Hollywood filmmaker extraordinaire Quentin Tarantino is no stranger to the world of Justified and its lead actors, having worked with Timothy Olyphant on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and with Walton Goggins for both Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight. So it seemed like a match made in spur-pocked heaven when Tarantino was reported to be handling directorial duties for Justified: City Primeval, FX’s sequel series that premiered in mid-July. Unfortunately, the Oscar winner wasn’t able to get behind the camera for this initial season, but director and co-showrunner Michael Dinner revealed the grindhouse enthusiast did still have quite a bit of significant input behind the scenes.
Speaking with THR about bringing Raylan Givens back for source material that didn’t actually feature the character, Tarantino’s name came up in connection with the Elmore Leonard-ness of it all, as he’d turned the novel Rum Punch into the stellar 1997 crime drama Jackie Brown (my personal favorite of QT’s work). And it turns out Michael Dinner and show creator Graham Yost went through a mini roller coaster of expectations by way of his potential involvement. Here’s how he explained it:
To be really honest, our intention was never to involve him in it. And then, as we got in the room together and we got the green light, we were saying, ‘Well, if he really did whisper sweet nothings in Tim’s ear, maybe we should ask him, for fun, if he’d wanna do it.’ And so Dave and I actually sent him either the pilot or the first two episodes, and he loved it.
Not to speak for the Justified: City Primeval creative team, but I’d be happier than a pig in an Olympic-sized pool of shit if Quentin Tarantino agreed to lend his immense talent to a project I was spearheading. It’s certainly understood why that wasn’t the goal from the beginning, since that’d be a lofty request for anyone to make of Tarantino, and having a filmmaker of that tier hopping in to direct an ep in the middle of the season might have unfairly overshadowed other episodes and others’ efforts.
Heartbreakingly, though Dinner had come around to the exciting idea of bringing the Kill Bill director into the mix, he inevitably had to bow out of direct involvement due to a personal issue. But as the co-showrunner explained, he was still a valuable asset to the production given his extensive knowledge of Elmore Leonard’s bibliography.
Probably about two weeks before he was supposed to start prep, he called up and said, ‘Look, I can’t do it for some private reasons.’ So we had to scramble. . . . Quentin was more of a cheerleader than anything else. He certainly was there in spirit. People who’ve done Elmore love doing Elmore, and he’s one of those people who completely understands Elmore’s work and Elmore’s world.
Michael Dinner shared that Tarantino offered up notes and input for at least the first four episodes of Justified: City Primeval’s season, as those were the episodes he was most in the conversations for. With Episode 3, “Backstabbers,” already having aired, viewers can now watch and try to imagine how the installment would look with QT setting up the shots. You just know Raylan would get caught up in a conversation about the poor characters who have to clean up all the bloody carnage in Sam Peckinpah’s spaghetti westerns, or some other pop culture-inspired screed. Maybe if he gets involved with Season 2, there'll be a reference to Barbenheimer, as the director was seen publicly diving into the double-feature fun.
Justified: City Primeval airs Tuesday nights on FX at 10:00 p.m. ET, with eps available to stream the next day with a Hulu subscription.
