Kevin Costner To Star In 10-Part Series Legal Series TRIAL For Amazon Prime Instant Video
Amazon Instant Prime is officially ‘killing it’ with the talent they’re getting onboard. Not only did has the online platform managed to get Woody Allen and Terry Gilliam – but now Kevin Costner is in the frame to star in a new 10-part series for the company. The Oscar-winner is currently in negotiations to star in Trial, a legal drama from David E. Kelly. If he signs, the show will get a full season order, with David Semel directing the pilot.
According to Deadline:
‘The legal drama, which Kelley co-wrote with his Practice and Boston Legal producer , fellow former attorney Jonathan Shapiro, centers on Billy McBride (the role that Costner is in talks for). Once a big and powerful lawyer, Billy has become a shell of his former self, an alcoholic in a rumpled suit. Billy’s downfall came after he lost a case that saw an innocent kid murdered, and his guilt-driven alcoholism cost him his wife and his job after his longtime partner Cooper turned on him and kicked him out of their law firm. Still hanging onto his dry charisma, Billy is now going head-to-head against Cooper, bringing a case against his former partner, which begins to stir in him his old ambition.’
Costner is a guy who has long stated that he has no interest in traditional television. He did bring the record breaking western, Hatfields And McCoys to the screen a couple of years ago – but that was only a three part mini-series that originally started out as a film. He once told me:
‘I can’t do a part once a week. I need to sit with my lines almost a month before I do them. I don’t think I would do well on a series week-by-week, I don’t perform very well that way. Even when I tell people that they go, “Oh no you’ll be fine,” and I go, “No I won’t!”’
The material and the schedule would seem to suit Costner’s style – and his work ethic. I doubt we’ll see this for multiple seasons, but a nice 10 part legal drama with Kevin Costner seems like a sweet proposition.
Keep reading Movies In Focus for more news on Trail as it develops.
Source: Deadline
