Disney-owned cable network FX has pulled the plug on Redeemer, a West Coast-set mystery drama that would have reunited True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto (Galveston) with Matthew McConaughey (Sing, Dazed and Confused), according to The Hollywood Reporter. The decision allegedly comes on the heels of news regarding McConaughey’s departure from the project, Variety reports.
Redeemer was set to be an adaptation of the novel The Churchgoer by Patrick Coleman (Fire Season). McConaughey would have played Mark Haines, former youth pastor who takes on an amateur sleuthing role as he combs Southern California in search of a missing female hitchhiker. Pizzolatto’s proposed small-screen adaptation received a script-to-series order from FX in January 2020, as reported by Variety. Coleman had shared the good news on his Twitter, although the announcement was made public as he was reportedly going through rough patch grieving the loss of a family member. The author even quotes McConaughey’s long-held mantra in the thread.
McConaughey’s detachment from Redeemer holds larger consequences for the Oscar winner’s True Detective chum Pizzolatto. Following two renewals of his HBO contract, Pizzolatto signed a multi-year first-look deal with FX/Touchstone Television, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The inaugural project that would have resulted from the partnership was intended to be Pizzolatto’s Redeemer series with McConaughey in the lead role, Variety reports. Since Redeemer is not moving forward at the network, FX execs have no obligation to sustain their agreement with Pizzolatto, via The Hollywood Reporter. The three-time Emmy nominee is allegedly negotiating the terms of an exit package with FX/Touchstone because his deal with the Disney subsidiaries runs out in couple of years, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
However, Pizzolatto is allegedly far from being at a loss for work. He recently authored the screenplay for a remake of the Danish crime thriller film The Guilty, which will allow him to continue his collaboration with The Magnificent Seven director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Southpaw), Collider reports. Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko), Riley Keough (Logan Lucky), Ethan Hawke (Before Sunset) and Peter Sarsgaard (Kinsey) are all attached to star in the film, whose distribution rights have already been nabbed by Netflix, as reported by Deadline.
McConaughey, meanwhile, is currently promoting his best-selling memoir Greenlights, which was published by Crown in October 2020.