Word: milch
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John is the latest from David Milch (Deadwood, NYPD Blue), working with "surf noir" novelist Kem Nunn. It follows the troubled Yost surfing dynasty: Grandpa Mitch (Bruce Greenwood) is a retired ascetic; son Butchie (Brian Van Holt) is a champ turned junkie; grandson Sean (Greyson Fletcher) wants to surf competitively, over Mitch's objections. They meet John (Austin Nichols), a pompadoured stranger who may be an alien or God (his last name is Monad, a Gnostic reference). Actual, literal miracles begin happening...
...serious drug problem that led to more than a dozen arrests. On his way to sobriety, he became perhaps the only writer in history to be rejected by both Baywatch Nights and Red Shoe Diaries before landing a job on NYPD Blue under celebrated writer guru David Milch. But struggling for years imbued him with an uncommon sense of purpose. After winning an Oscar for Traffic in 2001, Gaghan turned down seven-figure offers to write the fourth Indiana Jones movie and adapt The Da Vinci Code. Instead, inspired by an anecdote about an oil lobbyist in See No Evil...
...changes aside, it does not rethink its genre as, say, Deadwood did the western. At heart, it is largely a history-book story with familiar themes, enacted by regal men with British accents. One has to wonder what HBO would have had if it had let Deadwood creator David Milch do the more unusual series he once proposed: a drama about ancient Roman city cops...
...Britain and little known in the U.S. His best-known role here was as another baddie, in the 2000 indie crime movie Sexy Beast. "The question was how his [Mancunian] accent would play in such a quintessentially American role," says HBO entertainment president Carolyn Strauss. But, says creator David Milch, McShane dropped the accent and inhabited the role so thoroughly that he overcame Milch's doubts...
Just as a Shakespearean actor can make iambic pentameter sound natural, so McShane brings Milch's profane yet lofty dialogue to life. And he makes Swearengen the embodiment of the feral, vital greed that fueled a nation's growth. His character is loathsome but, McShane notes, also "the galvanizing force behind what the camp would become--a legitimate place for people to live." Civilization may be closing in on Al Swearengen's mining town, but his rich character offers Ian McShane plenty of gold yet to strike. --Reported by Jeanne McDowell/Los Angeles