With every passing day, the long-promised "Deadwood" movie looks less like a fantasy and more like reality.
In a new interview with The Times, actress Robin Weigert _ who famously portrayed Calamity Jane in the HBO western _ suggested that a "Deadwood" reunion is closer than ever.
"It's safe enough to say it's happening this fall," Weigert said. "There's a set being built and tax incentives to get it done. A lot of [actors] have signed on. There's a 90 percent chance it'll finally happen."
Indeed, the stars seem to finally be aligning for the project, which has been more than 10 years in the making.
After the show's third season in 2006, it was unceremoniously canceled due to a dispute between its studio (Paramount) and network (HBO). At the time, HBO and "Deadwood" creator and showrunner David Milch agreed to two two-hour TV movies in lieu of a fourth season.
The movies never materialized, but there were enough encouraging comments in the 12 years since then that fans never lost hope that they might get a final chapter to the series.
At the Television Critics Assn. press tour in January, Casey Bloys, president of HBO programming, was optimistic about the prospect of the movie and thought filming could potentially begin this fall.
In April, Deadline reported that a "Deadwood" movie project had received a nearly $4.2-million California tax incentive, despite not yet receiving an official green light from the network.
HBO had no news to report about a potential "Deadwood" film after an inquiry from The Times on Friday morning. And representatives for David Milch did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
