Netflix ordered a new series adaptation of Larry McMurtry’s novel “Lonesome Dove” straight to series, the streamer confirmed on September 8, with “East of Eden” showrunners Zoe Kazan and Jeb Stuart attached to write and run the western.
The project has been in development since February, when Teton Ridge Entertainment, a production company focused on stories of the American West, announced it had acquired film and television rights to the “Lonesome Dove” franchise. Netflix’s order followed roughly four months of negotiations over the rights, which reporting described as complicated by a web of prior claims tied to the 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and its earlier television adaptations.
Who is attached to the new adaptation so far?
Kazan and Stuart will serve as co-showrunners, reuniting after working together on Netflix’s “East of Eden” limited series. No casting announcements have been made for the new “Lonesome Dove,” which will need to introduce its version of characters like Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae, the retired Texas Rangers at the center of McMurtry’s story of a cattle drive from Texas to Montana.
“Lonesome Dove” previously reached television audiences through a 1989 CBS miniseries starring Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones that won seven Emmy Awards, along with several spinoff productions in the years that followed. Netflix has not set a target premiere date for the new series or announced a full writing staff beyond Kazan and Stuart.
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