Paramount Network’s debuted the first trailer for the dramatic series, Waco, based on true events. The six-part series features Michael Shannon (Boardwalk Empire), Taylor Kitsch (True Detective), John Leguizamo (Bloodline), Andrea Riseborough (Nocturnal Animals), Rory Culkin (Jack Goes Home), Melissa Benoist (Supergirl), Paul Sparks (House of Cards), Shea Whigham (Vice Principals), Camryn Manheim (Major Crimes), and Julia Garner (The Americans). The event series was written by John Erick Dowdle and Drew Dowdle (As Above, So Below, No Escape), and directed by John Erick Dowdle.
Paramount will premiere Waco in January 2018.
The Plot: In February, 1993, the eyes of the world converged on Mount Carmel, a small religious community located just outside Waco, TX. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) had just conducted a massive raid on David Koresh and his followers, known as the Branch Davidians. After what became the longest gun battle in U.S. law enforcement history, four ATF agents and six civilians were dead and dozens more were wounded. A 51-day standoff ensued, and the conflict ended after an FBI assault led to a fire that engulfed Mount Carmel, killing 76 men, women, and children.
What precipitated the ATF raid, and what transpired over the ensuing standoff, remains one of the most misunderstood stories in American history. Based on two biographies, A Place Called Waco, by Branch Davidian David Thibodeau, one of the nine survivors of the final fire on April 19, 1993, and Stalling for Time: My Life as an FBI Hostage Negotiator, written by the FBI’s Head of Crisis Negotiation Unit Gary Noesner, the six-part scripted series Waco will forever change the way the dramatic siege will be viewed. A quarter century after this seminal moment in American history, Paramount Network will chronicle this true story told from several perspectives of those who were intimately involved.
