A Ray Donovan movie is in the works at Showtime. The crime drama stars Liev Schreiber as the title character, a family man working as a professional fixer in Los Angeles and ran for seven seasons before being abruptly cancelled by Showtime without warning. The planned eighth season was expected to be the show's last with the showrunner, David Hollander, already having a story in place. Since the cancellation, fans have been demanding for a final season as a way to wrap things up and even Schreiber himself has promised the show would get a proper ending. In August, Schreiber stated on his Instagram account that a film was being written.
Per Slashfilm, Showtime has announced that a Ray Donovan feature-length film is now in development and will commence production later this year in New York, with a premiere in 2022. The movie will take place immediately after the events of the season seven finale. Schreiber will co-write the film with Hollander, who will also direct the film. Showtime stated that the film will "weave together the present-day fallout from the Donovan/Sullivan feud with Ray and Mickey’s origin story from 30 years ago.” The full statement can read below:
When Ray Donovan went off our air after seven great seasons, we heard from so many of its loyal fans that they were not ready to say goodbye to Ray and the wonderfully dysfunctional Donovan clan. And so, for them, we are delighted that Liev and David are creating a thrilling new chapter of this iconic series.
This is not the first time that a film of a popular television series was made after a surprising cancellation. Deadwood went through the same process after being prematurely cancelled after its third season, and HBO revived it for a two-hour movie, albeit more than a decade later. Season seven of Ray Donovan ended on a cliffhanger as Donovan was going through psychological guilt and ended the Sullivan battle, while potentially starting his own with his father Mickey, portrayed by Jon Voight, who is on the run. It is uncertain what events will occur or what questions will be answered in the film, but fans have finally gotten their wish.
Source: Slashfilm