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Familial Discord? Enough to Back a Boxer in a Corner
By STUART MILLER
WHEN FX executives watched the pilot for “Lights Out,” their prospective boxing drama, they were mesmerized by the relative unknown Holt McCallany. He plays the former heavyweight champ Lights Leary as he begins a journey back into the ring while being pummeled by family strife, crushing debt, health issues and a deepening identity crisis.
“It was a spectacular performance,” Eric Schrier, FX senior vice president for drama and comedy development, said of Mr. McCallany. But the executives were still not sold.
The pilot for “Lights Out,” with its grizzled trainer and sleazy manager, reeked of boxing movie clichés and stock characters. “What is exciting for us at FX is subverting genres,” Mr. Schrier said. “We knew the show had to be reimagined.”
FX decided to replace the show’s creator, Justin Zackham. It brought in a new executive producer, Warren Leight, who might seem an unusual choice: he spent the previous decade working on the formulaic, process-oriented dramas “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” and “In Treatment.” But Mr. Leight made his name in 1998 with the Tony Award-winning play “Side Man,” exploring the world of jazz and the messy dynamics of a fracturing family. He said he rewrote “Lights Out” in a similar vein, dreaming up layer after layer of lives in turmoil, “like a 1950s kitchen-sink drama with heightened realism.”
Lights’s trainer became his father, Robert, a former fighter, whose career was cut short by Vietnam. His caution may have cost Lights the crown in his last fight. The manager became Lights’s brother, Johnny, a talented fighter whose career was undone by an injury and because he lacked Lights’s fortitude. Johnny has resorted to dicey decisions while managing the dwindling public demand for his brother, the boxing gym Lights bought for his father and the costly real estate venture Lights envisioned would rejuvenate their hometown, Bayonne, N.J. Robert and Johnny are also at odds with Lights’s wife, played by Catherine McCormack, who has racked up medical school bills while insisting their three daughters live well and attend private schools.
“Making it a family drama upped the ante,” Mr. Leight said of the show, which will have its premiere on Tuesday. “It makes you feel there’s more at stake.”
The day he learned that he had gotten the job he watched John Huston’s classic boxing movie, “Fat City,” which starred the man he wanted to play Robert: Stacy Keach. “He creates tremendous dramatic tension,” Mr. Leight said of Mr. Keach, who had boxed in his youth. “He knows every beat in every scene.”
Mr. Keach and Mr. McCallany, who trained with the former welterweight champion Mark Breland last year, sounded like father and son as they swapped boxing stories over dinner in Manhattan last year. And Mr. McCallany listened eagerly as Mr. Keach recalled fighting light heavyweight Sixto Rodriguez in “Fat City.” “Before filming John Huston said, ‘All right boys, let’s forget the choreography and go out and box.’ Rodriguez cleaned my clock.”
For the third corner of the family triangle, Mr. Leight needed someone who could be both disreputable and sympathetic. “He is not Fredo,” Mr. Leight said of Johnny, played by Pablo Schreiber, making reference to the “Godfather” character. (Mr. Schreiber portrayed Nick Sobotka on “The Wire” and is a well-regarded theater actor.) “He is not the runt of the litter, but there is some jealousy and he is burdened with his own problems.”
Much of the series was filmed at Hellgate Studios in Long Island City, Queens, which housed all the rooms for Lights’s mansion, Robert’s tiny apartment and “Leary’s Gym,” full of fake heavyweight fight posters and real boxing equipment. The push for realism extended beyond speed bags. Mr. Leight and members of the cast and crew met with numerous old-time boxers and trainers like Jimmy Archer and Teddy Atlas. “Archer is 76 and is sometimes glassy eyed with a slight delay in his speech, but when he starts recounting his fights, he acts with precision,” Mr. Leight said, adding that he also talked to neurologists about the short- and long-term impacts of boxing on the brain.
