'True Blood' Creator Alan Ball's New Show Is Set In Amish Country

'True Blood' Creator Working On A New Show About The Amish

It's not just mid-90s sex romps with terrible soundtracks anymore! With more original programming in the works, Cinemax continues to further itself from its "Skinemax" roots.

The LA Times reports that the cable network recently relaunched their original programming arm with three new action series, and now they've attached Alan Ball -- creator of "True Blood" and "Six Feet Under" -- to a new drama about the Amish.

"Banshee," as the project is known, was stationed at HBO before heading over to Cinemax. It's set in a small town in Pennsylvania Amish Country, and will focus on an "enigmatic ex-con who's also an expert in martial arts." The ex-con poses as a murdered sheriff in the town, imposing his "own brand of justice, while cooking up plans that serve his own interest."

Like starting a karate facility for local Amish children, perhaps? That would be helpful, but probably not what they mean.

Also attached as a writer/producer on the series is Jonathan Tropper, the best-selling novelist whose "This Is Where I Leave You" is one of the funniest, and most exciting dysfunctional family novels of the past few years.

Ball, who won an Oscar for his screenplay for "American Beauty" more than a decade ago, apparently has no plans to leave "True Blood." That show is currently looking to confirm its fifth season.

In 2010, he was developing another show for HBO -- "All Signs of Death" -- based on Charlie Huston crime noir novel "The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death," but that project never moved further.

A few months ago, Quentin Tarantino sued Alan Ball for keeping a collection of "incredibly loud" exotic birds whose "obnoxious pterodactyl-like screams" kept him awake at night. The case was settled outside of court, and the two are planning (in my mind) to create a supernatural crime saga about the incident, starring Samuel L. Jackson as Tarantino, Christoph Waltz as Ball, and Steve Buscemi as the collection of the exotic birds.

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