After tackling John Steinbeck's East of Eden for Netflix, screenwriter Jeb Stuart is setting his sights on another towering work of American literature: Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove. At the red-carpet premiere of East of Eden, Stuart shared exclusive details with Collider about the upcoming adaptation, which promises to be a fresh take on the beloved Western classic.
The original Lonesome Dove miniseries, which aired in 1989, is widely credited with reviving the Western genre on television. Starring Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones as retired Texas Rangers Woodrow Call and Gus McCrae, the show followed the duo as they embarked on a final cattle drive from Texas to Montana. It was a massive critical and commercial success, winning seven Emmys and two Golden Globes, and Duvall himself considered it one of his finest roles.
But Stuart, who is writing the new adaptation, believes there's plenty of untapped material in McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. "I have great respect for the original miniseries," he said. "But the novel is like East of Eden—it's a big, bold American novel that's also something you could use as a doorstop, it's 900 pages. Because it is 900 pages, there's a lot they didn't get into that four-episode miniseries that was Robert Duvall's masterpiece."
Stuart's comments suggest that the Netflix version will delve deeper into the novel's rich subplots and character development, offering fans a more expansive look at the story. He also teased that "there will be cows," a nod to the cattle drive that is central to the plot.
The original miniseries was based on a screenplay McMurtry wrote with Peter Bogdanovich, which was intended to star Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda, and John Wayne. When that project fell through, McMurtry turned it into a novel, which went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1985. The miniseries, which aired four years later, became a cultural phenomenon and helped launch a wave of Western TV projects.
Stuart is no stranger to high-stakes adaptations. His East of Eden series, starring Florence Pugh, Mike Faist, and Christopher Abbott, has already earned critical acclaim, with an 85% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Collider's Therese Lacson called it "worthy of praise by any Steinbeck enjoyer."
While details about the Lonesome Dove cast and release date are still under wraps, Stuart's enthusiasm is palpable. "We set the bar pretty high, we're excited about it," he said.
For fans of the Western genre, this is a promising development. The original miniseries set a high standard, but with a 900-page source novel, there's plenty of room for a new adaptation to carve its own identity. As Stuart hinted, the Netflix version will likely offer a more comprehensive exploration of the characters and themes that made the book a classic.
Stay tuned to Collider for more updates on Lonesome Dove as they become available.
