The shifting morality of the characters is one of the most satisfying aspects of the writing, which refuses to paint people as black or white. "You find yourself accidentally wearing the black hat, thinking, how'd I get this black hat on?" marvels Roberts. "And vice versa, you find they've actually redeemed somebody."
MacRury and his team of writers purposely didn't come up with a lot of personal backstory, preferring the characters to be revealed by their actions. The actors found that approach appropriate for the context.
"The UN characters are really out of time and out of place," says Roberts, whose Major Hart deals with a distant wife and disabled daughter in Canada via webcam. "You can't imagine them — they couldn't even imagine themselves — back at home."
"There is a feeling of the UN people being beamed down from another planet," Colantoni concurs, quipping: "It's like a Star Trek episode."
"I describe it as a job designed to drive you crazy," MacRury adds of the UN observers. "Who are these people who want to do the job over and over again, who want to stand between guys with guns, without having a gun themselves? All they have is their wits. Who are these people who want to do this?"
"I can't wait to see it," Colantoni returns to the joke-that's-not-entirely-a-joke as we wrapped up the interview. Shrugging off the suggestion that he could now read it or watch the DVD screeners, he replies: "Why? It's going to be on TV!"
ZOS: Zone of Separation will be on TV starting Monday, January 19 on The Movie Network/Movie Central.
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Article comments
1 - Joe Clark
So you seriously expect us to read this in three chunks so your blog host can sell three times as many ads?
Why not just bill us by the word and get it over with?
2 - El Bicho
Joe, try and keep up. It's 2009.
3 - eLYSE
It sounds like a great miniseries...which of course won't play down here in the States. Darn.
4 - amysusanne
i was all set to ask you if you knew anything about the possibility of it airing in the US, but then i remembered that this is the internet. it's probably already out there somewhere.
awesome interview, as usual. i so love enrico and have way too many eps of "flashpoint" backlogged in the DVR right now. i saw your heads up on twitter (i'm sabrinaobscura, btw) and meant to search it out and then totally forgot until this morning.
5 - Rob Campbell
There's a pretty cool web game on the back end of the ZOS tv website.
Last Tango in Jadac is an interactive nightmare that tasks users to participate in the illicit economy of war torn Balkins. Participants must collect cigarettes and condoms to barter their way out of town - its a trip.