Home Entertainment Robert De Niro bringing a GOOD SHEPHERD to Showtime

Robert De Niro bringing a GOOD SHEPHERD to Showtime

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Long before Gary Oldman began tinkering with tailors and soldiering with spies, Robert De Niro already brought us a just as solemn look at the Cold War spy game in his 2006 directorial effort, The Good Shepherd.

Written by fellow Academy Award winner Eric Roth and starring Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie, it was sober look at the world of espionage and the toll it took on personal lives. Unfortunately the film’s box office impact ended up being just as covert as its subject matter.

But like a wise man once said, “If you going to spy, spy hard!” so De Niro is back to, well, shepherd this Shepherd to the small screen.

According to Deadline, De Niro and Roth have now managed to land an adaptation deal with US broadcast network, Showtime, with De Niro back in the director’s chair and Roth once again penning the scripts for the episodes. The proposed show would apparently expand on some of the characters introduced in the film, and would be focusing in particular on one CIA agent and his family.

De Niro and Roth originally envisioned the first film to be the start of a new trilogy, but the film’s lack of commercial success scuppered that idea. A sequel was offered to De Niro by Universal last year, but at a fraction of the $80 million budget of the original, which De Niro subsequently turned down.  Now it looks like he’s finally going to get to tell that expanded story.

And hopefully, it’s a story that is observant of the criticisms of the original film, which many felt lacked a bit in the pacing department, with none of the character and style that made Tinker Tailor such a winner six years later.

At this point there’s no indication yet as to how many episodes De Niro would be personally helming, but I’m just happy to see him do anything that’ll keep his mind off the idea of making another Fockers movie.

Last Updated: September 10, 2012

One Comment

  1. James Francis

    September 10, 2012 at 18:25

    Cool. This should make for some good television.

    Reply

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