An incredibly exciting reunion is taking place at—where else—Netflix. While his outstanding Cinemax seriesThe Knickjust completed a pretty definitive second season, with options being weighed regarding how to move forward with a third, filmmakerSteven Soderberghis now taking his talents to Netflix with a familiar face in tow. PerTHR, Soderbergh and hisOut of SightscreenwriterScott Frankare executive producing a limited series for Netflix calledGodless, described as a Western set in 1884.
Frank—whose screenwriting credits range fromMinority ReporttoThe Wolverine—will write and direct the project, while Soderbergh will serve as executive producer. Production on a limited number of hourlong episodes will take place in Santa Fe, New Mexico, but further details about the show’s story and tone are under wraps for the time being.
Frank most recently directed the underratedLiam NeesonthrillerA Walk Among the Tombstonesand also helmed thealsounderrated 2007Joseph Gordon-Levitt-fronted heist pictureThe Lookout, so he’s got some serious talent behind the camera to bring toGodless. This isn’t his first go-around in the television realm, however, as he also created and directed the FX pilotHoke, which did not move forward to series.
Godlessmarks a curious move for Netflix, which has thus far eschewed the “limited series” model that’s all the rage on traditional TV networks like ABC and FX. It’ll be interesting to see if this marks a trend for the streaming service, or ifGodlesswill remain an outlier in their plans to expand original series programming exponentially.
As for Soderbergh, he recently shota mysterious project for HBOwithSharon Stoneand is rumored to be involved witha new feature filmstarringChanning TatumandMichael Shannon. As mentioned before, he’s also working onplans for a third season ofThe Knickthat wouldradically mix things up, including a potential cast and location change with a desire to let another filmmaker come in and craft his or her own vision for two more seasons.
While the “retirement” claim gets thrown around a lot, it’s clear Soderbergh simply moved on from traditional feature filmmaking to telling different kinds of stories on the small screen. And the prospect of seeing him team up with the screenwriter behind one of his best films—for a Western, no less!—is highly intriguing.
