Jeremy Renner will be your huckleberry in new western about Doc Holliday

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

Best known for his involvement in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, John Henry "Doc" Holliday has grown into a larger-than-life figure over the years as he's been portrayed by many great actors, including Walter Huston, Kirk Douglas, Val Kilmer, Dennis Quaid and more. It seems that we may be adding Jeremy Renner to that list as PalmStar Media has optioned the rights to two Doc Holliday novels which are being developed as a starring vehicle for Renner.

The two novels in question are Mary Doria Russell's "Doc" and "Epitaph: A Novel of the O.K. Corral" which chronicle the gunslinger's life as "a gentleman dentist in Reconstruction-era Atlanta to his stand alongside Wyatt Earp at the gunfight at the O.K. Corral." The western biopic is still in development, but in a joint statement producer Don Handfield and Jeremy Renner said that they are "excited to re-introduce this classic American character to a whole new audience by chronicling Doc Holliday’s incredible transformation from average Joe dentist to a man who Wyatt Earp called the ‘nerviest, speediest, deadliest man with a six-gun [he] ever knew.'" PalmStar Media CEO Kevin Frakes added: "Jeremy Renner as Doc Holliday … f**king awesome."

The official synopsis of Mary Doria Russell's "Doc" via Amazon:

Born to the life of a Southern gentleman, Dr. John Henry Holliday arrives on the Texas frontier hoping that the dry air and sunshine of the West will restore him to health. Soon, with few job prospects, Doc Holliday is gambling professionally with his partner, Mária Katarina Harony, a high-strung, classically educated Hungarian whore. In search of high-stakes poker, the couple hits the saloons of Dodge City. And that is where the unlikely friendship of Doc Holliday and a fearless lawman named Wyatt Earp begins— before the gunfight at the O.K. Corral links their names forever in American frontier mythology—when neither man wanted fame or deserved notoriety.

Jeremy Renner is currently filming AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR which is set for a May 4, 2018 release.