The Crossing Exclusive Interview with Executive Producers Dan Dworkin and Jay Beattie
I was provided an all-expense paid trip to L.A to attend the Star Wars: The Last Jedi press junket. No additional compensation was received.
THE CROSSING – ABC’s “The Crossing” stars Sandrine Holt as Emma, Steve Zahn as Jude and Natalie Martinez as Reece. (ABC/Bob D’Amico)
The highly anticipated premiere of ABC’s new Sci-Fi drama is happening tonight and yes, it is what you expect and more! Back in December during our trip to Los Angeles for The Last Jedi event, we had the opportunity to chat with The Crossing’s executive producers Dan Dworkin and Jay Beattie, as well as, screen the pilot episode. After having seen tonight’s episode, let me just say that the W-H-O-A factor is right on point and you will be hooked on this new series within the first five minutes.
THE CROSSING – ABC’s “The Crossing” stars Simone Kessell as Rebecca, Bailey Skodje as Leah, Marcuis Harris as Caleb, Luke Camilleri as Thomas, Kelley Missal as Hannah, Rob Campbell as Paul, Natalie Martinez as Reece, Steve Zahn as Jude Ellis, Sandrine Holt as Emma Ren, Jay Karnes as Craig Lindauer, Tommy Bastow as Marshall, Rick Gomez as Nestor, Luc Roderique as Bryce Foster, Georgina Haig as Dr. Sophie Forbin, and Grant Harvey as Roy. (ABC/Bob D’Amico)
Before we go on to our exclusive interview, let’s learn a bit more about tonight’s episode.
“Pilot” – After 47 refugees mysteriously wash up in a small fishing town, local sheriff Jude Ellis teams with DHS agent Emma Ren to assess their unusual claim … that they’re fleeing a war 180 years in the future. The mystery deepens when Jude realizes that one of the new arrivals possesses heightened abilities and is a threat to his town, setting the two of them on a collision course. As the rest of the refugees acclimate to their unfamiliar surroundings, Emma learns that one has information that calls into question everything she thought she knew about our present time.
The series premiere of “The Crossing” airs Monday, April 2 at 10:00-11:00 p.m. EDT, on The ABC Television Network, streaming, and on demand.
**The Crossing Exclusive Interview with Executive Producers Dan Dworkin and Jay Beattie**
As I mentioned before, having seen the pilot episode got us wondering how did the showrunners come up with the concept of this new Sci-Fi drama? Dan Dworkin explained how one of the 2017 Pulitzer photos was actually the inspiration for this series. I am talking about the photo where you see a Syrian refugee holding onto to his child as he struggles to make it to shore. Dan said “As a father, that killed me. And that was kind of the spark initially. That’s when I emailed Jay and said, refugees.”
Dan Dworkin and Jay Beattie don’t usually write ripped-from-the-headlines dramas, so they put a little spin on this new series. If you are a fan of LOST, you will definitely recognize some of the feels to this series. But don’t worry, it isn’t a remake or a copy of that series, however, Dan and Jay said that they are also big fans of LOST and they really don’t mind the comparisons.
If you are a big fan of Sci-Fi dramas, you are definitely going to add The Crossing to your list of favorites. We asked both Dan Dworkin and Jay Beattie, if we as viewers, would get storyline answers in every episode. This is what Dan said about that: “I think the way we structured it, it’s the perfect balance of getting something answered and getting another question asked, pretty much every episode. Obviously, there’s a lot going on. There’s a lot of questions. So, we resisted the impulse to kind of answer too much too early. But at the same time, we’ve watched shows where you don’t get anything answered and then at the end of the season you’re like oh, I was entertained but I feel like I’ve been cheated. So, we don’t want that. So, we’ll be giving people enough I think, more than enough.”
A lot of intense research takes place when you are developing a hit Sci-Fi series, so what type of research did both Jay and Dan do for the show? They both had this to say.
Jay: All kinds. Especially on the scientific end of things. Going forward, you’ll see a lot of that crystallizes. We had a synthetic biologist as a consultant who read all our scripts and who we talked to. His name is Andrew Hessel who’s at this very moment probably curing cancer and I’m not kidding. That’s one of his pet projects. We talked to futurists about what the world might look like in 180 years which was fascinating. We talked to a climatologist from NASA about what the weather might be like in 180 years.
Dan: It was great because normally we’ve written on police procedurals. We’ve written on medical shows and that’s fine but talking to a futurist, to me, much more fertile, much more interesting at this point in my life than talking to a cop about another homicide. It was a lot of fun for us and the other writers to be able to get into that.
Getting to speak to a climatologist and a futurist is certainly fascinating, to say the least. But still, what was Dan and Jay’s biggest challenge in the execution of the show and do they think they accomplished everything that they were hoping for The Crossing?
Dan: I think, the biggest challenge in the pilot I would say was the weather. The biggest challenge, but it was kind of the weather is what makes the pilot look so cool, that kind of gray Northwest gloom I think lends it an atmosphere that is perfect for what we wanted.
Jay: I think it’s trying to re-create the scope of the pilot. You work on different budgets when you go into the series and the challenge was, how do we maintain the mystery and scope and epic feeling of the show that you saw in the pilot. As you transition into diving deeper into the characters. And that starts to take place within that scope. But keeping that balance, I think and keeping the scope of the pilot each week but diving into the characters that are ultimately who you come to care about these people on the show and these refugees. That was a challenge. But yeah, I do think we pulled it off. I’m very proud of the show. I mean I think I’m really excited to see it launch.
Remember you can catch the series’ premiere of The Crossing tonight at 10:00 PM on your local ABC station and be sure to come back and let us know your thoughts on this new Sci-Fi drama via the comment section below.