Jones and Jackson Reunite for HBO Drama

Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson are set to star in The Sunset Limited, an HBO adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy play that Jones will also direct. McCarthy also penned the screenplay.

Jackson plays a man who saves another man (Jones) from throwing himself in front of a Harlem subway train. The act begins an exchange of ideologies as the two men from different backgrounds debate the worth of their lives.

Jones and Jackson previously worked together on Rules of Engagement. The project marks Jones’ third collaboration on a McCarthy-penned piece. Jones starred in the Coen brothers-directed adaptation of No Country for Old Men and also adapted the McCarthy novel Blood Meridian as a feature script.

Jones just wrapped the John Wells-directed The Company Men with Kevin Costner, and he’s adapting to star in and direct the Ernest Hemingway novel Islands in the Stream. Jackson just wrapped Unthinkable and Mother and Child.

McCarthy’s play The Sunset Limited opened in 2006 at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater and moved Off Broadway later that year.

The HBO Production will begin shooting next month in New Mexico.