We’re going to have to join Jeffrey Tambor and Jill Soloway in thanking Jeff Bezos, aren’t we?
Right up there with my favorite soul-touching — don’t worry, it’s not dirty — actors Michael Shannon and Garrett Dillahunt (and, btw, his Amazon series Hand of God will be back for one more round) is John Hawkes (Lost, Deadwood, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Winter’s Bone, The Sessions …): the man is a master. Speaking of, Hawkes will star in The Legend of Master Legend, a pilot commissioned by Amazon, written by Joshua Bearman (Argo) and Transparent‘s Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, and directed by James Ponsoldt (The Spectacular Now, Shameless, Master of None).
Hot damn. The Legend of Master Legend is based on Bearman’s Rolling Stone piece about real life superhero Master Legend. The silver-and-black-costumed, pickup-truck-driving, regular guy carries a business card and cleans up after storms, retrieves stolen purses, and may or may not have broken up a crackhead gang run by a child molester. Not only that, the Master has his own sidekick assistant, Ace –“up my sleeve” — along with a group of regular superhero friends (Justice Force), and a killer weapon he calls the “No Mercy Punch.” Yeah, you should just go read the whole piece yourself; suffice it to say, I can’t imagine a better actor than Hawkes in this super-serious comedic superhero role. Although the real Master Legend is in Orlando, the series will find Hawkes’ patrolling the Las Vegas Strip.
… This makes Master Legend seem like a lunatic. But, to the people around him, he is the charismatic center of an inviting universe …. Being a Real Life Superhero means that Master Legend can get in his Nissan pickup and call it the Battle Truck. He can tape together a potato gun and call it the Master Blaster. He can stand in the porch light of a disintegrating clapboard house, a beer in his hand, and behold a glorious clandestine citadel. And who are we to tell him otherwise?
