Oscar-winning screenwriter and acclaimed director Quentin Tarantino is in early talks to direct a few episodes of the recently announced Justified revival, Justified: City Primeval. This revival will bring Timothy Olyphant back to TV screens as U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, a character based on stories by the late Western and Crime writer Elmore Leonard. This would be Tarantino’s second time directing a story based on Leonard’s material, the first time having been 1997’s Jackie Brown which was based on Leonard’s novel Rum Punch. Deadline reports that Tarantino has directed TV before, specifically episodes of ER and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
Tarantino’s most recent film was 2019’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, in which Olyphant made an appearance. That film garnered several Oscar nominations, and a Best Supporting Actor win for Brad Pitt. While he intended this to be his last film, he intends to direct one more film before retiring from directing. Many of his fans will take delight in knowing he will lend his directorial talents to the Justified revival before getting to work on his last directorial effort.
Variety reports that Justified: City Primeval will be a limited series and will pick up eight years after Givens left Kentucky. He is now living in Miami and trying to balance his duties as a U.S. Marshall and the part-time father to a 14-year-old daughter. The show’s logline says, “His hair is grayer, his hat is dirtier, and the road in front of him is suddenly a lot shorter than the road behind.” In many ways, the story is similar to the Westerns that were celebrated in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which is why Tarantino could be the perfect director for some episodes.
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