Film star Paul Giamatti, along with the network FX, are in the early stages of developing a limited series on the spark that ignited the Civil War. This project comes out of the two-year first-look deal that was formed last September with Giamatti and his partner Daniel Carey's Touchy Feely Films. Untitled John Brown Project, as it is currently being called, tells the true story of the abolitionist's transformation from a 50 year old farmer to a notorious anti-slavery freedom fighter. He lived in Kansas and also gained fame for his raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859. This limited series is based on a book by Tony Hurwitz called Midnight Rising. The book was released in 2011 and tells the story of Brown's famed attack on the Virginia arsenal.
Although the raid was ultimately unsuccessful, it is widely looked at as an emotional tipping point toward the recession of the South in the following year. After being defeated by Marines led by Robert E. Lee, Brown was convicted and killed for the part that he played in the raid. Giamatti and Carey are both set to serve as executive producers on the John Brown project that FX productions will produce. This project is expected to run for 6 to 8 hours in its entirety. This sounds like a type of series that we have not seen before, and with no one yet cast for the film, audiences will have to stay tuned in order to see who will play the notorious John Brown, since the project is still in its early development stages.
