Is there any actor in Hollywood who will not be working on Gracepoint when Fox’s 10-part remake of the British crime series Broadchurch starts shooting here at the end of the month?
That is the question-du-jour, now that Nick Nolte has joined the big 2014-15 series produced by Shine America in association with Kudos and Imaginary Friends. Cast as Jack Reinhold, the stubborn operator of a kayak rental business and wildlife observation program, the three-time Oscar nominee will add considerable star power to a cast already top-heavy with big names.
Gracepoint will mark Nolte’s first appearance in a TV series since he played an aging racehorse trainer opposite Dustin Hoffman in HBO’s Luck.
David Tennant, the Scottish actor who played Det. Insp. Alec Hardy in the ITV series Broadchurch and best known for his starring role in Doctor Who, will soon be heading to town to face the cameras as Det. Emmett Carver, the prickly lead investigator into the tragic, apparent murder of a boy, one of Reinhold’s volunteers, who apparently fell to his death from a seaside cliff.
Tennant will fly from London, where he has earned rave reviews for his performance as Richard II in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Barbican Theatre production scheduled to close Jan. 25.
Gracepoint will shoot in locations from Oak Bay Village to the Saanich Peninsula, with the region doubling chiefly as the sleepy coastal California town of the title where the murder investigation triggers a national media frenzy. Nolte is the latest high-profile addition to a cast including Emmy Award-winning actress Anna Gunn (Breaking Bad), as Ellie Miller, Carver’s exasperated new partner; Australian two-time Oscar nominee Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook) as Susan Wright, an RV park-dwelling eccentric; and Michael Pena — fresh from his amusing turn as an FBI agent posing as a fake Arab sheik in David O. Russell’s retro riot American Hustle — as the dead boy’s devastated father.
Another recent addition to the cast that also features Kevin Rankin (Breaking Bad) and Virginia Kull (The Following) is Kevin Zegers. The dashing young Woodstock, Ont.-born actor (Gossip Girl, Transamerica) will play Ellie’s nephew, a local reporter.
Zegers has some Victoria connections that should help make him feel at home. He starred in The Colony, the sci-fi thriller directed by Victoria-raised Jeff Renfroe, and in Normal, the dark ensemble drama Carl Bessai filmed here eight years ago.
Indeed, as crews, supervised by unit manager Paul Rayman, proceed through pre-production, Gracepoint appears to be shaping up as not just the most ambitious small-screen project filmed here since 2004’s Terminal City, but also the most prestigious.
As if it weren’t enough that Broadchurch creator Chris Chibnall was writing the American remake’s première episode, with James Strong, the prolific British director (Downton Abbey, Law & Order: U.K., Doctor Who) and Broadchurch alumnus helming it, Gracepoint is being shepherded by Hollywood royalty.
It’s part of a slate of high-profile projects undertaken by producer John Goldwyn, grandson of the legendary MGM co-founder Samuel Goldwyn. Goldwyn, 55, most recently produced The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, starring Ben Stiller, a remake of James Thurber’s 1939 short story his grandfather brought to the screen in 1947 with Danny Kaye.
Goldwyn, whose other projects include Showtime’s serial-killer drama series Dexter and Baby Mama, is reportedly eyeing a remake of Guys and Dolls.
For Shine America, best known for its fleet of unscripted shows such as The Biggest Loser, MasterChef and Slide Show, Gracepoint is part of an expanded plan to do more scripted shows, CEO Rich Ross, 52, recently told The Hollywood Reporter.
The series distributed by Shine International follows the company’s maiden voyage — FX’s The Bridge — into that realm.
Chibnall is executive producing the remake of his labour-of-love originally set on England’s Dorset coast with showrunners Dan Futterman (Capote) and Anya Epstein (In Treatment), Shine’s Carolyn Bernstein (The Bridge) and Kudos’ Jane Featherstone (The Hour).
RUSHES: Congratulations to Victoria-raised Jennifer Baichwal and co-director Edward Burtynsky, whose documentary Watermark won the Rogers Best Canadian Film award from Toronto Film Critics Association this week.
… Carl Bessai is coming back to town, but not to make a movie this time. The prolific B.C. filmmaker will offer tips and share stories about working with actors such as the late Cory Monteith and Sir Ian McKellen during his Directing Actors workshop at CineVic on Jan. 25 and 26.
