Skip to main content

HBO confirms that the Deadwood movie is on the way

deadwood movie confirmed
HBO has given showrunner David Milch the green light to make a new film that continues the story from its 2004 western TV series Deadwood. After months of rumors, HBO programming chief Michael Lombardo told TVLine that he signed off on the project after a conversation with Milch.

“David has our commitment that we are going to do it,” Lombardo said. “He pitched what he thought generally the storyline would be — and knowing David, that could change. But it’s going to happen.”

The cult classic, which only lasted three seasons, was a gritty portrait of the people and politics in a lawless South Dakota town during the late nineteenth century. Though it didn’t last long, the critically acclaimed series won prestige for HBO and elevated the careers of its many stars, including Timothy Olyphant and incoming Game of Thrones player Ian McShane. When asked how the network planned to corral the many stars needed to bring the series back to life, Lombardo said he would “leave that in David’s hands.”

“Some casts and creators form a bond that becomes relevant for the rest of their lives,” he said. “This was a defining moment for a lot of them.”

Milch himself has moved on to new things, and Lombardo said that the Deadwood movie would not move forward until the showrunner completes his current project. Could he still be working on that 2011 adaptation of Heavy Rain? (Probably not.)

In other words, don’t get too excited yet. Even though it’s more than a pipe dream, there are about a million things that could go wrong. Still, Lombardo, at least, seems to have faith that we’ll come back around to Deadwood sooner or later.

“I’ve known him for a while and it feels like it’s something he’s not done talking about,” Lombardo said.

Mike Epstein
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Michael is a New York-based tech and culture reporter, and a graduate of Northwestwern University’s Medill School of…
The best David Cronenberg movies, ranked by Rotten Tomatoes
The Fly (1986) directed by David Cronenberg

If you're Canadian auteur David Cronenberg, purveyor of oozy body horror, psycho-sexual titillation, and all manner of other subversive content, it's hard to imagine better pre-release hype around your new film than numerous reports of nauseated audiences fleeing screenings. Of course, this was the Cannes Film Festival, where people enjoy walking out of movies for virtually any provocation. And the movie, Crimes of the Future, once widely reviewed, proved to be not quite as repugnant as those early reports described, despite its graphic depiction of organ removal surgery as live entertainment.

Still, the fact remains that few filmmakers alive could stir up such pre-release controversy. Even after not having made a feature film since 2014 -- and not one in this vein for several decades -- people knew exactly what they were getting into with a David Cronenberg movie. (The horrible goop mutants in the animated comedy series Rick and Morty are called Cronenbergs if that gives you some indication of the associations conjured by the man.) In celebration of the master's return to the splendidly sickening, we list his best films according to Rotten Tomatoes.
10. Scanners (1981) – 70%

Read more
Be kind, rewind: How VHS shaped the way we watch movies
Video player with vhs cassette, neon light.

One of my earliest memories, from when I was four or five years old, is seeing a cardboard display case decked out with pristine copies of Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman movie, complete with the iconic bat symbol logo and striking yellow plastic packaging. This was my personal introduction to the world of VHS, a.k.a. the Video Home System. But due to the year I was born, I was also what some might call a member of the late majority — or even a laggard.

For those true early adopters, at least in the United States, the first glimpse at the VHS video player and cassette took place at a press conference prior to the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in June 1977. That month -- the same one in which the Apple II computer went on sale, Oracle Corporation was founded, and Elvis performed his final concert before his death – the VHS made its stateside debut and changed the way we viewed entertainment in the process.

Read more
Michael Mann’s 5 best films, ranked by IMDb
Al Pacino sits at a diner table in Michael Mann's Heat.

Michael Mann is one of the great American filmmakers. Over the past 40+ years, the director has delivered a number of classic, widely beloved films, including 1995’s Heat and 2004’s Collateral. His last movie, Blackhat, was released in theaters in 2015, and Mann hasn’t made a new film since.

This week does mark the release of Mann's first directorial outing in 7 years. Returning to the same crime genre he’s frequently explored, Mann directed the pilot episode of Tokyo Vice, the new Ansel Elgort and Ken Watanabe-led series that just premiered on HBO Max. In honor of the occasion, here’s a list of the five highest-rated movies Michael Mann has made, according to IMDb.
Thief (1981) — 7.4 rating

Read more