Sally Jenkins’ bestselling book The Real All Americans may be headed to AMC as a TV series. The network has plans to turn the infamous story, about U.S. Cavalry officer Richard Henry Pratt’s recruitment of several Native Americans to play football at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania in the latter quarter of the 1800s, into a scripted drama. The program is especially notable, since it would later take on legendary player Jim Thorpe. Nicholas Meyer is set to write the pilot and Harry J. Ufland is set to produce.
While The Real All Americans may be in its early stages, it seems as if AMC is working hard to put this thing together. According to THR, the network has already been chatting with Tommy Lee Jones to hop on board to direct the pilot episode of the possible series. Jones has dabbled in directing before, most notably for The Sunset Limited, which aired on HBO last year. Combine his experience with directing with that as a Harvard football man and a Cherokee descendant, what better man would there be to direct The Real All Americans than the 65-year-old actor?
I’m all for a scripted drama tackling racial inequalities, and I'm especially excited to see what Jones can do with a TV pilot, but I’m not so gung ho on the name. Sure, The Real All Americans may be the title of Jenkins’ original book, but it reads to me like a TLC reality program meant to relate the real world of high school football fans could never have gotten via Friday Night Lights. Change the title, though, and AMC might have a period piece that works.
