Paramount+ is heading to the honky tonk.The streamer has put a series adaptation of John Travolta and Debra Winger feature film Urban Cowboy in development.The project, based on the 1980 romantic Western, comes from James Ponsoldt, the writer/director behind Tom Hanks and Emma Watson film The Circle, and Benjamin Percy.The pair are behind 2022 Sundance film Simmering, the story of four friends on the verge of middle school entering that strange phase of uncertainty about the notion of getting older.Ponsoldt will direct and co-write with Percy.
Paramount Television Studios produces.The film, which was directed by James Bridges, followed the love-hate relationship between Buford Uan ‘Bud’ Davis, played by Travolta, and Sissy, played by Winger, and is centered around Gilley’s Club, a large honky tonk in Texas.The series will go “deeper” into Bud’s journey from farm to the big city in 1980’s Houston and will feature music from that time and place.The original movie was adapted by Brides and Aaron Latham, based on an article the latter wrote for Esquire.A series reboot, centered in the Latin music world, was previously in the works at Fox.
The project came from Craig Brewer and had received an off cycle pilot order in 2015.The development was unveiled by Nicole Clemens, President, Paramount+ Original Scripted Series at the company’s virtual TCA press event.It joins a number of Paramount Pictures films being rebooted for the streamer including Fatal Attraction, The Italian Job, Love Story, Flashdance and The Parallax View.New and returning series on broadcast, cable and streamingSeries that made it or didn’t make it in 2020-21Broadcast networks’ fall lineups and schedules
Read more on deadline.com