Not Based from True Events
Fargo is the largest city in North Dakota, the cultural center as well. It is also the title of a movie by Joel and Ethan Coen released in 1996. It misleads moviegoers a bit, as the story is mostly set in Minnesota, a state east of North Dakota. But as the movie's poster will tell, any story by the Coen brothers is far from the truth. It's that kind of set-up where the siblings can find something amusing, and in the case of “Fargo”, it's about an offense concocted by a desperate salesman. Nothing funny about it, but Joel and Ethan, directors, producers, and screenwriters, know how.
1996 was a special year in American Cinema, when many independent pictures ended up in the news. "Fargo" did better, earning seven Academy Award nominations, winning Best Original Screenplay for the siblings and Best Actress for Frances McDormand, Joel's wife, for her role as Marge Gunderson, a local police chief who investigated the crime. In 2006, the Library of Congress inducted the film into the United States National Film Registry for preservation. FX, a satellite television channel, may have seen the movie as the Coen's best. It could be the only reason why they decided to make a series, loosely based from the film. The brothers are the executive producers.
Noah Hawley, writer and producer of "Bones", a crime comedy-drama series, is the main writer for the first season of "Fargo". Not only did he captured the chilly atmosphere of the film, but also the quirky elements that made the Coen brothers garnered a legion of fans. Playing Lorne Malvo, a drifter with a violent streak in his soul, is Billy Bob Thornton, who starred in that other Coen brothers picture, "The Man Who Wasn't There" (2002).
"I love those guys. Anything they're attached to makes me happy," Thornton said.
Lorne Malvo will influence the residents of Bemidji, Minnesota with his malicious deeds, but viewers of the first episode will first notice his haircut. It looks awful, such that it makes him more terrifying.
"I got a bad haircut that was cut kind of wrong, with the intention of combing it over to one side," Thornton said. "But it didn't quite work doing that. When you didn't do anything to it, the bangs just kind of hung there. And it was like, 'Hey, wait a minute. This is sick!'"
This haircut, dreadful yet interesting, may earn Thornton his first Emmy Award. (He sported a different cut in "Sling Blade", a film that won him an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1997. It was also dreadful yet interesting.) The first episode was praised, which meant a second season was possible. For Thornton, who was prolific on the big screen during the last few decades, he won't mind working for the small screen for a few years.
"You're not trying for the box office, so you don't have to do these certain things or cast these certain people. On TV, they don't care. It's been great. You can get away with whatever you want," he said.
