If you only know Jack Daniel from his whiskey being sipped by manly actors, he’s a fairly interesting guy. Aaron Paul thinks he, or at least a book about him titled Blood And Whiskey, is compelling interesting enough, to make a TV show out of for WGN America.
Thanks to the nature of whiskey, or more specifically whiskey marketing, which is inclined to exaggeration, Daniel’s life is the subject of some debate. Part of what makes Blood And Whiskey, Peter Krass’ biography/fact check of the distillery’s claims, so rich is that Daniel didn’t really need the blarney that surrounds any brand of name whiskey. He was the youngest of ten kids, his mom died after giving birth to him, his dad died in the Civil War, and he ran away from home. And all that’s before he opened the distillery we all know, and started getting in trouble with the law. To give you an idea of how much trouble, to this day the distillery is located in a dry county.
It’s unlikely the distillery is going to just let this one slide, not least because it heavily disputes some aspects of Krauss’ book. But Daniel is a fascinating guy with a lot of mystery around him, and Paul, who’s shown a taste for complex dramatic roles after Breaking Bad, is a good choice to play him. We’ll likely see what WGN America has coming next year.
(via The Hollywood Reporter)
