Indie titan Ed Burns is getting back into the television business. Deadline reports that Burns and his company Marlboro Road Gang Productions are teaming with Radar pictures to produce an adaption of the Tosca Lee novel The Progeny. The thriller centers on an amnesiac girl who discovers she is the descendant of a murderess and gets thrust into an underground war. Apart from having another book to read now, I’m excited to watch a new Ed Burns project. After his TNT series Public Morals (which he wrote and directed in its entirety) was cancelled, I was worried that he wasn’t going to continue on TV and would instead return to his low budget filmmaking (his latest, Summertime, is currently making the rounds on the indie circuit), so I’m glad that wasn’t the case.
Granted, he’s only a producer for now, but he could always step in front of the camera. Either way, it’s going to be a win for both the show and the network. Burns will be able to bring his indie acumen to The Progeny and help ensure that the series is done at a reasonable cost. Maybe he’ll even bring a trick or two that big-time TV producers who don’t have Burns’ wealth of indie experience couldn’t to productions of this scale. If he does end up acting, he’ll be able to make sure whatever role he takes utilizes all of his fantastic qualities as an actor, rather than wasting his talents, as happened in the James Patterson adaption Alex Cross. I just hope he’s able to strike a balance between TV producer and indie filmmaker. We need a lot more of the latter these days.
Are you excited for Ed Burns’ upcoming series The Progeny? Let us know in the comments!