Sci-Fi Magazine Interview Part I:

Dark Angel is all about attitude. Never mind it’s other assets: This series-the brainchild of Titanic director James Cameron and veteran TV writer-producer Charles Eglee- has attitude to spare. A lot of that attitude can be chalked up to the show’s striking lead Jessica Alba, whose sass, wit and self-confidence can put other female heroines to shame. Factor in a colorful cast of supporting characters, a hip soundtrack, and Matrixesque action and special effects, and you’ve got the ingredients for an all-around winner.

Not that the show’s success was a foregone conclusion-other prominent film producers have tried their hand at television with mixed results, at best. But Cameron, it would seem has encountered the conventional wisdom.

“Jim’s great about spinning worlds and [creating] the mythology,” explains Eglee, who’s known Cameron for some 20 years, since the two started out at Roger Corman together. “We’ve worked very closely together on the genesis of the story and the pilot And when we need to move to the next level of mythology storytelling, I always want Jim involved, because his brain works like that-he’s so great.”

Although Cameron has been actively involved in developing the show, he also has other priorities. As Eglee puts it, “He’s got a day job.” Which is where Eglee comes in. After spending nearly 10 years doing dramatic fare with Steven Bocho- and working on such diverse shows as Murder one, St. Elsewhere, LA Law, NYPD Blue, and Moonlighting- Eglee sat down with Cameron to hammer out ideas for a new Sci-Fi television series.

“I don’t sit down to write science fiction, I sit down to write a scene or to tell a cool story or something; I’m not really thinking about the science too much,” says Eglee of his role as executive producer of the series. “Jim always said there’s a virtue to the fact that I’m unschooled in all that, because what it does is make [the stories] look, in his opinion , a little less self-conscious.”

And therein lies the dichotomy that defines the essence of Dark Angel. Beneath it’s kick-ass, action series veneer, Dark Angel boasts complex characters, layered writing and a government mythology mystery that looks to get murkier before it will get clearer. Set 20 years in the future, after an electromagnetic pulse has thrown the country into chaos, the series centers around Max (Alba), a genetically engineered 19-year-old woman in search of her past- as well as a meaning to her future. Max is on the run, and with the help of cyber-journalist Logan (Michael Weatherly), she stays one step ahead of the government operatives who’d like to rein in their escaped science experiment.

“We have an unusual piece of programming. I don’t think there’s really a show like it on the air, “Eglee remarks. “We’re really on the right network, in the right timeslot. And I think there’s kind of a fusion of sensibilities going on; there’s a musical element that’s pulling a younger audience.”
The hip hop music soundtrack- which includes a theme written by Public Enemy’s Chuck D and Gary G-Wiz-stems in part from Eglee’s vision of what this future chaotic world might sound like. “When you get to do a TV show, you get to do what you like and what you love. And hip hop music is a great love of mine,” Says Eglee. “The thing about hip hop that’s so interesting to me is the fact that it’s found music, it’s assembled from all over the place; it’s this kind of audio mosaic, and here’s a broken world that’s been kind of cobbled together.”

Paired with that is the show’s subtly futuristic production design. In an effort to paint a picture of what Seattle might look like if anarchy ruled and streetwise was the game, Eglee drew upon the influence of the Movie Buena Vista Social Club, a film where evolution froze at a certain point in time. He coupled that creative idea with “the notion that there had been some sort of economic collapse [that] allowed us to take the technological present and use it as our narrative future.”

Even so, he adds, “We didn’t want it to be dark and gritty and off-putting and depressing. There’s a lot of color in it, a lot of detail, a lot of specificity, a lot of things to look at. It’s very much alive.”

The core young character- Max and her bicycle messenger cohorts-speak fast and in a street vernacular. Some critics dismissed the lingo as being too over-the –top, but Eglee has a different perspective. “I didn’t want to invent slang of the future, because then it just sounds made up,” he says. “This show is rooted in hip hop culture-which is one of my passions. [Hip hop] seemed like a logical vernacular for an urban youth ensemble.”

Finding the perfect lead for their envisioned urban youth ensemble proved to be an arduous task, but after more than a thousand auditions, Cameron and Eglee found their Max embodied in newcomer Jessica Alba, who previously was best known for roles in the films Never been Kissed and Idle Hands. Once Alba was secured, Eglee found himself in a unique position as a writer. “The rest of the pilot was really written with Jessica’s rhythms, cadences, sensibilities and stiff like that in mind. And that was kind of a nice thing. The words in the pilot fit into her mouth pretty easily, because it was really written with her in mind,” says Eglee. “There are some actors who just grab onto those roles and run with them, and that causes you to write to that.”

