No news isn't good news at HBO, where plans for those two "Deadwood" movies are, if not dead, at least breathing shallowly.

"Deadwood" creator David Milch, who's finishing up the first season of "John From Cincinnati," "is exhausted," says Michael Lombardo, whose title is HBO president, programming group and West Coast Operations.

"We haven't had a conversation" with Milch about the movies, said Lombardo, who must not have been briefed very well if he didn't know that this was one of the first questions he'd be asked today.

"It is complicated," he said, since the network no longer has a hold on the actors, many of whom have moved on to other work (some, of course, on "John").

"It's certainly on our books as something we're still interested in," he added.

So, he was asked, is it possible that the movies will never get made?

"Of course, it's possible," Lombardo said. "It's doable, but it will be daunting."

At some point, he apparently plans to talk to Milch, and "if David's game for this, then we will figure it out."

On the other hand, "if we pick up 'John' [for a second season], David will have to go right back" to working on scripts for that.