Mr. McCallany spent hours in the ring during rehearsals and shooting, trading blows to the body and going over ideas while wearing his mouthpiece. The fight scenes also utilize real announcers, referees and cut men. “They improvise,” Mr. Leight said. “The way the cornermen lie to keep their boxer going, I couldn’t have written that.”
Norberto Barba, the show’s director, also kept everything loose in rehearsal, letting Mr. Schreiber, Mr. Keach and others improvise lines and suggest changes to the blocking. The story was evolving on the fly as Mr. Leight and his writers became more comfortable. “I feel like an adoptive parent,” Mr. Leight said. He was cautious at first, stating in early interviews that he’d keep the focus almost entirely on Lights, but gradually started talking about expanding the show’s viewpoint. “We started pushing out with Johnny and Robert’s roles,” Mr. Leight said in a later interview.
Mr. Leight also turned to regulars from New York’s theater scene to round out the cast. The most intriguing choice was for shady businessman Hal Brennan, who hires the desperate Lights to collect debts. Mr. Leight cast the well-known clown Bill Irwin, who has lately tackled dramatic theatrical roles. “This seems like a Dickens serialization where the development is organic,” Mr. Irwin said, adding that he tried to avoid playing a “generalized bad guy” and that the writers added touches like Brennan’s seemingly genuine interest in Lights’s sister.
Mr. Irwin’s understated but creepy line readings led Mr. Leight to expand the role. Already thinking ahead to the second season, he envisions a power struggle between Brennan and the powerful fight promoter Barry Word (played by Reg E. Cathey, another alumnus of “The Wire”). “The storytelling will become less subjective from Lights’s viewpoint,” Mr. Leight said.
Mr. Leight was also plotting secrets that would emerge in Season 2, if the ratings cooperate. “There are things from Johnny’s past I haven’t told anyone about yet,” he said. He’s thrilled to explore the freedom that FX has given him. “They’ve been taken aback by some things we’ve come up with, but ultimately they’re fine with it,” Mr. Leight said. They just don’t want you to ‘go network’ at the end and finish each episode with a hug.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/ar...ref=television
Note: I checked my cable on-demand and FX Light's Out is listed.
WHEN FX executives watched the pilot for “Lights Out,” their prospective boxing drama, they were mesmerized by the relative unknown Holt McCallany. He plays the former heavyweight champ Lights Leary as he begins a journey back into the ring while being pummeled by family strife, crushing debt, health issues and a deepening identity crisis.
“It was a spectacular performance,” Eric Schrier, FX senior vice president for drama and comedy development, said of Mr. McCallany. But the executives were still not sold.
The pilot for “Lights Out,” with its grizzled trainer and sleazy manager, reeked of boxing movie clichés and stock characters. “What is exciting for us at FX is subverting genres,” Mr. Schrier said. “We knew the show had to be reimagined.”
FX decided to replace the show’s creator, Justin Zackham. It brought in a new executive producer, Warren Leight, who might seem an unusual choice: he spent the previous decade working on the formulaic, process-oriented dramas “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” and “In Treatment.” But Mr. Leight made his name in 1998 with the Tony Award-winning play “Side Man,” exploring the world of jazz and the messy dynamics of a fracturing family. He said he rewrote “Lights Out” in a similar vein, dreaming up layer after layer of lives in turmoil, “like a 1950s kitchen-sink drama with heightened realism.”
Lights’s trainer became his father, Robert, a former fighter, whose career was cut short by Vietnam. His caution may have cost Lights the crown in his last fight. The manager became Lights’s brother, Johnny, a talented fighter whose career was undone by an injury and because he lacked Lights’s fortitude. Johnny has resorted to dicey decisions while managing the dwindling public demand for his brother, the boxing gym Lights bought for his father and the costly real estate venture Lights envisioned would rejuvenate their hometown, Bayonne, N.J. Robert and Johnny are also at odds with Lights’s wife, played by Catherine McCormack, who has racked up medical school bills while insisting their three daughters live well and attend private schools.
“Making it a family drama upped the ante,” Mr. Leight said of the show, which will have its premiere on Tuesday. “It makes you feel there’s more at stake.”
