At some point in the last 30 years or so, Jeff Bridges went from being a regular man to an old man, and now he’s going to embrace that wizened status by starring in The Old Man, an upcoming drama series for FX about yelling at a cloud. Oh wait, no, Variety says it’s based on the Thomas Perry novel about a CIA agent who ditched the federal government years ago and has been “living off the grid” ever since—at least until an assassin shows up to try and kill him and he has to use his old skills to “reconcile his past.” It sounds a bit like a Bourne movie, but with, you know, an old man.
The Old Man comes from Jon Steinberg, Robert Levine, and Dan Shotz, all of whom worked on Starz’s Black Sails. This will be Bridges’ first starring role on TV, making him the latest prestigious film actor to tarnish his reputation in the swampy depths of television. The Old Man already has a series order, but Variety doesn’t say when it will air.