Sundance's "Hap And Leonard" (Season 1)

[theusher]

Empire and The Wire alum Michael K. Williams is to star in the original scripted series Hap and Leonard, SundanceTV announced.
Based on Joe Lansdale's Hap and Leonard novels and short stories, the program has been picked up for six one-hour episodes to premiere in early 2016. The show was created by director/writer Jim Mickle (Cold in July) and writer Nick Damici.

"By turns funny and shocking, Hap and Leonard provides an unpredictable and side-eyed look into race, class and friendship," the cable television network said in a news release.

Williams will play Leonard Pine, an openly gay Vietnam vet with anger issues. His best friend is Hap Collins, a white, working-class laborer who spent time in federal prison as a young man for refusing to be drafted into the military and serve in the Vietnam War, a synopsis said.

The actor who will play the role of Hap has not been announced yet.

Sundance TV ordered six hourlong episodes of “Hap and Leonard.” The series, set to bow in early 2016, marks the net’s third original scripted series, following “Rectify” and “The Red Road.” The show will be filmed in Baton Rouge, standing in for East Texas.

The series is based on the books of Joe Lansdale and features a pair of unlikely friends: Hap is blue collar and went to prison for refusing to go to Vietnam, Leonard is an aggressive, gay African-American Vietnam vet. Despite their differences, each would give their life for the other and have the skills needed to survive the violent messes they often find themselves in. The books are set in East Texas in the mid 80s.

[theusher]

Jimmi Simpson (House Of Cards, The Newsroom) has been cast as a regular in Sundance’s straight-to-series drama Hap And Leonard. James Purefoy and Christina Hendricks are also in talks to star.

[theusher]

First Look: James Purefoy and Michael K. Williams are BFFs in ‘Hap and Leonard’

It stars The Wire and Boardwalk Empire alum Michael K. Williams as a hot-tempered, gay Vietnam vet who helps solve crimes with his ex-convict BFF (The Following’s James Purefoy) and the BFF’s ex-wife, played by Mad Men alum Christina Hendricks? How soon can we binge-watch it?

As this exclusive Yahoo TV first look at a photo from Sundance TV’s upcoming Hap and Leonard drama illustrates, that fine cast will unspool a “darkly comic swamp noir story” with a strong country vibe. Set in a small Texas town in the 1980s, the series is based on a series of novels and novellas by author Joe R. Lansdale, whose Hap Collins and Leonard Pine will also star in a series of graphic novels that will be released later this year.

More background on the pals: Purefoy’s Hap spent time in prison as a young man when he refused to be drafted and serve in Vietnam. He is very adverse to violence — unlike Williams’s Leonard — and in Lansdale’s novels, Hap and Leonard work for a cop-turned-private investigator named Marvin Hanson.

Leonard didn’t avoid the draft nor a lifetime of violence, which can be sparked if anyone dares to make a racist or anti-gay remark in his presence. As Hap often tries to talk him out of violence, Leonard is just as perplexed by Hap’s avoidance of it. But the two are more like brothers than friends, especially since Leonard’s uncle, who raised him, rejected him when he found out Leonard is gay.

Hendricks’s Trudy, Hap’s ex-wife, re-enters the men’s lives and offers them “a deal they can’t refuse.”

Season 1 is scheduled to premiere in early 2016 on Sundance TV, with six one-hour episodes.

https://www.yahoo.com/tv/first-look-...151759430.html

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Trailer:

YouTube

The series will premiere on March 2.

[Dr. Seymour Love]

2 eps in and I'm loving this one. It's also being aired on AMC.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Dr. Seymour Love

2 eps in and I'm loving this one. It's also being aired on AMC.

Really? Sunuvab....

Funny thing. My Comcast line-up has Sundance, but only in SD. However, the shows are also available in HD on On Demand. I need to set aside some time to watch. It would be easier if I could record off AMC, though. I'll have to check that out.

[Dr. Seymour Love]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Really? Sunuvab....

Funny thing. My Comcast line-up has Sundance, but only in SD. However, the shows are also available in HD on On Demand. I need to set aside some time to watch. It would be easier if I could record off AMC, though. I'll have to check that out.

I have comcast as well and I watch it the same way.

[TheLaughingMann]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Really? Sunuvab....

Funny thing. My Comcast line-up has Sundance, but only in SD. However, the shows are also available in HD on On Demand. I need to set aside some time to watch. It would be easier if I could record off AMC, though. I'll have to check that out.

They had it on late last night with the marker "Sundance on AMC" in the bottom right corner, so it is a collaboration. It's an interesting matchup of stars, but it's definitely a good little show.

[Dr. Seymour Love]

renewed for second season

http://deadline.com/2016/06/hap-and-...tv-1201760500/

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Season 2 will premiere on March 15th.

[theusher]

S2 trailer:

YouTube