'Justified' Sequel Series May Lure Major Director Back to TV

The Justified sequel series is reportedly looking to hire Quentin Tarantino to direct at least one episode. Timothy Olyphant is returning as U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens and previously worked with Tarantino on Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood. Tarantino is also a big fan of Elmore Leonard, whose work is the basis for the series.

Tarantino is in "early talks" to direct one or two episodes of the new series, titled Justified: City Primeval, reports Deadline. This could be Tarantino's first television directing job since he helmed the 2005 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode "Grave Danger," which earned him an Emmy nomination. The two-time Oscar-winner also directed the ER episode "Motherhood" in 1995. One of Tarantino's most underrated films, Jackie Brown, is based on the Leonard novel Rum Punch. Tarantino has also optioned other Leonard novels to adapt as films, and considered making Forty Lashes Less One into a movie.

Justified aired on FX for six seasons between 2010 and 2015. It was developed by Graham Yost and inspired by Leonard's stories about Givens, specifically Fire in the Hole. Although the show is set in the present day, Givens has fashioned himself as an old-style lawman overseeing the Eastern District of Kentucky Marshal's Office. Justified earned critical acclaim, but few Emmy nominations. Margo Martindale and Jeremy Davies won the show's only two Emmys. The show did receive a prestigious Peabody Award in 2011. Justified is available to stream on Hulu.

City Primeval will be based on Leonard's 1980 novel City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit, with Givens replacing the novel's original protagonist. The limited series will pick up eight years after Givens left Kentucky and moved back to Miami, where he is raising a 14-year-old girl. A chance meeting on a highway leads him to Detroit, where he meets the violent criminal Clement Mansell, who has evaded authorities in the Motor City.

Olyphant is an executive producer on the series, alongside showrunners Dave Andron and Michael Dinner, and Yost. Dinner will be the lead director on the show. Sarah Timberman, Carl Beverly, Peter Leonard, Taylor Elmore, and Chris Provenzano are also executive producers. Walter Mosely is a consulting producer, while V.J. Boyd, Eisa Davis, and Ingrid Escajeda joined the writers' room.

Tarantino won Oscars for his Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained screenplays. He earned three nominations for Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood as writer, director, and co-producer. This month, he surprisingly turns up as the narrator for Showtime's limited series Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber just because he loves David Levien and Brian Koppelman's work on Billions. Koppelman sent Tarantino an email about narrating the series and appearing on his The Moment podcast, and Tarantino said yes to both. Super Pumped premieres on Showtime Sunday.