Timothy Olyphant is on 'Fire' at FX

Zap2It.com | April 27, 2009

Timothy Olyphant

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'Deadwood,' 'Damages' star will head Elmore Leonard pilot

Timothy Olyphant is done with "Damages," but his time on FX may not be over.

Olyphant, who joined the cable channel's twisty legal drama this season, has been tapped to star in a pilot for FX. It's based on an Elmore Leonard story called "Fire in the Hole" and follows a U.S. marshal as he returns to his Kentucky hometown.

"He has a certain jaggedness, but he also loves his job," creator Graham Yost says of the character, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "He is like an anachronism: He wears a hat, cowboy boots and a holster on his hip. It's a little bit like he was born 100 years too late."

Olyphant played the mysterious and conflicted Wes Krulik on "Damages" this season. He also starred on HBO's "Deadwood" and in the movies "Hitman" and "Live Free or Die Hard."

The pilot for the Leonard project, which is currently working without a title, is scheduled to begin filming next month. It's one of two pilots FX is working on; the other, "Lights Out," is about a retired boxer (Holt McCallany) suffering the onset of pugilistic dementia and the effect on his family, including his physician wife played by "The Office's" Melora Hardin.