USA Network has picked up to series its period drama pilot Damnation from writer-poet-critic Tony Tost (Longmire), Entertainment 360’s Guymon Casady (Game of Thrones) and Daniel Rappaport, and James Mangold (Logan, Walk the Line). David MacKenzie (Hell or High Water) directed the pilot and also executive produces.

The series is expected to premiere in October. Netflix, who co-produces with Universal Cable Productions, will have first-run rights to the series outside of the U.S.

USA Network

Written by Tost, Damnation is described as an epic saga of the secret history of the 1930’s American heartland, chronicling the mythic conflict and bloody struggle between big money and the downtrodden, God and greed, charlatans and prophets. It centers on Seth Davenport (Killian Scott), a man masquerading as a small town Iowa preacher in the hopes of starting a full-blown insurrection against the status quo. Focused on his mission, he is unaware that an industrialist tycoon has hired a professional strikebreaker named Creeley Turner (Logan Marshall-Green) to stop the uprising by any means necessary. But unbeknownst to those around them, these two men already share a secret bloody past. Cast also includes Sarah Jones, Christopher Heyerdahl, Nola Augustson and Joel McNichol.

Series also is executive produced by Tost, Mangold, and Casady and Rappaport for Entertainment 360.

This is USA’s third drama series order this season, joining Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. and The Sinner.