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Courtesy of Random HouseSundance TV is expanding its scripted roster.
The cabler has greenlighted drama series Hap and Leonard, based on the book series by Joe Lansdale, the company announced Monday.
The six-episode series centers on a pair of best friends and martial arts experts who struggle through misadventure in a bid to stay on the right side of the law in 1980 East Texas.
Production on the drama will begin in 2015 for a 2016 broadcast.
The drama hails from Cold in July writers Jim Mickle and Nick Damici, marking the duo’s second Lansdale adaptation. Mickle will direct, with Nick Schumaker and Jeremy Platt exec producing. Lansdale will co-exec produce with Lowell Northrop; Linda Moran will consult.
The drama centers on Hap Collins, a white working-class laborer who spent time in federal prison for refusing to be drafted into the military and serve in the Vietnam War. Now In his late 30s, he is just barely making ends meet picking roses on an East Texas plantation. His colleague and lifelong best friend is Leonard Pine, a six-foot-five, gay, black Vietnam vet with anger issues. Leonard was raised by his uncle who shunned him after learning he was gay leaving Hap as his only support in the not so progressive rural South.
Hap marks Sundance TV’s latest scripted drama, following Rectify, The Red Road, The Honorable Woman and Top of the Lake. Next up is mini One Child and Danny Boyle’s Babylon, with the latter set for 2015.
Email: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com
Twitter: @Snoodit
