New Original Drama Slated for FX

LOS ANGELES: FX has placed a 13-episode order for the original drama series Lawman, developed by Graham Yost and based on the Elmore Leonard character Raylan Givens.

Timothy Olyphant (Damages, Deadwood) stars in the Sony Pictures Television and FX Productions series. He takes on the lead role of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, who is featured in featured in Leonard’s short story Fire in the Hole. Givens is a modern-day 19th-century-style lawman, enforcing his brand of justice in a way that puts a target on his back with criminals and places him at odds with his bosses in the Marshal service.

Yost, who created and produced Boomtown, wrote the pilot and will serve as executive producer and writer on the series. Leonard (Cuba Libre, Get Shorty) will serve as an executive producer alongside Sarah Timberman (Kidnapped), Carl Beverly (Kidnapped) and Michael Dinner (Karen Sisco), who directed the pilot episode.

"FX has been fortunate to employ some of the finest writers working in television and we’re lucky to add an outstanding talent like Graham Yost to that growing list," said John Landgraf, the president and general manager of FX Networks. "Graham began with a memorable character from one of America’s foremost crime novelists, Elmore Leonard, and we scored the hat trick signing Tim Olyphant who is absolutely pitch-perfect in the role of Raylan Givens."

"Like the other shows we’ve partnered on with FX—The Shield, Rescue Me and Damages—the pedigree of talent behind and in front of the camera on Lawman is outstanding," commented Zack Van Amburg, the president of programming for Sony Pictures Television. "This gripping narrative of justice being served has such universal themes, it’s sure to resonate with FX’s viewers."

Lawman is the tenth drama series ordered by FX since its rollout of scripted dramas in March 2002, an the seventh show produced under the FX Productions banner.