FOX has big plans for Agassiz-shot Wayward Pines. Although M. Night Shyamalan’s 10-episode event series won’t start its American run until Thursday, May 14th, it will be released to 125 different countries on the same day with a potential audience of 200 million.
That’s huge and unexpected. The Twin Peaks-esque series follows secret service agent Ethan Burke (Matt Dillon) to fictional Idaho town Wayward Pines (played mainly by Agassiz’s Pioneer Avenue set) as he investigates the disappearance of two federal agents.
Panel photo via seat42f.com.
Wayward Pines set on Pioneer Avenue in Agassiz.
Screencap from FOX trailer.
An accident puts Burke in hospital (played by Coquitlam’s Riverview Hospital) bloodied and disoriented with no identification or cell phone. There he is cared for by a nurse (Melissa Leo) and treated by a psychiatrist (Toby Jones).
One missing agent is Burke’s former secret service partner Kate Hewson (Carla Gugino) — who almost broke up his marriage — but she turns up alive and well at a Wayward Pines picnic. What is going on? Spoiler alert: Burke saw her five weeks before but she’s been in Wayward Pines much longer than that. How?
Screencap from FOX trailer.
Eventually Burke’s wife (Shannyn Sossamon) and son (Charlie Tahan) come to Wayward Pines to find out what happened. Other Wayward Pines residents include Sheriff Pope (Terence Howard) and town bartender Beverly (Juliette Lewis). Does anyone ever leave?
Screencap of FOX trailer.
The big reveal happens midway through in episode five, earlier than in Blake Crouch’s trilogy of books which inspired the series. “Moving it up was a wonderful thing for us,” Shyamalan told the TCA, adding that halfway through the season the show becomes an entirely different genre.
Shyamalan also spoke of casting by instinct for Wayward Pines, saying the series has “world class” actors in every part. “We ended up becoming Wayward Pines-ites”, Carla Gugino told the TCA, enjoying many dinners together where they spoke like their characters.
Shyamalan told the TCA he prefers to film at home in Philadelphia but there aren’t a lot of pine trees out that way so he had to shoot his first television series here. Even so, he modeled the Wayward Pines set in Agassiz on a small Pennsylvania town rather than one you might see in Idaho where the story takes place. The Agassiz set was torn down months ago, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens if there’s a second season. Local actress Sarah Jeffery is also in the cast.
We lived in Agassiz while this was being filmed! As long haul drivers we have not seen a episode yet but will be making a point of watching.