Alan Ball, creator of SIX FEET UNDER and writer of AMERICAN BEAUTY, is working on a new drama for Cinemax, which seems to revolve around his favourite themes: death and convoluted plots. Apparently, BANSHEE tells the story of a martial arts-practising criminal who pretends to be a murdered sheriff in order to stop crime, or something. The pilot will be directed by Greg Yaitanes, who has credits on HEROES, DAMAGES and just about any other American drama you can think of (except the really good ones, like DEADWOOD or that lot). Jonathan Tropper and David Schickler have written the pilot, which should be shooting soon in North Carolina.
Ball’s current TV project, HBO’s vampire hit TRUE BLOOD, completed its fourth season a few months back, with a fifth still to come. Ball has made clear his intentions to work on his current series as well as developing BANSHEE. As if this weren’t enough, Ball is also working on medical drama WICHITA, also for HBO. This one’s about an abortion doctor who “inadvertently becomes the focal point of a contemporary political, cultural and ethical war”, through convoluted means no doubt. It seems like an awful lot of work to take on, but Ball has regularly demonstrated his talents not just at writing and directing but assembling a strong creative team. And if he gets stressed out he can always watch a plastic bag float around for a while, or spend some time with his parrots.
Source: Digital Spy
Hollywood Reporter
