Film to TV Adaptations: A Conversation with Noah Hawley

Austin Film Festival's On Story

This week on On Story, a conversation with lauded TV writer, Noah Hawley, whose expansive writing career includes creating and showrunning the FX series Fargo and Legion.

Fargo, the award-winning anthology series, is Hawley's adaptation of the 1996 film of the same name. Each season of the comedy-crime series follows murder investigations in various midwestern towns. Since the series debuted in 2014, the star-stacked cast has included Jon Hamm, Chris Rock, Jessie Buckley, Ben Wisham, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ewan McGregor, Patrick Wilson, Jean Smart, and Kirsten Dunst, to name just a few. The series, now with five seasons released, has earned six Emmy awards and an impressive fifty-five nominations. Both the acclaimed series Fargo and Legion are produced under Noah Hawley's 26 Keys Production banner.

Hawley sat down with AFF moderator and TV producer Barry Josephson for a conversation focused on Fargo. Hawley discusses his approach to finding the essence of the film when adapting it for the small screen.

Fargo clips courtesy of FX.

Legion clips courtesy of FX.

Bones clips courtesy of Fox.