Hey. You there. Do you remember the 2011 action flick Haywire? You know, the one with MMA star Gina Carano and Channing Tatum that was one of the only action films that director Steven Soderbergh ever put together. Yeah, that one. Guess what? It’s probably going to become a TV show at some point in the future.
It’s going to be a complicated road for Haywire to get from the big screen to the small screen, as it’s all wrapped up in the current financial finagling of Relativity Media, which is going through a bankruptcy process that will see the movie and TV division being split. Relativity TV, which will go away from Relativity CEO Ryan Kavanaugh and to the creditor group Stalking House Bidders for $125 million, will be the company behind the media-switching adaptation. That said, Kavanaugh will keep a 50% economic interest in the project if it eventually gets ordered by a network.
According to TheWrap, the project is in the earliest stages imaginable at this point, so there isn’t anyone involved with the creative team just yet. A few years ago, it would have been mildly silly to think that Soderbergh would get mixed up in it, but the filmmaker has largely retired from making movies and has focused most of his attention on TV, with both Cinemax’s The Knick and an upcoming HBO movie as his latest resume notches. From an action standpoint, Haywire somewhat comparable to Cinemax’s original series Banshee and Strike Back, so it would be a natural fit there, and Soderbergh’s connection with the parent company could make it a reality.
The film followed Carano (in her mainstream debut) as former Marine black ops super soldier Mallory Kane, who is set up by her organization on a job that is destined for failure. But instead of going down like a chump, she takes it upon herself to take the conspiracy head-on. Despite having a relatively unknown lead, the film had a star-studded supporting cast that includes the aforementioned Tatum, Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, Michael Fassbender and more. While it didn’t do much to stand against the bigger blockbuster action films of the year, it was one of the rare January releases that was definitely worth the viewer’s time. Check out the trailer below.
It’s unclear just what will happen to a Haywire TV show at this point, but it seems like screenwriter Lem Dobbs might be available, as his last script was for 2012’s The Company You Keep.
