Augustus "Gus" McCrae

It's about casting actors who embody the internal engines that drive the story.

Woody Harrelson is our choice for Gus McCrae.

He brings the necessary humor, the philosopher's spark, and the gravitas to make those final, quiet moments resonate deeply with a new generation.

Josh Brolin is our Woodrow call.

Besides the whiskey, I think we'll require a little respect.

I'm Captain Augustus McCrae.

This is Captain Woodrow F. Carr.

If you care to turn around, you can see how we looked when we was younger and the people around here wanted to make a senator.

...

but I still am so in lo- you know, Gus McCrae is-

Oh

... is my fa- is my best friend.

It is considered a watershed moment in television history.

It features a performance by Robert Duvall as Augustus McCrae that is widely regarded as definitive, an all-time great piece of acting.

Yeah, that's sacred ground for a lot of people.

So why touch it? Why risk the inevitable wrath of a deeply devoted, highly protective fan base to remake something that a massive portion of the audience considers flawless?

That was the lever they pulled to overcome the stigma.

You have Robert Duvall as Augustus "Gus" McCrae, Tommy Lee Jones as Woodrow F.

Call, Danny Glover as Joshua Deeds, and Diane Lane.

Okay.

It focused heavily on friendship and resilience against just the unpredictable, brutal misfortunes at the frontier.

Let's dig into that methodology a bit.

The plot follows these two former Texas Rangers, Gus and Call, and they're leading a cattle drive from Texas to Montana in the late 1870s.

Yes, and on a purely structural level, the cattle drive is an incredibly potent narrative engine.

I always said, "Let the English play Hamlet and King Lear.

I'll play Augustus McCrae." A great character in literature.

I mean, you know-

A, a true American character.

You know, like, l- we did Lonesome Dove.

I mean, to me, I, I, I said, "Let the English play Hamlet and King Lear.

I'll play Augustus McCrae."

McCrae."That was like [laughs]

Tommy Lee Jones is his longtime partner and friend, Woodrow Call, who's cold and reserved and tough and refuses to acknowledge that their young cattle hand Newt, played by Ricky Schroeder, is the son he fathered with a sex worker named Maggie, who is long dead.

The miniseries also stars Angelica Houston as Clara, the love of Gus's life, Danny Glover as their trusted scout, Joshua Dietz, Robert Urich as another old ranger friend, the untrustworthy Jake Spoon, a young-ish Diane Lane, because she'd been working since she was a kid, as another sex worker, Lorena, who goes on the cattle drive with the men, plus Steve Buscemi, Chris Cooper, Barry Corbin, William Sanderson, among many others, and...

Young character actress Margot Martindale as a sex worker called the Buffalo Heifer, whose first appearance is opening the door to a whorehouse in lingerie.

And holy shit.

The thing about the miniseries, again, is that it's a little bit more ripping yarn than the book is.

It's got this amazing score by, I'm going to mangle his name, Basil Polidorus, that's just like, so, yeah, yes, yes, take those horses through that river.

Yes, Gus McRae, go chase after Blue Duck, all of that.

But it's still, it's like very...