Mel Gibson And Robert Towne Team For DANCING BEAR

Mel Gibson is keeping himself busy. He’s got a Passion Of The Christ sequel on the way, a western series with Kurt Russell in development, a potential Lethal Weapon 5, a Joe Carnahan thriller in the pipeline and now comes news he might direct the pilot episode of Dancing Bear, a ’70s-set detective thriller series from top-tier writer Robert Towne. The series is based on a novel by James Crumley.

According to Deadline:

Crumley’s novel is set in Montana and centers on part- time detective Milo Dragovitch, who becomes entangled with a cast of unsavory characters in a web of criminal conspiracies, blackmail, land grabs, grizzly bears, guns and drugs.

Gibson has described the tale as ‘‘basically Chinatown set in a 7-11 in Montana in the ’70s with a whole lot of cocaine”.

Movies In Focus will keep you posted on how this shakes-out. It hasn’t got the official green light yet, but with an Oscar-winning director attached and Chinatown writer Towne onboard, then the folks at USA Network (where’s it’s currently in development) would be nuts to turn Dancing Bear down.

Stranger things have happened though.

Source: Deadline