Not long ago, we brought you news of the possible return of Sarah Michelle Gellar to regular series television. Now, more details of the pilot have emerged as Entertainment Weekly has sat down with Peter Traugott, the pilot’s producer, and got him to reveal more about the show´s premise. Here´s what he had to share:
On what the show is about: “It’s an edgy thriller about redemption and about revenge. There’s a point of view of two twin sisters who grew apart over a tragedy in their past. And one now seeks redemption and the other one seeks revenge. The sister who is seeking redemption has had a much more troubled life. When her fancy pants sister disappears, she takes over her life. She’s living the life of her more successful sister only to come to find out that her life is equally as fraught with danger and complication. Her sister dies in a boating accident. The other sister takes on her persona, only to come to find out that they have a hit out on her.”
On how Gellar was convinced to return to Network TV: “Sarah had started thinking about coming back to TV a couple of years ago and she really wanted it to be something in cable, in part just because of the subject matter you’re able to do in cable. But network television now has cracked that door a little bit and they’ve obviously been doing great stuff in network—and great stuff in cable. Both places are great. And this was a spec script that we had found and my colleague, Rachel Kaplan, had found by these young writers [Eric Charmelo and Nicole Snyder of The CW's Supernatural] and we flipped for it. Sarah’s manager got it to her, and she fell in love with the piece, too. When CBS read this thing and flipped for it and loved Sarah for it, that kind of started her thinking about being more open-minded to doing network because of the subject matter and this piece that she was so excited about.”
On how Buffy fans will be pleased with this role: “For the Buffy fans, she wanted part of what she initiated. As a matter of fact, her and her manager know this, but I know one thing she wanted to guard against was making sure that she whatever she does in TV, she does something that her fans who had grown up loving Buffy will also be excited about. And we think this show has that quality to it. It’s a very different show. I mean, Buffy is so specific and a great, cool genre piece.
But in the same way with Sarah, I think what’s remarkable about her as an actor—and very few people have this ability—she can play both sides well. If you remember Cruel Intentions, she was the villain, but you found yourself kind of rooting for her anyway. That’s what we’re looking for. How do we find something where her character has some edge, there’s some darkness to her, she doesn’t always do the right thing, but at the end of the day, you’re also rooting for her? And that’s what we were looking for in this. Obviously, Buffy was a hero, a kick-ass hero, and we wanted to be true to that with Sarah.”
Sounds interesting. Let´s hope CBS picks up the pilot so that we get the chance to see Gellar again on our TV sets!
