Urban Cowboy is getting rebooted for the small screen. Deadline reports that Paramount+ has put in a series order for a new take on the 1980 romantic Western, which starred John Travolta and Debra Winger. The new series comes from The Circle writer/director James Ponsoldt and Benjamin Percy, the filmmaking duo behind the 2022 Sundance movie Summering. Ponsoldt will direct and co-write the Urban Cowboy series with Percy with Paramount TV producing.
This announcement was first announced by Paramount+ Original Scripted Series President Nicole Clemens at the company's virtual TVA press event. Several other shows based on classic titles in the Paramount Pictures library were also announced. This includes Paramount+ shows based on Fatal Attraction, The Italian Job, Love Story, and Flashdance.
The Urban Cowboy series is said to go "deeper into Bud's journey from farm to the big city in 1980s Houston" and will feature music from that time period. The original film, directed by James Bridges and co-written by Bridges and Aaron Latham, follows the love-hate relationship between Buford "Bud" Davis (John Travolta) and Sissy (Debra Winger). It was a hit at the box office with mostly positive reviews from critics, but it was never given an official sequel.
"It was so awesome," music legend Mickey Gilley said of working on the film in commemoration of its 40th anniversary, per Uproxx. "It changed my life. I tell people I think John Travolta is keeping my career alive, at 84 years old and still singing the music from the soundtrack of Urban Cowboy. And it has been one heck of a ride."
On how the movie helped make country music more mainstream, he added, "I think that the film changed a lot of people’s lives, as far as the music scene was concerned. Because a lot of people didn’t listen to country music until that film came out. And when it came out, and they heard all these other acts in this film doing some of this music that they could listen to, and they could relate to, and all of a sudden country music, well, it boomed all of a sudden."
Urban Cowboy Was Almost Remade As a TV Series in 2015
There was previously an attempt to reboot Urban Cowboy as a TV show. In 2015, it was reported that Paramount TV and 20th Century Fox were teaming up to develop Urban Cowboy as a possible companion piece for Empire with Craig Brewer on board. This iteration of the project fizzled out and put Urban Cowboy back on the shelf where it would remain until Paramount+ revisited the movie when looking at titles to reboot for the streaming service. Perhaps it will fare better on a streamer than on Fox television.
Paramount+ has not yet set an official premiere date for the Urban Cowboy series. With production moving forward, more information should be revealed in the coming months, such as who might be playing the new incarnations of the lead characters.