Network Ten has first dibs on the US remake of Hoodlum Entertainment’s crime drama Secrets & Lies, which starts shooting in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Friday.
The Disney-owned ABC network commissioned the pilot, which stars Ryan Philippe, Juliette Lewis, KaDee Strickland, Natalie Martinez and Belle Shouse.
The Seven Network has an output deal with Disney but Hoodlum’s Tracey Robertson says Ten has first rights on the remake which, if it’s picked up, will be a 10-episode series. The 6-part Australian series launches on Ten at 8.30 pm on March 3.
When ABC commissioned the pilot, it agreed to a series penalty, which means the network will have to pay a hefty fee to the producers if it doesn’t proceed.
The Oz show stars Martin Henderson as Ben, a family man who finds the body of a young boy and quickly becomes the prime murder suspect. Diana Glenn plays his wife and Anthony Hayes is the lead detective.
In the pilot Philippe plays Ben, Strickland is his wife and Shouse is their daughter. Martinez (Under the Dome, End of Watch) plays the victim’s mother. Lewis is cast as the detective, a switch which the network asked for to ensure a better balance between males and females.
Former Private Practice executive producer Barbie Kligman has written the pilot and is the showrunner/ executive producer. Robertson is producing with her Hoodlum partner Nathan Mayfield and Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment.
Speaking from Wilmington, Robertson says she is delighted with the cast and with securing Charles McDougall (Resurrection, House of Cards, The Office, Parks and Recreation) as the pilot’s director. “He is a really strong director with a high profile and a lot of experience,” she says. “He brings something quite different to the show. He has a very high ratio of dfirecting pilots that lead to series.”
She says Kligman’s script is quite faithful to the original, which was based on an original idea by author Stephen M. Irwin.
The pilot will shoot for 13 days. The DoP is Frank DeMarco, who shot Margin Call and was camera operator on The Adjustment Bureau, All Is Lost and The Beaver. The producers have a multiple-series option on Lewis as they believe there is the potential for more series after the first one.
Asked about the main differences between working in the US and at home, she says, “I am enjoying being more across the creative side. The studio does all the deals with cast and crew, which I would do in Australia.”
She expects to hear the verdict on the series by May 19. If it gets the tick, she and Kligman will assemble a team of writers and spend two months in the writing room.