Thanks to Unbroken, mainstream audiences saw more to Jack O’Connell than his 300: Rise of an Empire abs, and the actor has continued his career trek with interesting roles: this year’s Money Monster and Tulip Forever, and Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Now, O’Connell is hopping aboard the Netflix bandwagon to star in, Godless, which Steven Soderbergh will executive produce.

Soderbergh re-teamed with his Out of Sight screenwriter Scott Frank for the project, which is an 1800s-set Western about an outlaw terrorizing the West named Frank Griffin. According to THR, O’Connell will play Roy Goode, Frank’s former partner and now mortal enemy who’s injured and hiding out. Roy is further described to have been orphaned at a young age to be taken under Frank’s wing, but he gets sick of his father figure’s behavior and runs off with his loot after sabotaging a robbery. The ensuing chase leads Frank to a town called La Belle, which is made up entirely by women.


Godless will mark O’Connell’s return to TV. Pre-Unbroken, he was featured on Skins and The Runaway, though he segwayed more into film, notably in Starred Up and ’71. He seemed like an early contender for Golden Globes and Oscars considerations in playing Louis Zamperini in Angelina Jolie’s WWII film, though he and the film as a whole were largely snubbed by awards season.

As for Godless, Soderbergh will executive produce with Frank, who’s also writing and directing all the episodes. It’ll act as a limited series, which is all the rage right now, but it could very well get a green light for more should subscribers express considerable interest. The streaming service, which is hunkering down on original content, renewed a ton of its content, including Grace & Frankie, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and, more recently, The Ranch. Though, with Godless, it could be more difficult to get these busy filmmakers locked down for another season, hence the limited affair.

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