Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar-winning Brokeback Mountain writers Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana have teamed with Super Size Me documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock for a drama series project set up at HBO. The project, described as a big-canvas Texas political drama, is based on an idea by Spurlock, who, along with manager-producer Larry Shuman, approached McMurtry and Ossana. McMurtry and Ossana have written a script for the project, which they are executive producing for Fox TV Studios. Spurlock and Shuman are executive producing through their shingles, Warrior Poets and the Shuman Co., respectively, with McMurtry and Ossana’s manager Adam Shulman, Jennifer Berman and Warrior Poets’ Jeremy Chilnick also expected to produce.

On the feature side, McMurtry and Ossana are writing two major period Westerns for Scott Free, The Color of Lightning for Ridley Scott to direct at 20th Century Fox, and an adaptation of S. C. Gwynne’s book Empire of the Summer Moon for Warner Bros. with Crazy Heart helmer Scott Cooper attached to direct. McMurtry won a Pulitzer for his novel Lonesome Dove, which was made into a hit miniseries. UTA-repped McMurtry and Ossana adapted the Lonesome Dove prequel Comanche Moon into a 6-episode miniseries and have developed a couple of TV projects at the broadcast networks. Spurlock, repped CAA and the Arlook Group, exec produced and starred in the docu series 30 Days.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.