The body count is high on Prime Video’s new thriller Countdown. And it starts with a famous face, who plays Homeland Security agent Robert Darden, right at the beginning of Episode 1. The shocking part of that is that the role is played by Milo Ventimiglia.
The body count is not as much of a surprise. Countdown was inspired by ‘80s action movies like Lethal Weapon and Die Hard, so we expect to see the bad guys die. But on Countdown, it’s some of the good guys as well.
Creator and showrunner Derek Haas, a former showrunner for Dick Wolf series such as Chicago Fire and FBI: International, drew inspiration from the aforementioned movies. But he also looked to more adventurous flicks like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Romancing the Stone and Crimson Tide.
“Those movies where you lean in at the edge of the seat, but everybody was clever and having fun, that was the vibe inspiration,” he tells Parade in an exclusive interview.
But the even bigger inspiration came one season when he was working on Chicago P.D. At the time, they needed to write out a character – most likely Sofia Bush, who played Erin Lindsay – and he needed her departure to be one that she could return from. That’s when he was introduced to the idea of task forces.
“It’s like an all-star team with people from different organizations, different agencies who have to all come together and stop some major event from happening,” Haas continues. “Then I started reading books on task forces. The more I read, the more fascinated I got.”
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So, that’s where the idea for Countdown was born. In this instance, the task force is convened to investigate Darden’s death. But the hunt for the killer soon uncovers a far more sinister terrorist plot than anyone could have imagined, kicking off a race against time to save Los Angeles.
Jensen Ackles, Eric DanePhoto Credit: Elizabeth Morris/Prime Video
LAPD undercover detective Mark Meachum (Jensen Ackles) is recruited to the secret task force, alongside undercover agents from all branches of law enforcement, to investigate, but Meachum has his own secret. He is living with a glioblastoma multiforme (brain tumor) diagnosis, so he himself is at death’s door.
“What I thought would be interesting for the title of the show is that you’ve got a countdown where everyone that watches the trailer and sees the poster, or sees the billboard, they’re going to think the countdown is the countdown of the big event that’s happening,” Haas explains. “I thought what would make it interesting was if there was an internal countdown going on with our main character.
“I thought that that particular affliction would add a second layer to almost every action sequence that is happening in those first ten episodes that you’re seeing. That there would be a time bomb that you didn’t know when it was going to go off, and all the dilemmas that that causes. Because you’re not just an individual, you’re part of a team.”
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That said, Ackles was cast in the role early on. So when Haas was writing the series – he wrote all 13 episodes – he had met the Supernatural star, being very familiar with him and his work.
Derek HaasCredit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Prime Video
“Once you meet an actor and you start working with them in any television series, unless you’re doing a limited series where they can really play a character that has a beginning, middle and an end and is not going to keep going, I think you have to start writing the character towards the actor’s personality, strengths, weaknesses, all of those kinds of things. Once I met not just Jensen but Eric Dane, Violett Beane, Jessica Camacho and Elliot Knight, then they all inhabited these characters. The characters change and grow based on the actors that are playing them.”
Countdown will begin streaming on Prime Video today with three episodes. One of the remaining 10 episodes will then drop each Wednesday.
Next, New Thriller From Chicago Fire Creator Countdown Starring Jensen Ackles Comes to Prime Video
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