Steven Zaillian Talks The Night Of
Creator Steve Zaillian talks about brining The Night Of to HBO
The summer, long-considered a TV dead-zone, is going to be quite interesting for HBO. Not only are they premiering a new comedy from Danny McBride, Vice Principals, but they are also brining The Night Of. You know, for something on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. And HBO is serious about The Night Of — much like Vice Principals, they’ve been bookending new episodes of their various series with trailers.
To get to the meat of the The Night Of, creator and showrunner Steven Zaillian sat down for an interview. The Night Of originally began as a projected headed by James Gandolfini. Zaillian touches on moving forward with him:
"James and John are both distinctive actors. They are also both great actors. Nothing was changed when the part went from James to John. The character was the character no matter who played it."
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He goes on to say that he has been a huge fan of John Turturro and even originally considered him for the role before James Gandolfini was attached. That’s a statement. The interview is strictly promotional and conducted by HBO, so the questions and answers don’t dive all that deep. The Night Of is Zaillian’s first work for television, and he signed on because he could treat it like a movie and cast whom he wanted to cast.
It’s touch to not consider True Detective when taking about The Night Of. Not only are they tonally similar, but both were though of as long films while shooting. The casting of True Detective was also something that creator Nic Pizzolatto was heavily involved in. HBO has been heavily promoting The Night Of itself, but the actors have not been making the usual late night rounds.
That could have something to do with it only being a miniseries, or perhaps it comes from a need to keep a certain level of mystery.
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The Night Of premieres on HBO on July 10th, but the first episode was made available for streaming early for those that aren’t keen on waiting.
Via: HBO