Everything We Know So Far About David E Kelley’s New ABC Thriller Series “Big Sky”
Big Sky is an upcoming American procedural drama television series created by David E Kelley and based on the 2013 novel The Highway by C.J. Box. The series was first announced in January 2020 by ABC and is executive produced by Kelley and Ross Fineman.
The series looks just as intriguing and dramatic as Kelley’s most dominantly known HBO hit Big Little Lies. If that’s not a huge bonus I don’t know what is. Here’s everything we know.
What’s The Series Premise?
The story follows Private detectives Cassie Dewell and Cody Hoyt join forces with his estranged wife, ex-cop Jenny Hoyt, to search for two sisters who have been kidnapped by a truck driver on a remote highway in Montana. But when they discover that these are not the only girls who have disappeared in the area, they must race against the clock to stop the killer before another woman is taken.
“What resonated was the layering of the characters,” Kelley said on Wednesday during ABC’s virtual upfront presentation on the series. “The authenticity and sense of place that he [Box] brought to Montana” forced Kelley to incorporate all the elements the book did. “It was a great ride, a great journey,” he said.
“I was not anxious to get back into the broadcast world,” Kelley said, due to the commercial breaks. “This show lends itself to be a great binging show,” he said. “The biggest challenge is commercials, I still hate them,” as it calls on the audience to “break a wall.”
As opposed to Kelley’s previous work, the show is not exactly socially or politically spiced. “We want to compel the audience to come back,” he said. “The structure of this is we’ll do four or five-episode arcs.” If someone can only watch the first half of the season, they will get a resolution on at least one storyline. “We like that format, as storytellers, because we cultivate and introduce an underlying story” simultaneously while discussing a full story, he said. “We believe in our show and we believe there’s a constituency out there that will support it.”
“I’m not going to talk too much about plot details, because a big part of the series are the twists and story turns that we take,” Kelley explained in a recent virtual press conference. “And the more that we can preserve those surprises, I think the better the experience will be for watching the show. I do think that what you will notice is we come out of the box as a thriller and as we proceed from episode to episode, we will cultivate a real investment in the characters.”
“There is a triangle, absolutely,” Phillippe teased, speaking to the press on a virtual panel on Wednesday. “That’s where we find these characters in the beginning. They’re sort of dealing with or figuring out what the dynamics of that triangle are, or what they will be. It’s exciting.”
Per Tv Guide “I wasn’t really looking to sign on for another series at this point,” Winnick said, “but when you see David E. Kelley’s name on this and you read the script, how can you say no?”
She continues “This show is really based on two strong female leads; It’s rare to find two women characters that follow through different cases as the series progresses.”
“I tend to focus on characters and let the characters speak to me,” Kelley said. You can go to Big Sky’s Instagram page for little snippets and clips of the upcoming series if you’re interested in getting creeped out.
Filming Delay And Cast
Per Deadline “There were some delays in the test results so out of caution we did shut down yesterday and today but fortunately everybody is safe, we’ve had no incidents,” he said. “We expect to resume production probably tomorrow or Friday.” Kelley said when this happened a week ago in Vancouver due to Covid tests.
As Deadline reported last September, Big Sky started production on its 10-episode order Aug. 27.
As for the mystery behind the series, Kelley would only offer teases. “At the end of each episode I think the audience should be leaning in and say, ‘What’s gonna happen next?’” Kelley said.
“It’s very unscientific and inexact. I don’t consider myself a uber-producer or a television maven,” Kelley said during Wednesday’s Big Sky panel. “If I find something I like then, I just cross my fingers, close my eyes and hope there’s enough ppl out there that will find it interesting.”
“It’s difficult to talk about the actual story in some ways,” Phillippe tells EW. “But you’ve got this really diverse and complex group of people that are brought together over a potential crime that’s been committed and each step closer to solving the mystery, more and more about the actual characters is revealed.”
The series will star Kylie Bunbury as Cassie Dewell, Katheryn Winnick as Jenny Hoyt, John Carroll Lynch as Rick Legarski, Dedee Pfeiffer as Denise Brisbane, Ryan Phillippe as Cody Hoyt, Brian Geraghty as Ronald Pergman, Natalie Alyn Lind as Danielle Sullivan, Jesse James Keitel as Jerrie, Jade Pettyjohn as Grace Sullivan, and Valerie Mahaffey as Helen Pergman.
According to Deadline, Big Sky will also feature some newer additions such as Brooke Smith who will play Merrilee Legarski, Jeffrey Joseph as Jospeh Dewell, Gage Marsh is Justin Hoyt and child actor Gabriel Jacob-Cross is Kai Dewell.
Trailer And Release Date
The trailer for the series dropped last week on Oct 1. Big Sky premiers on ABC on November 17.
Originally published at site:theweeklydiversion.com on October 8, 2020.
