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Mel Gibson, Kate Hudson, and Kurt Russell Are Making the TV Version of That Class Project You Did on the Gold Rush

An obvious combination. Photo: Getty Images

Imagine three kids standing front of a third-grade class giving a lecture on the history of California, except the kids are Mel Gibson, Kurt Russell, and Kate Hudson, the lecture is a TV show, and you are still only kinda paying attention in the back of the room. The Mark Gordon Company has recruited the three stars for The Barbary Coast, a series based on Herbert Asbury’s book of the same name, which tracks the founding of San Francisco back in the midst of the California Gold Rush. Mel Gibson is directing and co-writing the series, while siblings Kate and Oliver Hudson and Kurt Russell, who helped raise the Hudsons as kids, are taking starring roles. Kate and Kurt will also appear together in Deepwater Horizon soon.

Russell, Gibson, and Hudson Join Barbary Coast