SundanceTV has greenlight Hap and Leonard, a series project based on the Joe Lansdale Southern noir book series about an unlikely pair of best friends and martial arts experts who struggle through misadventure, to stay on the right side of the law in East Texas during the 1980s.
Shooting will occur in 2015, with the six one-hour episodes set to bow early in 2016.
"Equal parts shocking and hilarious, Hap and Leonard will cut through in a crowded TV landscape as irresistible southern pulp noir. Jim Mickle and Nick Damici have a delightfully fresh approach to storytelling, creating vivid characters set in a picaresque world of deep friendship and occasional blood curdling incident," said SundanceTV president Sarah Barnett. “What's more, Jim and Nick are true Sundance voices, having made a splash in recent years at Sundance Film Festival with their feature film. We couldn't be happier to add ‘Hap and Leonard’ to our line up of daring scripted shows.”
Produced by Sundance Studios, the series is created by director/writer Jim Mickle and writer Nick Damici, who partnered on the film adaptation of Lansdale’s “Cold in July” with Michael C. Hall and Sam Shepard. They have adapted the novels, novellas and short stories about white, working-class Hap Collins and black, gay Leonard Pine. Mickle will also direct. The project is executive produced by Nick Shumaker and Jeremy Platt, along with co-executive producers Joe Lansdale and Lowell Northrop and consulting producer Linda Moran.
SundanceTV is preparing for its next original miniseries One Child starring Katie Leung, Elizabeth Perkins and Donald Sumpter, which will premiere on Dec. 5, and Babylon” an original series from Danny Boyle that will debut in 2015.
