They say when it rains it pours and that’s exactly what’s happening in Hollywood with the story of America’s first Black Deputy U.S. Marshal, Bass Reeves. The historical figure is getting his tale told in not only one, but two mainstream Hollywood productions. As was revealed earlier this month, Reeves will be the focus of an 1883 spin-off titled, 1883: The Bass Reeves Story, which will star David Oyelowo and will have its pilot directed by Yellowstone creator, Taylor Sheridan. Now, Deadline reports that Morgan Freeman also has plans to move forward with a project centered around The Lone Ranger with Lori McCreary’s Revelations Entertainment for Amazon Studios.
The production, which is titled Twin Territories, will take its story from a novel penned by Reeves historian, Art T. Burton and will follow the revered lawman during his time as a U.S. Marshall cleaning up the wide-open spaces of the Wild West. During his decades of service working under “Hanging” Judge Parker, Reeves would ultimately bring in well over 3,000 criminals to the court of law to be tried in front of the no-nonsense judge. Twin Territories will see The Lone Ranger ride alongside his pal and co-worker, Chauncey Lee, as they set out to bring down some of the most elusive and dangerous bandits of the time, all while keeping up relationships with the Indigenous peoples on the edge of collapse, and the crushing amounts of pioneers heading out West in search of a better life. Celebrating not only Reeves’ ability to keep order in a lawless country the show will also center on how he brought about the beginnings of the state of Oklahoma.
While Amazon purchased Twin Territories back in 2019, it’s been a long road to get the series moving — an even longer one for Freeman who’s wanted to tell Reeves’ story on screen for over three decades. After years of searching for the right team, Freeman finally found his people in Ben Watkins (Hand of God) and Malcolm Spellman (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier). Together, the three men and McCreary pushed forward with their vision, eventually right into the very capable hands of Amazon. The show’s pilot came from Watkins and Josef Sawyer with Spellman joining the duo for the remainder of the episodes. Watkins and Leonard Chang (Snowfall) will serve as showrunners while the executive production team will be made up of Watkins, Freeman, McCreary, Spellman, James Pickens Jr., and Scott Frank.
While Freeman expressed interest in stepping into the boots of Reeves back in the ‘90s, that role will be open to a new actor in Twin Territories. However, the writing team says they’re drawing something up for the Hollywood icon, so we can still expect to see him featured in the production. While 1883: The Bass Reeves Story sounds like it will focus on the legendary lawman’s rise to the top, Twin Territories seems to be centering itself on the action-packed prime days of Reeves’ incredible life. It’s great to hear that the world will be receiving two tellings of such an overlooked, unsung hero. As Freeman puts it, when it comes to the Western genre, “There were no [Black] heroes, and that’s not American history at all, so here’s a chance to redo that, to straighten out some of the kinks in history.”
As of right now, no release date has been set for Twin Territories, but stay tuned to Collider for more information.
