Since CBS cancelled his series “The Unit” in 2009, David Mamet hasn’t had a lot brewing on the small or big screen — his last feature-length film was the 2008 MMA drama “Redbelt.” But the acclaimed playwright has some new television work in the pipeline in the form of a reboot of the classic western series “Have Gun – Will Travel.”
There’s been talk about a reboot of the 1957 CBS series before, with one of the stranger takes being an Eminem-starring film set in the modern day, but it looks like the network was impressed enough by Mamet's pitch that they’ve put the project into development, with Mamet to write it and possibly helm the pilot. The original series followed Paladin, a Civil War veteran and top-notch gunfighter who becomes a “gun for hire” and scours the west looking for situations that required his particular expertise. He “preferred to settle problems without violence but stood his ground when provoked.”
Mamet has made his bread and butter on stoic and efficient characters (check out his underrated 2004 film “Spartan”) so this subject matter seems like a perfect fit for him. There’s no word yet on when the series will be set, or even a timeline for production, but we’d imagine with the western genre being out of fashion these days that it’ll be set in the present.
Although the series may be a long way off, Mamet fans don’t have long to wait for a new project. He has an upcoming Phil Spector biopic in the works for HBO with Al Pacino starring as Spector and Helen Mirren as his defense attorney from when Spector was put on trial in 2007 for the murder of actress/model Lana Clarkson. That may see a premiere at the end of the year and there’s also the