Kevin Bacon Starring in Hulu’s ‘Southern Bastards’ Pilot

Hulu’s drama pilot Southern Bastards has found its leading man.

Kevin Bacon will star in the project, based on a graphic novel of the same name by Jason Aaron and Jason LaTour. The pilot comes from Disney’s Onyx Collective, POV Entertainment and Ryan Coogler’s Proximity Media in association with Fifth Season.

Along with Bacon, director Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard, We Own This City) has joined the pilot as director.

Southern Bastards will follow “a tenacious military vet into Craw County, Alabama, in search of her estranged father,” the logline reads. “What she finds is a murderous hornet’s nest of organized crime run by the winningest high school football coach in the South.” Bill Dubuque (Ozark) and Nia DaCosta (Hedda, Candyman) share story credit on the pilot, with Dubuque writing the teleplay. Matt Olmstead (NBC’s Chicago franchise) will serve as showrunner.

Bacon will play Earl, the son of Craw County’s legendary Sheriff Bert, who ruled with an iron fist. Earl is described as a tough but humble Army veteran, eager to reconnect with his estranged daughter and not afraid to stir things up in his hometown.

Dubuque, DaCosta and Olmstead are executive producing Southern Bastards with Green; Aaron and LaTour; POV Entertainment’s Layne Eskridge; and Proximity Media’s Ryan Coogler, Sev Ohanian and Zinzi Coogler. Proximity’s Simone Harris and POV’s Kate Barry are co-EPs, and Proximity creative executives Hannah Baker and D’Angelo Louis will oversee production.

Bacon’s recent credits include the horror comedy Family Movie (which he also directed), which premiered at SXSW last month, Netflix’s Sirens and Prime Video’s The Bondsman. He is repped by MGMT, Johnson Shapiro, and Viewpoint.

Green’s directing credits also include Bob Marley: One Love, Top Boy and the forthcoming Disney+ special The Punisher: One Last Kill. He is repped by WME, Granderson des Rochers and ID.