Val Kilmer (Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang), Steve Zahn (Rescue Dawn), Academy Award and Emmy Award nominee Rachel Griffiths (Hilary and Jackie, “Six Feet Under”), Karl Urban (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King), Linda Cardellini (“ER”), Elizabeth Banks (The 40-Year-Old Virgin) and Wes Studi (“Into the West”) star in “Comanche Moon,” a new six-hour mini-series based on the book by Larry McMurtry, and the final chapter in the “Lonesome Dove” saga to be made into a movie, to be broadcast Sunday, Jan. 13, Tuesday, Jan. 15 and Wednesday, Jan. 16 (9:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT, each night) on the CBS Television Network. Academy Award and Golden Globe Award winners Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, the writers and executive producer and producer, respectively, of the feature film Brokeback Mountain, are the executive producers and writers.
“Comanche Moon,” the prequel to McMurtry’s bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Lonesome Dove,” which was the basis for the multiple Emmy Award-winning mini-series “Lonesome Dove,” follows Texas Rangers Augustus “Gus” McCrae (Zahn) and Woodrow F. Call (Urban), now in their middle years, as they continue to deal with the ever-increasing tensions of adult life – Gus with his great love, Clara Forsythe (Cardellini), and Call with Maggie Tilton (Banks), the young prostitute who loves him and bears him his son, Newt (Joseph Castanon). Kilmer plays Captain Inish Scull, a Yankee aristocrat and hero of the recently concluded Mexican War. Griffiths plays Inez Scull, the Captain’s sexy wife who doesn’t hesitate to fill her time with other men when he’s away from home. Wes Studi plays Comanche Chief Buffalo Hump.
Two proud but very different men, McCrae and Call enlist with a Ranger troop in pursuit of three outlaws: Buffalo Hump, the great Comanche war chief; Kicking Wolf (Jonathon Joss, “Into the West”), the celebrated Comanche horse thief; and Ahumado (Sal Lopez, The Astronaut Farmer), a deadly Mexican bandit king with a penchant for torture. Assisting the Rangers in their wild chase is the renowned Kickapoo tracker Famous Shoes (David Midthunder, “Into the West”). They are joined by their comrades-in-arms, Deets (Keith Robinson, Dreamgirls), Jake Spoon (Ryan Merriman, The Ring Two) and Pea Eye Parker (Troy Baker, Striking Range), in the bitter struggle to protect an advancing western frontier against the defiant Comanches who are determined to defend their territory and their way of life. The Rangers also encounter Buffalo Hump’s violent outcast son, Blue Duck (Adam Beach, “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”).
Director Simon Wincer and producer Dyson Lovell, who directed and produced “Lonesome Dove” respectively, served in those roles on “Comanche Moon.” Wincer’s previous works include “Into the West,” “Ponderosa,” “Crossfire Trail” and “P.T. Barnum,” for television, and the feature films The Young Black Stallion, Free Willy, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man and Quigley Down Under.
“Comanche Moon” is a co-production of CBS Paramount Network Television and Sony Pictures Television. Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana (Brokeback Mountain) and Paul Frank, Adam Shulman and Julie Yorn of Firm Films (The Exorcism of Emily Rose, “Criss Angel: Mindfreak”) are the executive producers. Dyson Lovell (The Lion in Winter) is the producer. Simon Wincer directed from a script by McMurtry and Ossana.
