Aus'm HTF:
According to a post by W Earl Brown (Dan Doherty) on the HBO.com Deadwood message board, Deadwood will not be back for a fourth season:

Having not slept for much of last night, I sit staring bleary-eyed at my computer. That phone call last evening floored me. Never, in my wildest dreams, did I see it coming.

I feel cheated.

I am cheated as an person because the way I was brought up a man's word is his bond. We were given word in Dec. that we'd be back for a fourth season. A formal annoucement of that fourth season was trumpeted in the press in March. Lives were planned accordingly.

I am cheated as an artist because something that I poured my lifeblood into has been given short-shrift and not allowed to conclude properly.

I am cheated as a fan because the verbally fleet and intricately plotted show shall just cease to be. It will just stop. No wrap up. No farewells.

------------------------------------

W. Earl Brown:

It has nothing to do with pregnancies. It has nothing to do with conservative watchdogs.

It has everything to do with money.

Chris Albrecht, HBO CEO, is in danger of losing his job. The network is bleeding red ink. His production side lost a ton of money. They sunk 120-million into ROME. They are committed contractually to another season, plus they have 120 invested already.

On DEADWOOD, they did not get foreign rights. Paramount had a deal with Milch to work for them. In exchange for them releasing him to HBO, they got foreign rights to our show. So for three years, HBO has not seen that money from around the world.

While we are the second biggest show on HBO, we are the 2nd most expensive to make (half of what ROME costs, mind you). Chris has shareholders to answer to and is panicked to cut the bottom line. Never mind the fact, that in 2004 he posted a 1-Billion dollar profit (the most for ANY network. Ever.) You might've won the Super Bowl last year, but if you go 0-16 this season, you're looking for another coaching job.

We had been given word of season four. They trumpeted the announcment of the season to the press in March. Chris, obviously having not been raised the way I was where a man's word is his bond, reneged on us. He offered Milch the opportunity to wrap up the series with either a 2 hour movie or an order of six episodes. David refused, feeling that to conclude with anything short of a full season (which we'd already been given word of) would demean all the work we'd done prior. I agree.

The shitty part of this is David's Paramount deal is over this year. Starting with season four, HBO would own the show outright. All world monies would be theirs. BUT... that doesn't help Chris with the shareholders today. He is cutting off his nose to spite his face.

Write HBO. Call HBO. Email HBO. It amounts to the bottom line. If the are overun by subscibers and the threatened cancellations are enough of an issue to seriously cut into their cash flow, they might change track.

Bottom line matters. CARNIVALE only had a weekly viewership of 2-3 million. SOPRANOS, on the opposite end, has 10-12. DEADWOOD drew 5-6. ROME has a comparable draw, although their viewership dwindled as the show went on. However (this is solely my opinion having constantly encountered fans on the street, in airports, etc. who are only now getting into the show via dvd of season 1) DEADWOOD is (was) still ascending.

We've been cut off at the knees.

Read this. Memorize this. I'm afraid some Monitor from Big Brother will soon delete it and I will never work for HBO again... at least while Albrecht is at the helm.

HBO hat sich mit "Rome" finanziell total übernommen und muß diese extrem teure Serie sogar aus vertraglichen Gründen weiter produzieren, obwohl dadurch rote Zahlen geschrieben werden.
Also muß woanders gespart werden, sprich bei Deadwood, der zweitteuersten Serie.
Hinzu kommt, daß HBO nicht die internationalen Verwertungsrechte für Deadwood hat und so auch nichts z.B. an den deutschen DVDs oder den internationalen TV-Ausstrahlungen verdient.
Das liegt daran, daß der Macher der Serie David Milch eigentlich bei Paramount unter Vertrag steht und HBO als Gegenleistung für seine Überlassung die internationalen Verwertungsrechte bekommen hat. Milch´s Vertrag mit Paramount ist zwar Ende diesen Jahres beendet, aber das hilft ihm jetzt nicht weiter.

Das Schlimme an der Sache ist, daß es im Dezember ein wörtlich OK für die vierte Staffel gegeben hat - der offizielle Vertragsabschluß war eigentlich nur noch Formsache!
Das heißt, die Serie endet einfach offen - ohne Auflösung von Handlungssträngen und ohne ein ordentliches Ende.

Original von GrafSpee
Normalerweise will HBO wohl einen abschließenden Film machen aber aus wut wollen wohl die macher nicht, anderer Sender geht eigentlich garnicht schon garnicht in den USA Deadwood kann nur im pay TV laufen.

Original von sedai
dann sollen sie halt die staffel 3 umschreiben story mässig das es halt kein offenes ende hat wäre doch total schlecht einfach weiterhin nach plan zu drehen und zum schluss alles offen zu lassen

Original von Baldur

Original von sedai
dann sollen sie halt die staffel 3 umschreiben story mässig das es halt kein offenes ende hat wäre doch total schlecht einfach weiterhin nach plan zu drehen und zum schluss alles offen zu lassen

Naja das wird nicht gehen, da die dritte Staffel in den USA bereits gelaufen ist !