham Yost. The original series remains one of my favourites so I can’t wait to see what they have cooked up with Justified: City Primeval, particularly if Quentin Tarantino signs on to helm an episode or two.