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'Fargo' TV series with Coen Brothers and Billy Bob Thornton arriving next spring

'Fargo' TV series with Coen Brothers and Billy Bob Thornton arriving next spring

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fargo buscemi mgm
fargo buscemi mgm

This is a true story: the Coen Brothers and Billy Bob Thornton are bringing Fargo to TV with a 10-part miniseries for FX. The show marks the small screen debut for Ethan and Joel Coen, who will act as executive producers for the project. FX president John Landgraf says that the show will be "remarkably true to the film," although there are no plans to incorporate existing characters, like Frances McDormand’s iconic Marge Gunderson. Writer "Noah Hawley’s invented a new version of Fargo that’s its own thing, but that’s true to the sprit of the original," said Landgraf at the recent Television Critics Association press tour.

The show stars frequent Coen collaborator Thornton as Lorne Malvo — "a rootless, manipulative man who meets a small town insurance salesman and sets him on a path of destruction." This isn't the first time that someone has tried to bring the 1996 film to TV. CBS News notes that a 1997 pilot directed by Kathy Bates and starring Edie Falco as Gunderson was passed on, but ended up making it onto airwaves as a TV movie in 2003. The new Fargo is slated to premiere next spring.