FX Announces Fargo as a "Limited Run" Series

FX today announced they have given a greenlight to Fargo, a TV version of the Academy Award winning Coen Brothers movie.

The project will be a "limited run series" (AKA, a miniseries) consisting of ten episodes. Joel & Ethan Coen will executive produce, with Noah Hawley (The Unusuals) writing and serving as showrunner. Warren Littlefield is also executive producing.

The series won’t retell the film's storyline, but follow a new case – presumably with Marge Gunderson (played so memorably by Frances McDormand in the film) involved, though FX only says “new characters” will be a part of the story.

How cool was this Fargo poster? Answer: Very cool.

“For years, people have tried to adapt this Academy Award-winning gem into a TV series with no success,” said FX president, John Landgraf. “I have always loved Fargo and I was skeptical about this as a series, but Noah Hawley’s script made me a believer. This script is so good and so true to the tone of the original movie.”

The decision to not look at Fargo as a show that might go for several years goes hand in hand with what Landgraf, told me when we spoke earlier this year – that moving forward, they are committed to letting a show be as long (or short) as makes sense, and if a series is best served as only lasting one or two years, so be it.

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Fargo will debut spring 2014.

FX also announced several other “limited series” in development, including the following (with network-provided descriptions).

Mayflower
This series is an unflinching portrait of the Puritan settlers at Plymouth Colony and their uneasy alliance with the local Native Americans. The series will be executive produced by Gil Netter (Life of Pi, The Blind Side) and marks his first foray into television. Serving alongside Netter as Executive Producers are Dan Carey and Paul Giamatti (Sideways, John Adams). Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice) are writing the series and executive producing. Produced by FX Productions in association with Touchy Feely Films.

Grand Hotel
In this series, an international luxury hotel in Paris turns into a hellish trap when it becomes the center of a terrorist attack. Written and executive produced by Richard McBrien (Merlin, Wallander), Grand Hotel will also be executive produced by Pippa Harris (Revolutionary Road, Jarhead), Sam Mendes (Skyfall, American Beauty), and Alain & Vassili Clert (Spiral).

Mad Dogs
Based on the British series and written by Cris Cole (Mad Dogs, The Bill), this series follows the reunion of four forty-something guys who head to Belize to visit their old school friend, when things take an unexpected and dark turn. Shawn Ryan (The Shield, Terriers, The Chicago Code) will serve as Executive Producer alongside Cole. Produced by Sony Pictures Television, in association with Left Bank.

Sutton
Based on the novel “Sutton” by J.R. Moeringher, this extraordinary journey begins on Christmas Eve 1969, when Willie “The Actor” Sutton – Irishman, lover, folk hero, and the most prolific bank robber in American history – stepped out of Attica Prison and boarded a plane for New York City, where he proceeded to take a reporter and photographer on a five-borough guided tour of his remarkable life and crimes. Written and executive produced by Rob Siegel (The Wrestler, Big Fan), Sutton will be executive produced by Jim Burke (The Descendants, Cedar Rapids), Michael De Luca (Moneyball, The Social Network), Alexander Payne (The Descendants, Sideways),) and Jim Taylor (The Descendants, Sideways). Produced by FX Productions.

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