Casey Bloys, head of original programming at HBO, recently gave some updates on the renewal possibilities for popular series like The Night Of and True Detective . Speaking at the Television Critics Association press tour (as reported by Variety), Bloys’ answers all boiled down to some version of “eventually.” His comments on a possible True Detective Season 3 are fairly representative: “ I don’t want to rush it. I don’t want to do anything just to get it on the air.”
But it’s his statement on Deadwood that most piques this cowpoke’s interest. What Bloys had to say doesn’t sound all that encouraging.
“David Milch is still writing. I believe he’s writing a Deadwood movie that I have not read,” Bloys said. “When it’s ready we will take a look at it.”
That’s a bummer.
We’ve excitedly posted on the possibility of a Deadwood movie before. In early 2016 HBO made it sound like a done deal. We were only waiting on a script from Deadwood creator David Milch. Then in August Kim Dickens, who played Joannie Stubbs on Deadwood , said the Deadwood creator had been sitting down with individual cast members to read them scenes from the script. The last roadblock to a Deadwood movie seemed very nearly swept aside.
But Bloys makes it sound as if no progress has been made since then. The Deadwood movie is not in active preproduction or anything like that. Instead, HBO is just waiting.
Getting together a big cast like Deadwood ’s — now over 10 years removed from the end of its third season — seems like a tricky proposition. So while the Deadwood movie still sounds like a possibility, the longer it lingers, the more it feels like the chance is slipping away.
