Its been 13 years since Deadwood was axed by HBO, leaving the fates of many beloved characters up in the air. Creator David Milch and HBO discussed (in fits and starts) about a way for Milch to wrap up the series but as time went on many of the actors seemed to consider and assume that this chapter of their career was over. What a wonderful fucking thing to be wrong about.

In 2015 Milch and HBO began talking again about wrapping up the series. By summer of 2016, Milch was given the go ahead to write a script. In April of 2017 Ian McShane announced that Milch had delivered the two hour film script to HBO and if they chose not to film it, blame the studio. And with that, the news began to snowball (with a steady drum from McShane and other cast members about how brilliant the script was) up until HBO finally confirmed the movie would be going into production in the fall of 2018 with the majority of the series cast returning to their roles. The exceptions being Powers Boothe (Cy Tolliver) and Ralph Richeson (Richardson, Farnum’s cook at his hotel) who both have passed away since the series ended, and Titus Welliver (Silas Adams) who was unable to escape his filming commitments for his Amazon series Bosch.

The early buzz has called it Milch’s masterpiece. Let’s hope it lives up to that.

Some reading while you wait for the movie to begin

• This Vulture article is a good read on the behind the scenes stuff of the film. However, I don’t recommend reading it until after you’ve watched the movie as the writer does drop a story related spoiler without warning. Again, click that link after viewing.

• The New Yorker published a recent profile on Milch, who’s work on the movie’s script began shortly after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

• Timothy Olyphant was one of the most reluctant cast members to return, which he talks about candidly in this Rolling Stone interview.

• A couple more interviews I found on Collider. One with Kim Dickens and one with John Hawkes.