AMC Orders Western Noir Series Dark Winds From George R.R. Martin & Robert Redford

AMC has ordered a new Western noir series from George R.R. Martin & Robert Redford, titled Dark Winds. Deadline reports that AMC Networks has greenlit the series, which is based on Tony Hilleman’s Leaphorn & Chee books. The show will air on AMC and AMC+, and will be created and executive produced by Graham Roland. Martin and Redford are also executive producing alongside Vince Gerardis, Tina Elmo, Zahn McClarnon, and Vince Calandra.

Calandra will serve as showrunner for the series, which stars McClarnonas well as Kiowa Gordon. They will play Navajo Tribal Police Officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee in the six-episode series, which is set in the Southwest in the 1970s. The two officers “search for clues in a grisly double murder case forces them to challenge their own spiritual beliefs and come to terms with the trauma of their pasts,” per the site.

Season 1 is expected to premiere on AMC+ and AMC in 2022 and features a writer’s room staffed entirely by Native American writers, led by Roland.

“We’re thrilled by the prospect of authentically telling this story with a group of remarkably talented individuals,” McDermott said. “This is a rich and deeply unsettling psychological thriller set in a world we know viewers will appreciate experiencing for themselves.”

The books were previously adapted into the 1991 film The Dark Wind, in which Leephorn and Chee were played by Fred Ward and Lou Diamond Phillips. A 2002 three-part Skinwalkers miniseries via PBS Mystery! starred Wes Studi and Adam Beach as the duo.