Noah Hawley is nothing if not versatile. The prolific writer, director, producer, and novelist has won an impressive group of awards for his work in television including Emmys, Golden Globes, Critics Choice and Peabody honors all for his most acclaimed series, FX’s crown jewel Fargo which has once again been generating strong Emmy buzz for its 4th iteration as a limited series, this time starring Chris Rock in a change of pace role as a crime boss in the 1950’s. Hawley has written five novels and notably worked his magic on such series as Bones, My Generation, The Unusuals, and Legion. Fargo, inspired by the iconic Coen Brothers 1996 film is that rare breed of a TV adaptation that has matched the original in critical and audience acclaim yet distinctly stands on its own. In that regard you can compare it to a very exclusive club of shows like M*A*S*H, and one of the key reasons for its continued success is undoubtedly Hawley who keeps changing it up each time out.
He joins me today for this special edition of my Deadline video series, Behind The Lens to talk about his career, why he keeps getting tempted to continue telling the Fargo stories, its meaning in the dark American landscape of today, the casting of Chris Rock and Jason Schwarztman in this battle between Italian and African American crime families, and what it also says about race, immigration, and the ‘big lie of America’. We also discuss the freedom of working for FX vs a broadcast network, how Covid deeply affected production this season, his disappointment in not getting to do his Star Trek movie, along with the critical and boxoffice rejection of his feature film directorial debut of Lucy In The Sky. He is remarkably candid about it all, and even offers an enticing tease about a possible TV adaptation of Alien in the future. To watch our conversation just click on the link above.
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