Hugh Dillon Co-Created Show Gets Green Light from Paramount

Published on: 2020/01/20 - in Entertainment

Paramount Network announced recently that it has ordered a new scripted drama series, Mayor of Kingstown, that was created by Taylor Sheridan and Kingston born and raised Hugh Dillon.

Sheridan, an Academy Award nominee, will serve as executive producer on the show along with Dillon – who is both a Gemini award winning actor and frontman for the multi-platinum, Juno nominated band Headstones. Yellowstone executive producer David Glasser will also take on that same role for the new show which will be produced by 101 Studios.

Taylor Sheridan is the co-creator of the hit Paramount Network drama “Yellowstone”, starring Kevin Costner, where Dillon appears as Sheriff Donnie Haskell.  Dillon was also previously cast in the 2017 film “Wind River” written by Sheridan.

Summary for Mayor of Kingstown:

Set in a small Michigan town where the only industry remaining are federal, state, and private prisons, “Mayor of Kingstown” follows the McClusky family, the power brokers between the police, criminals, inmates, prison guards and politicians, in a city completely dependent on prisons and the prisoners they contain.

The show has parallels with Dillon’s hometown of Kingston, which was named “King’s Town” or “the King’s Town” in 1787 in honour of King George III, before being shortened to Kingston the following year according to an archived chronology by the Kingston Historical Society.

And similar to the fictional Kingstown’s prison industry, Kingston has the largest concentration of prisons in Canada, which included for many years the Prison for Women (closed in 2000) and Kingston Penitentiary (closed in 2013).

Kingston Penitentiary is now home to the popular Kingston Pen Tours as well as being used as a film location this past year for Star Trek Discovery, DC’s Titans, Murdoch Mysteries and music videos by Dillon’s band Headstones that include Leave It All Behind and Dimes And Pennies. The former Kingston Penitentiary was also the site of “Rockin’ the Big House” this past September, a charity concert headlined by the Headstones that raised funds for the local United Way.

Read more about this announcement at Variety


UPDATE: Mayor of Kingstown will now be seen on the streaming service Paramount Plus with actor Jeremy Renner (‘Avengers’) in a starring role. READ MORE


Headline/article updated Feb 24, 2021
Photo: HughDillon.com