Thick as thieves

Source:Newsday
Date:October 8, 2006
BY MARIA ELENA FERNANDEZ

CBS is Hoping for a big payoff as actor Ray Liotta and producer John
Wells team up on the new heist drama 'Smith'
BY MARIA ELENA FERNANDEZ
LOS ANGELES TIMES

October 8, 2006


By now, John Wells, one of television's producing giants, knows a
thing or two about the number of script pages it takes to fill an
hour's worth of episodic drama on a broadcast network.

Then why did the pilot episode for his new show, "Smith," come in 20
minutes longer than what is acceptable? And why was CBS, with its
conservative reputation, so willing to reportedly spend $7million on
the pilot alone and work around its length? [CORRECTION: "Smith," a
new television series with Ray Liotta, has been removed from CBS'
schedule. The show is featured in Sunday's FanFare, which was
printed in advance. Pg. A17 ALL BULLDOG 10/8/06]

One reason is the in-demand Wells, who hasn't written a pilot since
he co-wrote "Third Watch" but has been busy running "ER" and "The
West Wing" for several years. Then there is an ensemble cast headed
up by Ray Liotta and Oscar nominee Virginia Madsen. And, thirdly, a
network that ranks as the most popular but still yearns to be among
the most talked about.

"It's a great way to work and a luxury I don't expect to have often
in my career," said Wells, referring to the atypical creative
process that allowed him to develop a drama about criminals that
isn't really about crime.

Airing Tuesdays at 10 p.m., "Smith" follows the double lives of five
master thieves whose ringleader is Bobby Stevens, played by Liotta,
starring in his first TV series since he started on the daytime
soap "Another World" in 1978. Bobby's band of specialists includes
his lieutenant, Tom (Jonny Lee Miller, "Trainspotting"); firearms
aficionado Jeff (Simon Baker, "The Devil Wears Prada");
transportation expert Joe (Franky G, "The Italian Job"); and master
of disguises Annie (Amy Smart, "Crank"). Bobby is also a suburban
married father of two, and Madsen ("Sideways") plays his intriguing
wife, Hope. "Smith" refers to the name FBI agents give the elusive
Bobby.



Getting to know you ...

"I watch a lot of television, and I noticed that we were catching
all these criminals, but we weren't getting to know much about
them," Wells said. "I started thinking that maybe we could do a show
that focuses completely and wholly on the criminals and what makes
them tick, and how their lives work."

As Wells started to flesh out his lead character, he thought of
someone he'd been trying to persuade for a year to work in the
medium. With only a sketch in his head, Wells met with Liotta, who
won an Emmy for a guest role on "ER" in 2005.

"It wasn't really a concrete idea, but the fact that it was coming
out of his mouth was enough for me to trust that it was going to be
classy, inventive and a different idea just based on his track
record," said Liotta, taking a break while shooting a scene at a
warehouse in Lancaster, Calif., recently.

"I had been approached for a while about doing a series, and I saw
that the landscape of the business was changing a lot, where movies
are getting safer and safer, and television is becoming more
interesting," Liotta said. "I also liked the fact that the character
was a leading man, where I'm usually playing some wacko. I didn't
have to gain weight, put crazy makeup on to make me look older or
drugged-out."

With Liotta's consent, Wells sat down to write. But other actors
kept popping into his head: Would Madsen be interested in TV? Would
Miller, whom he'd been courting for a while, take to this idea?
Would Franky G, the star of Wells' failed Fox drama "Jonny Zero,"
want to work with him again? Would all-American girl-next-door Smart
want to play a bad girl for a change? Wells approached each of them
with his ideas, and they all agreed to be in it, provided, of
course, that the script lived up to its billing.

Although many TV critics have already picked "Smith" as one of the
year's best pilots, they also wonder if viewers are weary of the
genre, considering the failure of NBC's "Heist" and FX's "Thief" to
attract audiences last season.



Shopped script around

Wells shopped his script to all of the networks, but CBS, home of
the crime procedural, was enthusiastic about offering its audience
something unexpected this season. This drama won't be based on a
crime of the week, said Nina Tassler, CBS president of entertainment.

Capitalizing on the talents of the cast, Emmy-nominated director
Chris Chulack filmed the pilot entirely on location in the L.A.
area, Pittsburgh and Hawaii, giving it the kind of range and pacing
usually associated with movies.

"Action is action, but some of the most interesting things in the
pilot are how these people maneuver in the world and get through,"
Chulack said. "They're bad people, and how they interact, their
interior, is what interests me. With this cast, the most interesting
stuff they do is when they're not talking. As a director, you want
to put the audience in the position to experience that.... With all
of the fast cutting and the people talking, television rhythms today
are all the same. I hope this show stands out because it is
deafening sometimes."

But what about the length? Even though Wells turned in an average-
length 65-page script, which typically yields 42 minutes of air time
(the rest of the hour is for commercials), the pilot was 62 minutes
long. To his surprise, no one at CBS balked. In fact, executives did
not even notice its length when they first screened it.

"These are all actors' actors. So because of the cast, because of
the way the stories are told, there is information, there are looks,
gestures, subtleties and information being conveyed character to
character that has story value," Tassler said. "It deserves and
merits screen time."



Only a slight trim

Instead of demanding that Wells and Chulack, also an executive
producer, cut 20 minutes out of the episode, they were asked to trim
five minutes, and CBS premiered it Sept. 19 with limited commercial
interruption and only one sponsor, Martin Scorsese's new film, "The
Departed."

Meanwhile, the cast is racking up the miles on their cars and
frequent-flier programs because the series, like the pilot, is shot
entirely on location. Instead of building sets on a soundstage,
Warner Bros. Television, which produces it, has leased and dressed
homes for all of the characters in the Los Angeles area. But for the
heists, the cast has traveled to Reno for a future episode and will
probably fly to Montreal and Miami later this year, Wells
said. "They really are not messing around with the size and scope of
this thing," Liotta said. "The locations always seem to be an hour
or so away from home, and I didn't factor that in. But as I'm ...
moaning on the drive in at 4:30 in the morning, when you get to the
location, it all makes sense."

Baker describes it as a "traveling circus." And so far, he's
enjoying his impulsive character's exploits: surfing in Hawaii (yes,
that really was Baker riding the waves in the first episode),
shooting a couple of surfers for kicks and stealing a motorcycle and
riding it down the Venice, Calif., boardwalk.

"When we went to Hawaii, that really proved to me that they are
really committed to this show," Baker said.

Although Jeff appears to be the group sociopath in the pilot, Wells
warns viewers not to judge too quickly. Jeff has brotherly love and
deep loyalty for Tom. Annie, on the other hand, cares about no
one. "She's the kind of woman who would laugh with you one minute
and shoot you in the back the next," Smart said. "I couldn't believe
John Wells saw me playing someone like that, and it was [even]
better than I thought when I saw the script. I don't feel like I'm
doing a TV show, to be honest. I feel like I'm doing a fast film
that keeps growing and keeps going."

From Newsday.