Shawn Ryan has a new Fox pilot about the lawless frontier of Hawaii

By Kevin McFarland | October 17, 2013 | 9:20pm

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Shawn Ryan isn’t ready to part ways with island paradise just yet. The Shield showrunner has partnered with Shameless writer Davey Holmes on a pilot for Fox that also has Fast & Furious and Better Luck Tomorrow director Justin Lin attached. Set in Hawaii—where Ryan’s previous series Last Resort was also filmed—the series is set in 1957, two years before the territory officially became the 50th state. It follows a “small-time Hawaiian hustler” who seeks vengeance on “the most powerful man on the island” for his brother’s murder.

Ryan and Holmes worked together previously on The Chicago Code, one of the many one-season wonders Ryan has collected at various networks ever since The Shield ended. It’s also not the only iron he currently has in the fire, with the miniseries Mad Dogs at FX and a mining town drama at HBO to take his mind off that Beverly Hills Cop series not getting picked up. But television is always better when Shawn Ryan is adding something to the conversation, and surely one of these new projects has to catch on at some point, like it did for Bryan Fuller on Hannibal.