ABC is gambling that summer viewers might take time out to enjoy a history lesson or two.
Considering how many big budget historical movies have hit the big screen in recent years, “Empire’s” executive producer Tony Jonas figures it’s worth gambling the same will work for TV.
“While the rest of television is doing reality shows, you’re going to have this gigantic, sumptuous epic that, hopefully, comes into the American consciousness as feature films have been doing for so long,” Jonas said.
ABC’s ratings success also affected scheduling for “Empire.” Enjoying a resurgence with big hits such as “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost,” the network kept its regular-season lineup intact.
A summer airing offered two advantages, according to Quinn Taylor, the network’s senior vice president for TV movies. The NBA finals on ABC creates a strong promotional base for the series, he said.
And as one of the few pieces of original drama on broadcast TV this summer, “Empire” offers a change from both reality shows and to cable’s flood of fiction that includes HBO’s “Six Feet Under.”
Billed as a six-hour mini-series, “Empire” begins with the assassination of Julius Caesar and follows a fictional account of the rise of his nephew and heir, Octavius.
The series debuts with a two-hour episode at 9 p.m. EDT Tuesday followed by episodes on four successive Tuesdays at 10 p.m. EDT.
The cast is as follows: Colm Feore as Caesar; Santiago Cabrera as Octavius; Vincent Regan as Marc Antony and Emily Blunt as Camane. Jonathan Cake plays the pivotal and fictional character of Tyrannus, a gladiator who becomes Octavius’ protector and mentor.
The avoidance of American actors (one exception is Dennis Haysbert of “24”) was purposely done to avoid known faces, Jonas said. He also figures British accents help suggest an ancient and removed era.
“The idea was what can we do to ease our audience into what’s kind of a difficult buy, which is to traverse 2,000 years,” Jonas said.
Cake, who stars this fall in NBC’s new show “Inconceivable,” drew closer to Tyrannus by doing his own stunt work. The actor, a rugby fan, worked with a trainer for months prior to filming in Rome last year.
“Getting a lump or bruise or cut on the hand makes you feel a little bit less like the cosseted, very spoiled actor that you are if you’re doing a production where everybody’s treating you nicely and asking if you want a cup of coffee,” he said.
Some of the actors were at risk as some scenes used real swords for authenticity. In a scene in which Tyrannus fights to free his son from kidnappers, a cut quickly became infected and required a hospital visit for Cake.
ABC seems to have started a trend, as HBO is developing a 12-part mini-series called “Rome.”
“We were filming at exactly the same time,” recalled Cake. “We’d meet up in Roman restaurants to have a ‘hands across the Tiber (river)’ evening to compare notes on our productions.”
Credit: Yahoo/AP
