The Art & Entertainment Network (A&E), in partnership with Warner Horizon Television and TNT, has placed Longmire, a pilot episode for a television series based on Craig Johnson's mystery series, on its production schedule for 2011. Australian actor Robert Taylor will take on the role of Wyoming sheriff Walt Longmire, Johnson’s central character.
Taylor has appeared in such films as Coffin Rock (2009), Storm Warning (2007) and Rogue (2007). He is also known for his role as Agent Jones in the 1999 film The Matrix.
Hunt Baldwin and John Coveny wrote the hour-long pilot for Longmire. They will also serve as executive producers along with Greer Shephard and Michael M. Robin. Greg Yaitanes will direct.
In a March 3, 2011 post on his Facebook page, Craig Johnson comments on his role as “creative consultant” for the Longmire production. “They've pretty much kept me in the loop and asked my opinions on everything – which means that if it fails, I'm blaming me,” he writes. He also includes a photograph of Robert Taylor, whom he describes as being “the guy I wanted” to play Sheriff Walt Longmire.
Johnson introduced Walt Longmire in the 2004 series debut novel, The Cold Dish. Longmire is a Vietnam veteran who has served for over two decades as the sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming.
Johnson has continued the adventures of Longmire, his Philadelphia-born deputy, Victoria Moretti, and his best friend, Henry Standing Bear, through five additional novels – Death Without Company (2006), Kindness Goes Unpunished (2007), Another Man's Moccasins (2008), The Dark Horse (2009) and Junkyard Dogs (2010). A seventh Walt Longmire novel, Hell Is Empty, will be released in the U.S. on June 2, 2011.
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