The day he learned that he had gotten the job he watched John Huston’s classic boxing movie, “Fat City,” which starred the man he wanted to play Robert: Stacy Keach. “He creates tremendous dramatic tension,” Mr. Leight said of Mr. Keach, who had boxed in his youth. “He knows every beat in every scene.”
Mr. Keach and Mr. McCallany, who trained with the former welterweight champion Mark Breland last year, sounded like father and son as they swapped boxing stories over dinner in Manhattan last year. And Mr. McCallany listened eagerly as Mr. Keach recalled fighting light heavyweight Sixto Rodriguez in “Fat City.” “Before filming John Huston said, ‘All right boys, let’s forget the choreography and go out and box.’ Rodriguez cleaned my clock.”
For the third corner of the family triangle, Mr. Leight needed someone who could be both disreputable and sympathetic. “He is not Fredo,” Mr. Leight said of Johnny, played by Pablo Schreiber, making reference to the “Godfather” character. (Mr. Schreiber portrayed Nick Sobotka on “The Wire” and is a well-regarded theater actor.) “He is not the runt of the litter, but there is some jealousy and he is burdened with his own problems.”
Much of the series was filmed at Hellgate Studios in Long Island City, Queens, which housed all the rooms for Lights’s mansion, Robert’s tiny apartment and “Leary’s Gym,” full of fake heavyweight fight posters and real boxing equipment. The push for realism extended beyond speed bags. Mr. Leight and members of the cast and crew met with numerous old-time boxers and trainers like Jimmy Archer and Teddy Atlas. “Archer is 76 and is sometimes glassy eyed with a slight delay in his speech, but when he starts recounting his fights, he acts with precision,” Mr. Leight said, adding that he also talked to neurologists about the short- and long-term impacts of boxing on the brain.
Mr. McCallany spent hours in the ring during rehearsals and shooting, trading blows to the body and going over ideas while wearing his mouthpiece. The fight scenes also utilize real announcers, referees and cut men. “They improvise,” Mr. Leight said. “The way the cornermen lie to keep their boxer going, I couldn’t have written that.”
Norberto Barba, the show’s director, also kept everything loose in rehearsal, letting Mr. Schreiber, Mr. Keach and others improvise lines and suggest changes to the blocking. The story was evolving on the fly as Mr. Leight and his writers became more comfortable. “I feel like an adoptive parent,” Mr. Leight said. He was cautious at first, stating in early interviews that he’d keep the focus almost entirely on Lights, but gradually started talking about expanding the show’s viewpoint. “We started pushing out with Johnny and Robert’s roles,” Mr. Leight said in a later interview.
Mr. Leight also turned to regulars from New York’s theater scene to round out the cast. The most intriguing choice was for shady businessman Hal Brennan, who hires the desperate Lights to collect debts. Mr. Leight cast the well-known clown Bill Irwin, who has lately tackled dramatic theatrical roles. “This seems like a Dickens serialization where the development is organic,” Mr. Irwin said, adding that he tried to avoid playing a “generalized bad guy” and that the writers added touches like Brennan’s seemingly genuine interest in Lights’s sister.
Mr. Irwin’s understated but creepy line readings led Mr. Leight to expand the role. Already thinking ahead to the second season, he envisions a power struggle between Brennan and the powerful fight promoter Barry Word (played by Reg E. Cathey, another alumnus of “The Wire”). “The storytelling will become less subjective from Lights’s viewpoint,” Mr. Leight said.
Mr. Leight was also plotting secrets that would emerge in Season 2, if the ratings cooperate. “There are things from Johnny’s past I haven’t told anyone about yet,” he said. He’s thrilled to explore the freedom that FX has given him. “They’ve been taken aback by some things we’ve come up with, but ultimately they’re fine with it,” Mr. Leight said. They just don’t want you to ‘go network’ at the end and finish each episode with a hug.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/ar...ref=television
Note: I checked my cable on-demand and FX Light's Out is listed.