My first trip to OOTV, as I just about never watch tv. But I just heard about the Dustin Hoffman signing, and I got excited. HBO declined to pick up "Last of the Ninth", but how could they possibly pass on a Dustin Hoffman series?
I was even more excited to hear that Dennis Farina will be involved. Next to Dennis Franz, Farina is probably the actor Best Suited To Deliver David Milch Dialogue.
(While checking Farina's IMDb page to confirm his involvement with "Luck", I stumbled over a HULU link to an old episode of "Hunter" that featured both Farina AND Franz. How could I not give that a shot? It's a two-part episode, I've only seen Part One so far, but Franz is awesome, the 80's music montages are awesome, and while Farina was barely in Part One, I'm expecting big things out of him for Part Two.
Link.)
And that Wiki link above was a poor explanation for why DW got canceled. From what I've read, HBO fired their CEO because of a scandal, and their first order of business was to rein in spending, because that CEO had just spent $100M on "Rome", a ton of money locking up the cast of "The Sopranos"...and "Deadwood" sure ain't cheap with all the extras and livestock. The new bosses called in Milch and told him, "We need to cut your budget in half." Milch refused to do a half-ass DW, so he just folded the tent instead.
Someone asked for a recap of Milch's plans for Season Four, which he discusses on DVD. The answer is, "Nothing earth-shattering". There was no ending imagined, Milch says, "...because the story never ended in real life--the town is still there! At least, that's what I keep telling myself, to keep from burning things."
Plans for Season Four included a fire that burned down the whole camp (that happened in real life), Swearengen hitting the bottle so much that he becomes marginalized after the Gem burns down, compared to the powerful political force he once was (you could see that coming in Season Three, as he hit that bottle more and more), and Milch mentioned a new character that was to be introduced in Season Four: The Medicine Man, some snake-oil salesman that hoodwinks the town with his phony remedies, much to the chagrin of Doc Cochran (based on a real person).
EDIT TO ADD: When it was clear that there would be no Season Four, Milch gave some of the Medicine Man material to Jack Langrishe's efforts to cure Hearst's troublesome back pain.