Deadline reports that Gerard Butler will step away from playing the misogynist who gets the girl in shitty romantic comedies for a hot minute to executive produce a show for Starz called Pinkerton, about pioneering detective Allan Pinkerton, creator of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency (otherwise known as the “Pinkerton shitheels” to Deadwood fans).
The 10-part series will be a fictionalized version of Pinkerton’s life story, which includes founding the nation’s first detective agency after emigrating from Scotland, running the precursor to the U.S. Secret Service, and foiling an early assassination attempt on Abraham Lincoln in Baltimore—an obscure episode that will be “featured prominently” here—as well as serving as the “spy master of the North” during the Civil War and going after outlaw railroad robbers like Jesse James. That last one didn’t exactly go so well. We expect lots of overhead shots of Pinkerton throwing up his arms and screaming, “Jaaaaaaaames!” if you want us to watch this thing. Anyway, no, unlike 50 percent of Newswire stories, this has nothing to do with Weezer.