David Milch – the eccentric genius TV writer/Yale professor behind NYPD Blue and Sodapop Journal’s #4 TV series of the decade, Deadwood – has had a tough couple of years. In 2006, he abruptly ended that beloved western in favor of the surreal Jesus-as-surfers experiment John From Cincinnati, which blew the lead-in from the Sopranos finale, was cancelled after a single season and is now remembered only as that horrible show that killed Deadwood. He returned to cop stories for his next series, a 1970′s drama called Last of the Ninth, but HBO passed on the pilot.

We doubt they’ll be able to pass his next one up though. Variety reports today that Public Enemies/Heat/The Insider director Michael Mann will direct the pilot for Luck, Milch’s new drama about the world of competitive horse racing. It’s a world Milch is familiar with; as a thoroughbred owner himself, he’s won two Breeders’ Cups. Mann hasn’t directed for TV since 1989′s L.A. Takedown, an unaired pilot that he later fleshed out into Heat. I’m expecting lots of long shots of tortured but purposeful dudes with professionalism and mortality on their minds and profane, vaguely Shakespearean dialogue on their tongues.

Milch describes the uncast main character of Ace Bernstein as “a guy versed in all the permutations of finance, elicit and otherwise. When he is released from jail for securities violations, he resumes his place at the race track, where he is a figure of long-standing repute.” We love you Michael Mann, but please leave Tom Sizemore out of this one. Any helpful casting suggestions, SPJ readers?