TCA Press Tour: ‘Lone Star’ aims to bring a little ‘cable’ to Fox
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James Wolk doesn’t know what it’s like to be torn between two loves, but he’s enjoying pretending he is.
The newcomer to the small screen is the star of Fox’s new drama, ‘Lone Star,’ the story of a con man who’s married to two women and leads totally separate lives in two parts of Texas. One wife is played by Adrianne Palicki(‘Friday Night Lights’), and the other is played by Eloise Mumford(‘Mercy’ and ‘Crash’). The backdrop is wealthy Texas oil, and the cast includes Jon Voight and David Keith.
Fox went after Wolk when its head of casting, Marcia Shulman, saw him in ‘Front of the Class,’ which was based on a true story of a teacher with Tourette’s syndrome, met him and instantly wanted to work with him. But getting him wasn’t easy. As originally written, the role on ‘Lone Star’ was meant to be older, and Wolk told Fox he was concerned he wouldn’t be able to pull it off.
‘It was a question of, ‘Can I be honest and true in this role? We figured out after a few auditions, we figured out this could work.’
Created by new TV scribe Kyle Killen, ‘Lone Star’ is produced by Chris Keyser and Amy Lippman (‘Party of Five’). Although they pitched the show to other networks, Killen said they went with Fox because its executives said they’d treat the drama ‘like a cable show’ and allow them to keep their character’s imperfections.
They wanted a ‘show where everybody’s gray, where decisions are complicated, where the conflict is not simple,’ Killen said. ‘Where the person that you’re rooting for is incredibly problematic, married to two people and is a con man, but somehow by humanizing that person, you end up getting behind him.’
Still don’t know what he means? Think ‘Dexter’ Morgan, Tommy Gavin in ‘Rescue Me,’ Walter White in ‘Breaking Bad’ and Don Draper in ‘Mad Men’.
Fox released a new trailer Monday:
--Maria Elena Fernandez
twitter.com/writerchica
Video credit: Fox
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Pilot View: Fox’s new drama, ‘Lone Star’
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