Vroom vroom. Deadline reports that Dennis Quaid is set to star in Thunder Road, a NASCAR drama series in the works at AMC. The project comes from John Fusco, best known for writing Young Guns, The Highwaymen, and Netflix’s Marco Polo series.
Thunder Road
The series is described as “the multi-generational saga of the Whitlock family, whose legacy in stock car racing is as deep as the family’s ties to the southern hill country roots that shaped them. The series features family dynamics, fierce rivalries, and the untold stories behind one of America’s most iconic sports.“
Quaid will play Duane Whitlock, aka The Wrecking Ball, a “towering figure who built a racing empire from a legacy of moonshine runs and dirt tracks and refuses to let it die.” The show will tell the story of “a blue-collar dynasty at the edge of extinction — and the old king fighting to hold onto his crown.“
Thunder Road is on the fast track, with a writers room now open and production expected to kick off this summer. The project is being produced in association with NASCAR.
Dennis Quaid on TV
The actor is no stranger to television, with his last small-screen project streaming on Paramount+ last year. He played serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson in Happy Face. The crime drama was adapted from Melissa Moore’s 2018 podcast Happy Face and her 2009 autobiography Shattered Silence, which she co-wrote with M. Bridget Cook. At 15, Moore discovered that her beloved father was the prolific serial killer known as Happy Face. As an adult, she has changed her name and guarded her secret while her father has been serving life in prison.
Jumping off from Moore’s true-life story, the series follows Melissa (Ashford) and her incarcerated father, known as the Happy Face Killer (Quaid). After decades of no contact, he finally finds a way to force himself back into his daughter’s life. In a race against the clock, Melissa must find out if an innocent man is going to be put to death for a crime her father committed. Throughout, she discovers the impact her father had on his victims’ families and must face a reckoning of her own identity. However, we won’t be seeing more as the series was cancelled after just one season.
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