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EXCLUSIVE: In one of the first major sales this development season, I hear NBC is finalizing a deal for a modern-day Hatfields and McCoys drama series project created by John Glenn (Eagle Eye) and produced by Charlize Theron and ABC Studios. The project, which has a significant penalty attached to it, reignites the centuries-old family feud in a contemporary urban setting. The Hatfields have risen to incredible wealth and power, while the McCoys are working-class. Dawn Parouse Olmstead and Beau Flynn are producing with Theron’s Denver And Delilah Prods through their deal at ABC Studios. The deal extends ABC Studios’ relationship with NBC, where it co-produced the drama pilot Beautiful People last season.
Related: Will The Success Of ‘Hatfields & McCoys’ Spur A Wave Of Western-Themed Series?
The sale comes a week after History’s three-part Hatfields & McCoys miniseries about the famous feud starring Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton broke basic cable ratings, averaging 13.8 million viewers over three nights. With its modern-day urban setting, the NBC project is not a Western, but its lineage will likely give it some of that flavor. NBC has been the most aggressive among the broadcast networks in the Western development arena, ordering period Western drama pilots for two consecutive years: The Crossing in 2011 and The Frontierthis year. Additionally, the network is now revisiting another Western script that didn’t make it to pilot this year, a drama written by Kerry Ehrin. Denver and Delilah’s slate also includes feature project Agent 13, which the company just sold to Universal, and Mindhunter at HBO with David Fincher, which is being developed outside of the ABC Studios deal. Theron and Glenn are with WME.
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H&M appealed to the 50+ crowd, if this is an modern day URBAN series it’ll likely tank. Plus NBC is behind it so….
Wow, more original thinking from the networks! Unbelievable. Let me guess, Tom and Kevin to star!
In essence this is what the plotline of Dallas was.
I was just thinking that!
Same here! And TNT is already doing a sequel to Dallas.
wow. this sounds absolutely god-awful. what a stupid idea.
Sorry NBC, but the feud is over. It officially has come to a truce. You CANNOT do a contemporary Hatfield and McCoy series. It’s not fiction. It’s FACT.
NBC will get 1/3 of the mini series ratings with this soap opera take on Hatfields & McCoys. Try again, guys.
Great idea. Love John Glenn. He will take this to another level. This sounds very high end. Very excited.
HBO should pick up Beautiful People, Locke and Key
Those are the two shows from the last two years that I was most annoyed didn’t make it, too.
I agree. Beautiful People was one of my favorites this year.
Why doesn’t Charlize Theron join the cast of Game of Thrones? She said that she would like to do it.
Because she is very in demand and wouldn’t be able to commit for the time and years she would have to, to do the show.
I assume they aren’t going to be shootouts or people tied to trees and executed. So what kinds of “feuds” will they have? Children competing for parts in the school play, competing dinner parties?
I hate it when shows copy off other shows. Don’t do it, NBC. Be original.
Well it could be cool, but it is already watered down by the fact that it is getting put through because “Hatfields and McCoys” is doing well at the moment on another network. Wonder if this means Eric Roth’s old feature will get pushed into production soon too. That’s the only one I’d really want to see.
Wow.
More proof that network buyers are just lemmings, forever following trends, never daring to be original and set them.
This project and sale are just so cynical and disingenuous considering the success of the current iteration on cable.
I’d be ashamed to pitch this.
If the people involved can’t already see why this is ridiculous, what’s the point of trying to tell them?
“The Hatfields have risen to incredible wealth and power, while the McCoys are working-class”
And they’re feuding how?
Also seeing Charlize Theron is involved and then seeing she’s only involved as a producer is disappointing.
Terrible idea! Please tells me its a joke!
Don’t forget Hell on Wheels is already on and going into season 2.
It’s a blatant rip-off and doomed to fail. It’s the perfect show for NBC.
H&M skews southern – LA and SF ignored it, but it was big in Knoxville – there’s an audience there, no doubt. But I think Netflix and CBS should get cracking on a Jericho revival. That’s much more to the point (scruffy guys fighting a guerrilla civil war in a rural setting away from the coasts) than what NBC has planned.
Which could still work, but if it taps into the Revenge audience. Female and coastal vs male and southern/central.
How many movies are they going to do based on Hatfield books? Come on Hollywood do some research. Read Trudy Williams McCoy’s book titled, THE McCOYS: Their Story
The Hatfield McCoy reality show my family is signed with will show the world the truth about the feud which includes the McCoy version which is better than Truda Williams McCoy. The story has been 17 years in the making which includes facts that have never been published. Truda Williams wrote a great book although her ancestors sided with the Hatfields. Trudas husband was a grandson of Ole Randolf McCoy but Truda was from another McCoy relative. I am a direct descendant of Asa Harmon McCoy. Asa’s family and allies were all murderred and left as orphans including Perry Cline. There were so many Real McCoys killed in the feud that there were not many left living that actually knew much about it. However after several years I have the mysteries solved and my story is very interesting and very long.
Miss blondy working on producing a show putting the Hatfields at the top of the totem pole and the McCoys at the bottom either does not know her history or and either is a Hatfield ally and getting a bonus from the Hatfields.
The Real McCoy
The Real McCoy
Um, they’re already bringing Dallas back.
NBC didnt you learn your lesson when you tried to rip off MAD MEN.
This makes no sense at all. Hatfields are wealthy and powerful. McCoys are poor and downtrodden. How in the world would they be rivals? Hatfields would order the police to arrest the McCoys. End of series.
The appeal of the History channel version is that it was gritty and educational at the same time. At least if NBC were setting it in the same time period and basing it on the real feud, it would be something, but setting it in modern times means it is just another soap opera that will fail.
nbc shouldve picked up the frontier