When it comes to turning his novels into TV series, New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly has moved on from Bosch to Ballard, starring Maggie Q as Renée Ballard, who is heading the Cold Case unit for the LAPD. The new series premieres all 10 episodes today on Prime Video and fans of Bosch and Bosch: Legacy should have no problem making the transition as Ballard has all the elements that Connelly is famous for even if it does differ slightly from the novels.
But the good news for Bosch fans is that even though Connelly’s moved on – he also created a new character Detective Stilwell in Nightshade, his most recent novel – he told Parade that he’s not done with Bosch.
“I just felt that as I was getting near the end of my days as a writer, I wanted to come out with at least one more new character,” he said. “So that was Stilwell. I’ll go back to Stilwell, even after this book. I hope the last book I’m writing is about Harry Bosch. I’m not done with him by a long shot.”
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In the meantime, Connelly hopefully has several seasons of Ballard to executive produce as the female detective takes over the franchise starting today.
“It’s hard to describe,” he says of turning the book into a series. “It’s always a thrill. It’s kind of amazing, you sit in a room by yourself, and you write these stories. Then, down the line, you see Maggie Q on a surfboard on the beach in Malibu, and it’s like, ‘Wow, that is amazing.’ Yeah, it doesn’t get old, it’s supremely exciting.”
Michael ConnellyPhoto by Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for Prime Video
In addition to reassuring Parade that there would be more Bosch to come, Connelly also shared his thoughts on Ballard. He gets into why Maggie Q was the perfect Renée, how the series differs in tone from Bosch, his involvement in the changes that were made and more.
You hand-picked Maggie Q for Ballard. What qualities was it that she had that you thought made her perfect to play Renée?I don’t want to say I hand-picked. She hand-picked us, I think. We met with her, and right away I saw qualities in her and how she went about her career and goes about her career and how she would express what she’s looking for to find in a character that she’d want to possibly spend years with. There’s a quality of fierceness about her that I immediately thought matched with Ballard. Every now and then, people will ask the basic question: What’s the one word that describes this character? With Ballard I always said "fierce." When I sat with Maggie Q for the first time, I could see that. I could see that in her eyes and in her determination to make a choice with the next steps of her career.
Maggie QTyler Golden/Prime Video
It really became this meeting where – it wasn’t just me and her; it was a group of us involved in developing the show. I was like 15 or 20 minutes into the meeting where I was thinking, “How do we convince her to say yes.” It worked out.
Related: Everything to Know About the New Bosch Spinoff Series Ballard Starring Maggie Q
One of the things that we love about Bosch is all of the L.A. locations. With Ballard, we have all these panoramic shots of the Pacific Coast and Ballard out on the ocean. It gives it a different tone. How intrinsic to her character is it to be a surfer and for you to capture that?Very important. It’s funny, because it’s super expensive to film on water, and so we waited until the end of the season and filmed it all at once. It’s about character, but it’s also about the character of the city. We knew from the beginning that we wanted this show to be wider in tone, attractive to a wider viewership. We just thought we needed more blue sky than Bosch has. Bosch can be unrelentingly dark, and we didn’t want that world. We’re definitely in darkness in this show, but we wanted to break out of that into the light at times much more than we ever did in Bosch. That was a calculated and concentrated idea from the beginning, and it’s important.
These shows exist in the same plane. Bosch goes from Bosch to being Ballard on occasion. There is a link between these shows. But we very conscientiously wanted to open up the storytelling in Ballard.
Kind of east side versus west side.When we made Bosch, we always had this rule: We’re not going west of La Brea. With Ballard, it’s almost like we’re not going east of La Brea. Although we do. We go downtown. But for most part, it’s a west side story.
Maggie Q and Michael MosleyPatrick Wymore/Prime Video
In the books, Bosch is part of the cold case team. But in the series Samira Parker (Courtney Taylor) replaces the Bosch character on the team, which, to me, is the biggest change. Talk about the decision to go in that direction and how much input did you have into the creation of that new character?The big transfer from book to TV is that I write books that are carried by the main character, and you’re inside their head. When you then adapt that to screen, the very first thing is we can’t have Ballard in every scene. We need more characters to carry the story home with them. It’s just a basic fact, when you’re filming 12 or 14 hours a day, you can’t have your No. 1 in every scene. You’re going to end up killing them; it’s too much work. So, we knew we had to add a character. I really gave the nod to Kendall [Sherwood] and Michael [Alaimo], the showrunners. Parker was their creation. I can’t take credit for any of it. Obviously, we talked about it, and I knew there’s an importance to having that character added. But they ran with it. Courtney’s fantastic as Parker. It worked out really well.
Related: Bosch: Legacy’s Titus Welliver Breaks Down Renée Ballard’s Series Finale Introduction (Exclusive)
The two women have a connection that they figure out down the road. How important was that to help Parker come to trust Ballard?I think it’s pretty important. It’s an important part of Ballard’s character and the foundation of what kind of police detective she is. That’s a key part. That was one reason why I even created the character of Ballard, because the real detective, Mitzi Roberts who she’s based on, I’d been working with her for years all about Bosch. She helped me with my Bosch books.It was only when I heard some of her own stories of the difficult, much steeper path she had as a woman in the department that I got interested in writing about a character. Ballard came out of that. When we take Ballard to TV, you’re not going to drop that, that’s going to be a big part of this. The showrunners knew they were going to introduce the character of Parker. And what better way to make these two women bond as a team to have a dark but joint history.
Maggie Q and Courtney TaylorAdam Rose/Prime Video
Most of the characters that work with Ballard in the cold case unit are from the book. Was there anything that you said to the showrunners that they absolutely could not change? Or did you give them carte blanche?I had a lot of discussions with the showrunners pre-writing room, or after, outside the writing room. We did a lot of communication. It’s not my character to put down edicts like that. I remember being really interested and hoping that they would keep the otherworldly or paranormal sides of Colleen [Rebecca Field] because I thought that was interesting. That was also based on a real person that I heard about. I thought we’re trying to differentiate the show from the mothership of Bosch and a character like that can really help us do that. Again, I didn’t put down any hard and fast rules, but I probably said, "I hope you’re going to have her be the way she is in the books."
All 10 episodes of Ballard are now streaming on Prime Video.
Next, Bosch Star Makes His Next Career Move and It Also Involves a Badge
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