Max is the ultimate female protagonist-literally able to leap from a building in a single bound, and able to outwit and fast-talk most anyone who dares to cross her path. Those familiar with Cameron’s work will recognize bits and pieces of his other heroines in her (who can forget the bulked-up Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2: Judgment day or Angela Basset in Strange Days, or even the softness of Kate Winslet in Titanic?). But there’s also conflict in this character, a deep personal pain that guides her quest to learn more about the other children like herself, children genetically bred to become the ultimate fighting machines. At no time was it intended for Max to become the postmodern poster child for Independent women.

Eglee admits that there’s a societal trend away from patriarchy, but beyond that, they’d had no deeper significance in mind when the character of Max was first conceived. “We both knew immediately who this girl was,” remembers Eglee. “On the one hand she’s genetically engineered, so she’s this revved-up, stronger, faster smarter person. But on the other hand, all of that confers vulnerability on her. In a way, she’s sort of a Frankenstein [creation]-but the stitches are microscopic. Plus,” he adds, laughing, “I just love writing sassy mouth on this girl. I’ve got two daughters, so I’m sort of attuned to it.”

One of Eglee’s core tasks is to make sure that the stories balance between drama and action, keeping the mythology of Max’s quest alive while still taking caution not to do too much, too soon. Being an action-heavy show makes it challenging, though, to find directors who can handle the action together with the drama. “It’s a really tough show; it’s got to work dramatically, and yet at the same time you’ve got all this revved-up action that’s just very difficult to do,” Eglee notes. “Between first unit and second unit and the effects, we’re trying to figure it out on a weekly basis. And our audience, who are moviegoers, are used to a certain level of visual sophistication in the action and stunts that they see. “ One moment Max is taking out three hulking guys consecutively before jumping multiple stories to safety, the next she’s sitting atop the Seattle Space Needle or in a touching scene where she’s begging Logan not to die on her.

Joining with Logan (a former journalist who’s using his personal fortune and high tech know how to uncover truths about society in untraceable broadcasts throughout the city) has given Max a new direction and purpose- even though at the mid-year point of season 1, she’s still very much the reluctant heroine not used to working with others after years of fending for herself. “It’s interesting to see how the relationships evolve between characters. It’s not something that you can just will on the page,” observes Eglee.

Fortunately for Dark Angel, the series was always envisioned to have Max as the lead, tangoing in heart and mind with wheelchair-bound Logan. “The design of character was such that yes, I wanted a kind of complex of emotions between these two people. But with the show, this was never really conceived as a relationship show specifically, or a romance. We’ve all worked on those shows where you have a leading man and a leading lady and the conceit is that somehow there’s a connection between them, but then good luck if that works. But in our show it seems to be working wonderfully,” Eglee says, knowing all too well from his Moonlighting days the elusive dance that gets played out on screen between two characters. “I remember when Michael [Weatherly] came in to audition, and it was just so clear, just the way that Jessica would determine the sparks between the two of them as actors: it was just so very real. What was interesting about this show was putting a real impediment –both the physical and emotional one-between the two of them, to try and keep some sort of stasis in that relationship-keep things from completing.”
When he first read the script for Dark Angel, Weatherly never envisioned himself as the male lead. When his agent told him which role he was up for, his first response was, “But I’m not Logan,” he laughs. “I saw it in a much grander scale, as a $100-million movie script. So from the get-go, it’s been a fantasy ride. And the show’s a lot of fun to do.”

There’s a lot of work, though, too, but Weatherly is up front about who wears the pants in that department: “I just sit around and type at the computer,” he says with a self-depreciating laugh.

And perhaps compared with Jessica Alba’s martial arts-styled antics, Logan Cale’s contribution to the show’s action series status is tame, at best. But his character’s techie know-how has proven invaluable for bailing Max out of the most probable situations. An accident in the pilot episode may have confined him to a wheelchair-for now-but Logan’s real asset is his underground knowledge base, the crux of which are his mysterious Eyes Only broadcasts that tell the truth about what’s going on in the New World Order.

Still, Weatherly adds, speaking on his cell phone while traveling to a location shoot, “It’s amazing to me that we get the show done, because it is huge. And it’s not on a back lot-we’re shooting up in Vancouver, and we really putting in 140, 150-plus hours a show. That’s something and I think it shows. Every department is really keyed in and involved and wants to make it as true as can be. Because in a way it’s an odd 20 years in the future, so how much do you Sci-Fi it up? How much of a statement do you want to make about different set designs and wardrobe and lighting? It’s kind of subtle, because I don’t think that you necessarily realize that you’re watching a show that takes place in the future all the
time. It plays kind of current. But at the same time, you have the freedom of that specific Sci Fi element, [which] gives you a little wiggle room.”