The Virginian

----Starting on TNT-------		----January 9,2000------

All right, I can't believe it was finally on. Wasn't it superb? For those of you who missed it find out the other show times by visiting The Virginian official site on TNT. There have been a few questions asking about the soundtrack availability. Unfortunately, according to TNT, soundtracks aren't normally made for TV movies. Too bad, because it was a beautiful background to a great movie. PLEASE SEND YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT BILL SO WE CAN PUT IT UP ON A COMMENTS PAGE TO: WEBMASTER@BILLPULLMAN.ORG DON'T FORGET TO PUT "THE VIRGINIAN' ON THE SUBJECT LINE TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR ME TO SPOT. The pictures on this page are courtesy of the TNT website (please don't sue us, Mr. Turner!). * You want to see more pictures? Then we've got more pages full of pictures from The Virginian.Click on Gallery 1 or Gallery 2 to get there.*

The Virginian ..... Bill Pullman

Molly Stark ....... Diane Lane

Steve ............. John Savage

Sam Balaam ........ Dennis Weaver

Rider ............. James Drury

Judge Henry ....... Harris Yulin

Trampas ........... Colm Feore

Filmed in Wyoming by TNT. Executive producer, Daniel H.Blatt; producers, Lynn Raynor, Bill Pullman, Ruth Fainberg; co-producer, Grace Gilroy; director, Pullman; writer, Larry Gross; based on the novel ''The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains'' by Owen Wister; camera, Peter Wunstorf; production designer, Rick Roberts; editor, Paul Trejo; music, Nathan Barr; sound, Garrell Clark; casting, Mary Vernieu, Anne McCarthy.

Some Reviews from Around the Country

Pullman makes mark in TNT's ''Virginian''

By Ray Richmond, Reuters, 1/6/2000

The Virginian (Sun. (9), 8-10 p.m., TNT)

By Ray Richmond

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Bill Pullman joins the ranks of first-time directors at TNT -- a list that includes Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tommy Lee Jones -- with this languid and reverential adaptation of Owen Wister's classic 1902 western novel about a mysterious and idiosyncratic horseman.

It's the fifth time ''The Virginian'' has been rendered to film (most famously in 1929 starring Gary Cooper and Walter Huston) and its second telling on TV (running as a weekly NBC western saga from 1962-71). This latest retelling is as comfortable as a well-worn boot.

For his first outing as a hyphenate (director-producer-star), Pullman shows an effortless grasp of a genre that TNT has single-handedly kept alive: the western. If Pullman looks a tad too slick to evoke a convincing pillar of cowboy morality, he balances it out with a steady, unforced performance and a directorial hand that illustrates sharp artistic instincts.

And this Pullman fella is no fool. Opposite his Virginian, he casts the seemingly ageless Diane Lane as his Molly Stark (a luminous frontier schoolteacher with willfulness to spare). The two show off an easy chemistry, made easier by the simple fact that Lane tends to make everyone and everything in her orbit look better (case in point: ''Lonesome Dove'').

The smart casting decisions likewise extend beyond the prime leads and arouse a genuine sense of western history, with the players including Dennis Weaver, Harris Yulin, James Drury (TV's original Virginian) and the superb John Savage.

Larry Gross' adapted teleplay boasts of being more faithful to Wister's original novel than its ''Virginian'' predecessors. But the story remains essentially the same: a Virginia man (Pullman) sets out from his native state in the 1890s and heads west to try his hand at carving a niche in the Wyoming Territory. He finds work as a ranch-hand, using it as the backdrop in his obsessive search for justice and righteousness.

The Virginian would find far more than he bargained for, including friends that betray him, evildoers who challenge his manhood and a woman whose love comes with strings of behavioral accountability attached. Both Colm Feore (as the wicked young cowpoke Trampas) and Dennis Weaver (as lily-livered villain Sam Balaam) contribute strong, colorful characterizations. And Lane inflects the part with a quiet, mesmerizing dignity.

Rick Roberts' spare production design joins hands with the breathtaking countryside locale to further bolster ''The Virginian,'' which demonstrates that even in its fifth movie go-round a story can be made to feel fresh enough. Keep an eye on this Pullman kid. If he ever decides to quit his day job, he just might be able to make a go of directing.

Look for more great articles on the Virginian below:

Pullman directs 'Virginian' for a new era (January 7, 2000) By Bonnie Churchill

The Virginian- Sunday's TOP Pick (January 8,2000) TVNOW

The Virginian (January 7,2000) By Robert Bianco, USA TODAY

Wistful Western (January 7,2000) By Noel Holston, Star Tribune

Interview with Bill , TNT Virginian Site

(courtesy TNT)

Articles

Bill Pullman makes The Virginian a family affair. (Los Angeles Daily News)

Bill Pullman, who starts directing and starring in TNT's "The Virginian" July 6, will be making the production a family affair. Pullman, who co-stars with Bridget Fonda in 20th Century Fox's upcoming "Lake Placid," tells this column that his 11-year-old daughter and his sons, ages 9 and 6, "will have featured cameos in `The Virginian.' They look pretty precious in those period clothes." On the cell phone from a location-scouting jaunt "in the high country in Alberta, Canada," Pullman tells us, "my wife and I have kept the kids away from acting until now. But they'll be protected from the hoopla in this environment. And I'm looking forward to having them with me." Because he'll be doing double duty - he makes his directorial debut in the western - he won't, he says, "be able to break away on weekends."

According to the Baltimore Sun, Al Hurwitz, Bill Pullman's father-in-law is also getting back into acting with the help of his famouse son-in-law. Al "has a new career that again takes him back to one of his starting points -- acting. He had nonspeaking parts in two of the movies -- "Sleepless in Seattle" and "Lost Highway" -- that featured his son-in-law, Bill Pullman. He moved up to a speaking role in a movie version of "The Virginian" that Pullman is directing.

"I hand over the reins to a horse and say `Here,' " Hurwitz reports. "Only one syllable." "

Pullman set to sink teeth into directing. (Chicago Sun Times)

Bill Pullman will next be seen in "Lake Placid," the crocodile thriller opening Friday. But right now he's up in Calgary, Alberta, prepping for his directorial debut on TNT's revival of "The Virginian." Co-starring John Savage, it's slated to debut in January. "We're going to ride that horse over that big New Year's line," Pullman says, "and be the first Western out of the chutes for the new millennium." Speaking of "Lake Placid," don't be shocked Thursday or Friday if you think you see a fierce-looking 40-foot crocodile (with a man between his teeth) at North Avenue Beach. It's only a mock croc created by the Sand-Tastic artists, boosting the new flick.

Pictures


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