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Sign me up. Debuts in the fall.
Weird that Common is in it.
But it does have O'Brien from TNG.
AMC adds western railroad drama to fall lineup
Hell on Wheels, the latest offering from red-hot AMC, is a natural fit for a TV network that was initially known for showing wall-to-wall John Wayne westerns.
It was only a matter of time before AMC, which now boasts a number of critically acclaimed hits including Breaking Bad, Mad Men, The Walking Dead and The Killing would add a western to its viewing stable.
“The old AMC was very much associated with the western and we still show John Wayne movies. It was really the bread and butter of the channel years and years ago,” Owen Shiflett, AMC's director of development, said at a screening of the new series at the Banff World Media Festival. “It's still as popular as it was then.”
Hell on Wheels is an American period drama with a revenge theme set during the building of the TransContinental Railroad just after the end of the Civil War.
“It's just a modern thriller set in the west. I think the audiences are ready for it with the release of True Grit, the Coen brothers’ version,” Shiflett said.
Although set in the south, the show been shot in the Calgary area, where rain and snow caused problems.
“You're always restricted on time, money and weather. We shot this beautiful, gorgeous pilot last summer. It's beautiful, it's epic. But the first three weeks here in Alberta we had epic rainstorms,” said Chad Oakes, the series's Calgary producer.
“It could have been called Hail on Wheels. We jumped into the first two episodes. It's dirty, it's muddy. It looks fantastic.”
Anson Mount was cast as Cullen Bohannon, a Confederate soldier who hunts the Union soldiers who killed his wife and finds himself working on the “Hell on Wheels” section of the railroad.
“The elements will throw at you what they throw at you and you have a choice – do you try and work around that or you dance with it? This crew and creative team has done a terrific job of trying to dance with it,” said Mount, whose previous credits include Straw Dogs and In Her Shoes.
“Nobody ever said making a western was a clean affair. You can check the rings around my bathtub. There's a lot of dirt, but it's great,” he added.
Mount said there is an advantage to filming a western series in cowboy country.
“I can't stress the importance of working with a local crew that understands the genre to the degree that the Calgary crew does,” said the bearded actor. “To have hair and makeup people who understand how to behave around a horse. It's really important because you could get hurt.”
Another key member of the cast is hip-hop artist and actor Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr., better known by his stage name Common. The performer raised some eyebrows last month with controversial lyrics at a White House poetry night.
Common plays Elam Ferguson, a freed slave who ends up working on the railroad.
“When I first read this pilot I was just so intrigued, so moved and inspired because I hadn't come across any character like this ever in my days of acting,” he said. “When I read I was excited.”
The show also features Irish actress Dominique McElligott, Colm Meaney, Eddie Spears and Philip Burke.
Hell on Wheels, the latest offering from red-hot AMC, is a natural fit for a TV network that was initially known for showing wall-to-wall John Wayne westerns.
It was only a matter of time before AMC, which now boasts a number of critically acclaimed hits including Breaking Bad, Mad Men, The Walking Dead and The Killing would add a western to its viewing stable.
“The old AMC was very much associated with the western and we still show John Wayne movies. It was really the bread and butter of the channel years and years ago,” Owen Shiflett, AMC's director of development, said at a screening of the new series at the Banff World Media Festival. “It's still as popular as it was then.”
Hell on Wheels is an American period drama with a revenge theme set during the building of the TransContinental Railroad just after the end of the Civil War.
“It's just a modern thriller set in the west. I think the audiences are ready for it with the release of True Grit, the Coen brothers’ version,” Shiflett said.
Although set in the south, the show been shot in the Calgary area, where rain and snow caused problems.
“You're always restricted on time, money and weather. We shot this beautiful, gorgeous pilot last summer. It's beautiful, it's epic. But the first three weeks here in Alberta we had epic rainstorms,” said Chad Oakes, the series's Calgary producer.
“It could have been called Hail on Wheels. We jumped into the first two episodes. It's dirty, it's muddy. It looks fantastic.”
Anson Mount was cast as Cullen Bohannon, a Confederate soldier who hunts the Union soldiers who killed his wife and finds himself working on the “Hell on Wheels” section of the railroad.
“The elements will throw at you what they throw at you and you have a choice – do you try and work around that or you dance with it? This crew and creative team has done a terrific job of trying to dance with it,” said Mount, whose previous credits include Straw Dogs and In Her Shoes.
“Nobody ever said making a western was a clean affair. You can check the rings around my bathtub. There's a lot of dirt, but it's great,” he added.
Mount said there is an advantage to filming a western series in cowboy country.
“I can't stress the importance of working with a local crew that understands the genre to the degree that the Calgary crew does,” said the bearded actor. “To have hair and makeup people who understand how to behave around a horse. It's really important because you could get hurt.”
Another key member of the cast is hip-hop artist and actor Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr., better known by his stage name Common. The performer raised some eyebrows last month with controversial lyrics at a White House poetry night.
Common plays Elam Ferguson, a freed slave who ends up working on the railroad.
“When I first read this pilot I was just so intrigued, so moved and inspired because I hadn't come across any character like this ever in my days of acting,” he said. “When I read I was excited.”
The show also features Irish actress Dominique McElligott, Colm Meaney, Eddie Spears and Philip Burke.
But it does have O'Brien from TNG.
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