Epix has added its third series to its original scripted slate.
The premium channel has given a 10-episode series order to Get Shorty, Deadline reports. The dark comedy series is based on the 1990 Elmore Leonard novel of the same name, which told the story of mobster Ernest ‘Chili’ Palmer’s messy transition into the movie business and Hollywood.
The Get Shorty series is being written by Davey Holmes (Shameless, Damages, Pushing Daisies, In Treatment). Holmes’ show will take inspiration from the novel, but tell a new character’s story. The hour-long series will focus on Nevada mobster Miles Daly as he attempts to leave his life of crime for the sake of his daughter. Daly tries to transition into a job as a movie producer and leave his criminal past behind, but it won’t leave him be.
Get Shorty is the last of three original scripted series Epix announced it would order last year. Epix is co-owned by Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM, and Epix planned to order an original scripted series from each of the partners. Epix’s original series now include Get Shorty from MGM TV, Joshua Michael Stern’s presidential Don Quixote comedy Graves from Lionsgate TV, and Olen Steinhauer’s espionage drama Berlin Station from Paramount TV.
MGM TV president Mark Burnett and TV Development and Production president Steve Sark shared their collective excitement for the series in a statement. “Davey has created a modern day re-envisioning of Elmore Leonard’s timeless cult classic where organized crime and Hollywood collide in very funny ways. We are thrilled to bring these irreverent characters to fans and audiences around the globe with our fantastic partners at EPIX.”
Mark S. Greenberg, Epix president and CEO, had kind words for both Leonard and Holmes’ work. “I had the pleasure of working with Elmore Leonard early in my career and I am a big fan of his writing. Davey Holmes is a tremendous talent and has created a fantastic new series that is in the spirit of Leonard’s unique brand of social satire and strong narrative voice.”
Hollywood has gone to the well of Elmore Leonard’s work before. Get Shorty was adapted for the big screen in 1995 by Barry Sonnenfeld (Men In Black, The Addams Family) and starred John Travolta, Danny DeVito, Gene Hackman and Rene Russo. Leonard’s sequel novel to Get Shorty, Be Cool, was also made into a movie. The 2005 film still starred Travolta, but was mainly new faces including Uma Thurman, Vince Vaughn and Dwayne Johnson (when he was still credited as ‘The Rock’). It was directed by F. Gary Gray, who is now most notably known for Straight Outta Compton and has Fast 8 coming up. There have also been two film versions of Leonard’s short story 3:10 to Yuma, Steven Soderbergh’s adaptation of Out of Sight and Tarantino’s take on Leonard with Jackie Brown. The most notable TV adaptation of Leonard’s work is FX’s series Justified, which Leonard was an executive producer on.
Get Shorty is set to start production this fall, and is aiming for a summer 2017 air date.