Working The Trapline — Outer Range & A Safari Legend

This here Outer Range really intrigues me. Second trailer — more weird stuff. Drops April 15 on the East India Co. Channel Amazon Prime.

“It took a very simple, straight-forward genre and then it took extraordinary twists, whether it be metaphysical or whatever you want to call it,” [Josh] Brolin told Variety at the show’s premiere at Hollywood’s Harmony Gold theater on Thursday night. “It’s uncertain because there are so many directions it can go, and a lot of them can feel really cliché. But I feel like we kept it grounded.”

Creator and executive producer Brian Watkins explained how he worked to reframe the American West as we know it.

“I grew up out West, so the story is really personal for me,” Watkins shared. “The West is a place where you can walk up to the edge of a tree line and feel like you’re looking into another world.”

Teasing the show’s twisty premise, he added: “The supernatural came from from the land itself. We always say that the sci-fi in the show is not extra-terrestrial, it’s terrestrial. It’s very of the earth, it’s very of the land.”

*

Speaking of contemporary Westerns, Joe Pickett will start streaming May 15 on Paramount+ — same network that runs Yellowstone and 1883. The series is based on the beloved C.J. Box novels.

 

*

I hear that John Sharp’s book Facing Down Fear will soon be available in the States. Ran across this video interview newly released on John van Zyl’s Youtube Channel.

Sharp is a highly respected African hunter and safari leader — and he’s also highly picturesque. The River Crossing photo has become iconic. Sharp was the model for the latter day Sean Courtney character in Wilbur Smith’s novel A Time To Die. Smith hunted with Sharp extensively.

I have hunted with some of the very best professional hunters presently operating in Africa, but John Sharp is my preferred companion and guide in the hunting field. I have on two occasions had John beside me when we faced down charging lions, and I know that not only is he an expert marksman, but he is also totally fearless. He instills in me a complete sense of trust and confidence. I have no hesitation in recommending that any serious hunter of the big four, make his African Safari with John Sharp.

Wilbur Smith
Author

Sharp’s an old man now — and still out there in the bush with his .470 Rigby.

Facing Down Fear was released in 2018 as a limited edition and has only been available through Rigby. The new release is a $27.95 paperback. I can do that.

FACING DOWN FEAR touches briefly on my unsettled youth, and how I finally found and began to live a dream. My story ambles from the Orange Free State to Cape Town in South Africa, to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and East Africa, experiencing bush life in a wide circle through Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Namibia and Botswana, before finally settling back in Zimbabwe. These are campfire tales of a few of my adventures along the way, and the people – and dogs – who have travelled with me; stories of a loner, who was able to come and go as the wind called, woven into the tapestry of a life well lived. I hope that in this memoir I have been able to share what I have learnt; that facing down fear – of danger, of pain, of failure, of loss – can lead to a rich and rewarding life. I hope too that I have shared my love for Africa, its spectacular wild places and its beautiful wildlife – an Africa that I pray we will be able to preserve for future generations. This has been a labour of love, and I hope you will enjoy your walk with me.

*

Speaking of iconic men and iconic rifles…

The great frontier artist David Wright contributed Taking The Long Shot to The Hawken Classic, a gathering in St. Louis, Missouri, that celebrates the legacy of that legendary Plains Rifle in the run-up to the 2025 Hawken Bicentennial.