Longmire - Assignment X: Exclusive Interview Producers John Coveny & Hunt Baldwin

Source: Assignment X [follow link for complete column]



ASSIGNMENT X: Exclusive Interview: LONGMIRE producers John Coveny and Hunt Baldwin talk about A&E’s new mystery western


Fans of Craig Johnson's books will not be disappointed by the spectacular treatment the producers promise


By SEAN ELLIOTT
Posted: June 2nd, 2012


Airing Sunday at 10/9C on A&E is the new western series LONGMIRE, based on the best-selling novels by Wyoming author Craig Johnson. The show comes to television from executive producers and writers John Coveny and Hunt Baldwin whose previous series THE CLOSER was a critically acclaimed success for six seasons.

Coveny and Baldwin are re-teaming with CLOSER producer Greer Shephard and are hoping that this modern day western mystery series will go for at least ten seasons.

LONGMIRE follows the life and cases of Walt Longmire (Robert Taylor) who is the sheriff of a small town called Durant in Absaroka County, Wyoming. The series promises to capture the characters and the feel of the books that so many readers have grown to love and the producers promise to bring in more elements to broaden the world of Longmire even more.

ASSIGNMENT X recently spoke with the producing and writing team of Coveny and Baldwin as they took time out from a day of shooting on location to share with us what to expect from LONGMIRE, how they hope fans of the books will react to seeing their favorite characters come to life for the first time, and casting the perfect man to play Walt Longmire...


... ASSIGNMENT X: How did you gentlemen come to LONGMIRE and want to produce and write it as a television series?

JOHN COVENY: "The kooky thing is that the Hollywood Process actually worked in a sort of cliché way. We had talked to our agent over the years about our love of trying to do a modern day western. I was a big fan of BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID. Hunt’s family has been and lives currently in Wyoming."

HUNT BALDWIN: "My mom and dad retired in 1992, and they moved to Wyoming about a year later. So it’s become a big part of my life."

COVENY: "It was in both of our bloodstreams. We had talked to our agent and he said that they represented a writer name Craig Johnson for CAA. His books were about Wyoming and it was a modern day western. He said it fit with our sensibilities and has some humor, and with our procedural knowledge we had gotten on THE CLOSER for six seasons. He put the book down in front of us. We read THE COLD DISH and about ten pages in we knew it was something we wanted to develop..."