Jeremy Renner to star in Taylor Sheridan’s ‘Mayor of Kingtown’ for Paramount+, Antoine Fuqua to exec produce

MTV Entertainment Studios announced during Wednesday’s ViacomCBS Streaming Event presentation that Academy Award nominee Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker, Wind River) has been tapped as the lead in the highly anticipated drama Mayor of Kingstown exclusively for Paramount+. Prolific director, Antoine Fuqua (Academy Award -winning Training Day), has signed on as executive producer in the new series from Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Taylor Sheridan – co-creator of Yellowstone, cable’s most watched show of 2020 – who recently signed a multi-year pact with ViacomCBS and MTV Entertainment Group. 

Mayor of Kingstown follows the McLusky family – power brokers in Kingstown, Michigan where the business of incarceration is the only thriving industry.  Tackling themes of systemic racism, corruption and inequality, the series provides a stark look at their attempt to bring order and justice to a town that has neither. Mayor of Kingstown will be executive produced by Sheridan, co-creator Hugh Dillon, Jeremy Renner, Antoine Fuqua, David Glasser, Ron Burkle, Bob Yari and Michael Friedman. MTV Entertainment Studios, Sheridan’s Bosque Ranch Productions and 101 Studios will produce. 

“I am excited to dig into the complex and rough-around-the-edges character of Mike McLusky (the Mayor of Kingstown),” said Jeremy Renner. “In a world otherwise forgotten in society, Mike serves as a flawed system of checks and balances. Taylor has brought to life a layered and poignant universe that is not only incredibly intriguing but also more relevant than ever.” 

“When Taylor told me about Mayor of Kingstown, I immediately wanted to be a part of it,” said Antoine Fuqua.  “The series offers a comprehensive look into the brutal prison system where socio-political issues run rampant. Prisons are a forgotten world to most of the population and yet represent a microcosm of society as a whole.”

Photos courtesy of AP

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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