I recall an older S&A post, about 2 years prior to Django Unchained, when Quentin Tarantino said, during a Charlie Rose interview when Inglorious Basterds was opening, that he was interested in making a film about noted slavery abolitionist John Brown, but not in the traditional, as he said, “dreary, solemn, historical” manner biopics usually take form. 

His *fake* John Brown tale, he added, would instead tell the story of Brown’s successful seizure of an armory, which would subsequently lead directly to the end of slavery, preventing the Civil War.

In real life, as it happened, abolitionist John Brown was unsuccessful in his attempt to start a slave revolt at Harper’s Ferry in 1859; and that occurrence helped fuel the movement that started the Civil War.

Today, Deadline is reporting that actor Paul Giamatti and FX are developing a mini-series on John Brown, which will trace “the true story of the abolitionist’s transformation from a lowly 50-year old farmer to a notorious anti-slavery freedom fighter in Kansas and his famed 1859 raid on Harper’s Ferry.”

The project, part of a two-year first-look deal Giamatti and partner Daniel Carey’s Touchy Feely Films is under with FX Productions, is based on 2011 book Midnight Rising by Tony Horwitz, which is expected to be 6 to 8 hours in total.

Gabriel Range is adapting Horwitz’s book into a screenplay.

No word on when we can expect to see the finished product.

So… might a Nat Turner mini-series or film be next? Don’t hold your breath…