FX’s “Reservation Dogs” is becoming a must-watch new comedy series focusing on a group of indigenous kids co-created by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi. Still, it looks like Harjo is going to tackle something a little more serious with his next television project, “Yellow Bird.”
Deadline reports that Paramount+ has secured the rights to a package deal after a bidding war that sees a series adaptation of the Sierra Crane Murdoch’s true crime novel “Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder & A Woman’s Search For Justice In Indian Country.” A murder takes place on a reservation in North Dakota and certainly has the vibes of something that could make for compelling television.
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“Newly released from jail, Lissa Yellowbird returned to her reservation in North Dakota in the midst of one of the largest oil booms in modern history. Her attempts to reconcile with her estranged family were complicated when she became obsessed with a young oil worker’s disappearance. An amateur sleuth from the wrong side of the law, Yellow Bird, ultimately exposed a sweeping criminal conspiracy of murder and corruption, healing her own family in the process of helping the oil worker’s mother find closure regarding her son’s fate.”
Harjo and Erica Tremblay (“Little Chief“) will co-create. The pair are set to executive produce the potential series with Beau Willimon (“House of Cards,” “Mary Queen of Scots“) and Jordan Tappis of Westward Productions and Michael London and Shannon Gaulding of Groundswell Productions. Sierra Crane Murdoch and her subject, Lissa Yellowbird, will also executive produce.
Lily Gladstone, who appeared in Tremblay’s short film “Little Chief,” would make a strong contender to play Lissa Yellowbird given her increased profile having taken a lead role in Martin Scorsese‘s “Killers of The Flower Moon” following her breakout lead in Kelly Reichardt’s “Certain Women.”
It’s unclear if “Yellow Bird” will compete in any way for Sterlin Harjo’s time on “Reservation Dogs,” should it get a second season, but either way, that’s probably a good problem to have for the writer/director creator.