Shooter TV Series Premieres This November

Shooter was a relatively obscure, not-especially-beloved Mark Wahlberg action vehicle that came out in 2007. Directed by Antoine Fuqua (The Magnificent Seven [2016]), the film stars Wahlberg as a combat veteran named who gets hired by a shadowy military contractor to carry out an assassination, is double-crossed and framed, and spends the second half of the film pursuing revenge. It was a pretty direct descendent of the Bourne series, putting a movie star in an action story with something of a political conscience.

Based on the novel Point of Impact by film critic-turned-author Stephen Hunter, Shooter made $47 million at the domestic box office and never spawned a sequel or much of a cinematic legacy. But last year a TV adaptation of the film for the USA Network was announced, with Ryan Phillippe stepping into Wahlberg’s role of Bob Lee Swagger, and Wahlberg on board as an executive producer, along with Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Stephen Levinson. Now we know when we’ll be seeing it.

Shooter will debut on USA on Nov. 15 at 10 p.m. EST. The series had been scheduled to debut in July, but was postponed first by a week and then indefinitely, due to the shootings of law enforcement personnel in Baton Rouge and Dallas in July.

The TV adaptation of Shooter offers a supporting cast that includes Omar Epps and David Marciano (from The Shield and Homeland), as well as Arrow veteran Cynthia Addai-Robinson. John Hlavin, a longtime staffer on The Shield, is listed as the developer. The teaser features a setup similar to the film (see below), as Swagger is framed for an assassination attempt on the president of the United States, and then finds himself on the run, while at the same time attempting to clear his name.

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Will Shooter work on TV? There isn’t really anything about the plot that wouldn’t be applicable to the TV format, as government bureaucrats chasing Jack Bauer for a crime he didn’t commit was a plot strand on multiple seasons of 24. As for Phillippe, he’s emerged in his early 40s as an interesting actor, and appears to have followed the Wahlberg plan of becoming cartoonishly muscular upon reaching a certain age.

On the other hand? Shooter wasn’t exactly a blockbuster movie and didn’t exactly leave any kind of robust mark on cinematic culture. Most fan films probably wouldn’t even name it if asked to list off ten films that have starred Mark Wahlberg.

Shooter debuts on USA on November 15th, 2016.