Deadwood gets two TV movies

Looks like Deadwood will get a proper send-off after all.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, HBO and series creator David Milch have reached an agreement that will allow the show's myriad storylines a wrap-up fitting of an Emmy-winning series. Milch will now write two 2-hour movies, which will provide closure on the lives of the denizens of the frontier town.

The Western was effectively canceled several weeks ago when HBO let the fourth-season contract options of all the main series actors lapse. With the third season set to begin on June 11, and the fourth season yet to be filmed, the many storylines from the acclaimed show would have been left unfinished.

Milch said he had always envisioned the series as a four-season story arc, and when HBO offered only a truncated fourth season, reducing its order from 12 episodes to six, he declined. Milch reasoned that with each episode equaling one day in the life of the town, having only six days to tell the story wouldn't allow enough to transpire. Now, with a two-hour movie format, he can alter the timeline more to his liking.

"I am thrilled that we were able to figure out a way to continue," Milch said over the weekend. "No one was ready to let go of the show. And I am really glad we have found a way to proceed that works creatively."

With each episode of Deadwood costing a reported $5 million to produce, Milch, a TV veteran who worked on Hill Street Blues and won a Peabody for NYPD Blue, has said he understood HBO's point of view.

"They needed a number of eyes we weren't providing them. That's their business. They have to look at things that way," he said.