Quentin Tarantino came very close to directing some of Justified: City Primeval

Justified: City Primeval is a cause for celebration. The show is a cosmic gumbo of Elmore Leonard creations stewed to perfection in the style of FX’s brilliant Justified—and as we previously reported, we have Quentin Tarantino to thank, in part, for the series coming to fruition. We knew he almost directed some of the show, but in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, veteran Justified director and City Primeval co-showrunner Michael Dinner shares how close he came to directing an episode.

Dinner explains after Raylan Givens (Olyphant) and Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) acknowledged their coal mining past and said their goodbyes in the series finale, Elmore Leonard’s son pitched Dinner on City Primeval, a Leonard novel set outside of the Raylan Givens series.

“I was in Italy shooting, and [Timothy Olyphant] called me up and said, ‘Quentin and I were sitting around on [the Once Upon A Time In Hollywood] set, and we were talking. Do you know City Primeval?’” Dinner said. “And I go, ‘Uh, yeah.’ And he goes, ‘Well, we were thinking it’d be a great year of Justified.’ And I said, ‘Well, that’s a great idea, Tim. I’ve actually been playing around with it.’”

Dinner said that though their “intention was never to involve [Tarantino] in it,” they thought asking him to direct an episode would be fun. “Dave and I actually sent him either the pilot or the first two episodes, and he loved it. He had a few thoughts, but it was just a few things,” Dinner said. “And then we slipped him the third and the fourth episodes, which he really loved. And so the intention was that he was gonna do an episode.”