It has been nearly five months since HBO confirmed that talks for a Deadwood movie were happening, but there has been radio silence on the subject since. That changed on Thursday when HBO insisted at the Television Critics Association Press Tour that it is still happening.
HBO programming president Michael Lombardo told TVLine that he gave creator David Milch the greenlight to begin work on a movie to finish up the Deadwood storyline.
“David has our commitment that we are going to do it,” Lombardo told the site. “He pitched what he thought generally the storyline would be — and knowing David, that could change. But it’s going to happen.”
Lombardo said that Milch has another project that he is working on, but once that is done, he will focus on the Deadwood movie. Lombardo also said that the writer is “confident” that he can get most of the cast to reprise their roles.
Deadwood starred Timothy Olyphant, Ian McShane, Molly Parker, Brad Dourif, John Hawkes, Paula Malcomson, William Sanderson and Anna Gunn. The Western only ran three seasons from 2004 to 2006 and HBO had promised in 2006 that two two-hour movies were coming to finish the storyline. Those movies never happened, though.
Talk of a new Deadwood movie appeared out of nowhere in August when actor Garret Dillahunt (who played two roles on the show) decided to tweet that he heard “credible rumors” that HBO was in talks with Milch. HBO then confirmed to Variety that “very preliminary discussions” were happening.