As the third season of John Milch’s Deadwood comes to a close (with plenty of loose ends to tie in the two 2-hour movies planned to end the series), new details have been released on Milch’s new HBO project: John From Cincinnati. Production Weekly lists Austin Nichols as “John”, along with co-stars Bruce Greenwood, Luis Guzman, and Brian Van Holt. Nichols recently played Wyatt Earp’s brother Morgan in Deadwood.
The new series, which Milch has described as “surf noir”, will start shooting next month in Los Angeles. Plot notes from (August 25th) Production Weekly:
The dysfunctional Yost family of Imperial Beach–patriarch Mitch (Greenwood), a former surfing star who can now levitate (slightly), married to the aggressively unhappy Cissy, parents of the drug-addicted, dissolute Butchie (Van Holt), also a former surfing champ and the father himself to the talented but resentful skateboarder Shaun–find their lives disrupted by the arrival of dim but wealthy John From Cincinnati (Nichols), a boarding savant who’s come to take lessons from Butchie, and Barry Cunningham from Azusa, whose personal connection to the Yost family has him returning to Imperial Beach to avenge a wrong done to him, by them, 23 years ago.
Here’s hoping that for one, Milch can make sense of all this, the title listed in PW: “John From Cincinnati Meets the Surfing Yosts”, will revert back to the simpler title of old, and finally, that Luis Guzman (a favorite of P.T. Anderson and Steven Soderbergh) gets some serious airtime (hang-time?) when the series (hopefully) makes it to HBO in late 2007.
Related: HBO’s Lineup on Life Support
Update 8/31 - Ed O’Neill (you may know him as Al Bundy) has also been attached to the cast.
Tags: david milch, john from cincinnati
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August 30th, 2006 at 2:55 pm
So, Deadwood gets knocked off to make way for some sort of supernatural surf-noir? I wonder if Milch is shooting himself in the arm for even bringing this idea to HBOs’ doorsteps before he even had a chance to wrap up Deadwood the way he wanted. HBO is starting to gain a reputation for airing shows that either end too soon (Carnivale,Deadwood) or get delayed and half extended (Sopranos). At least in network television the good shows get their chance and the established shows get their final words in without a producers shotgun aimed at their backs.
This “John from Cincinnati” show better be something really, really special.
September 1st, 2006 at 8:19 pm
What reputation? Carnivale got awful ratings and Deadwood, which got unfocused very fast, viewers’ kept dropping like flies. I think even the writer lost interest. To get a reputation, you have to have had a much bigger following.
September 6th, 2006 at 2:46 am
I agree with comment 2.
I PLUGGED this on http://www.theplugg.com
go vote..
September 7th, 2006 at 4:15 pm
Dear Mr. Milch and Mr. Tinker:
What were you thinking? Brian Van Holt cannot possibly pass as Bruce Greenwood’s son. Patrick Stone is the much better choice. You have a demo tape of him. Watch it!
September 26th, 2006 at 8:34 pm
Okay, set the record straight this is being filmed in Imperial Beach, my co-worker has a part (suppose to be a friend of the character Shaun) in the new show.
January 17th, 2007 at 11:34 pm
I think Austin will propell this series into the living rooms of a new demographic for HBO