Steve Zaillian and Richard Price talk The Night Of
Creator Steve Zaillian sat down during the TAC Tour to chat about The Night Of
The Night Of is heading to be one of HBO’s many classics. Like some of the best show out there, actually getting off the ground wasn’t an easy feat. Steve Zaillian, the director, and writer Richard Price sat down with The A.V Club during the recent TCA press tour. The very same press tour that brought HBO’s Case Bloys up against the press over the amount of violence in some of HBO’s most popular shows.
One of the main things that Price and Zaillian wanted to do with The Night Of was to enhance the dark tenseness of the original British series while still adapting it for American audiences:
"“Well, the goal was twofold: to slow it down, and to think America, and then specifically New York. It’s like the anti-Law And Order. Let things unpack, really unpack, and give people a sense of time.”"
They’ve done a great job with that so far. We’ve discussed multiple times how The Night Of very much goes against the status-quo set by Law and Order. It can be a frustrating experience for those not used to such a glacial pace. In order to be as true to life as possible, the team had trouble deciding what to lave out. According to Steve Zaillian, that created some extra (rewarding) work:
"“And we have, for instance, a scene where Naz [Riz Ahmed] is taken to The Tombs for the first time…I think that was maybe half a page? It took us three days to shoot that, because the moments of what he went through were so important, the details of what happened.”"
That ultimately creates a richer show, and The Night Of is a show rich in details.
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The two go on to describe pushing forward after James Gandolfini died (there was no hesitation,) but according to Price it derailed some of the work for a little while:
"” I think I’d written maybe three scripts at that point. Everybody at HBO just got pancaked. I mean, everybody felt demoralized. So it lay dormant.”"
When John Torturro eventually settled on the role production went into high gear. Zaillian insists that no re-writing was done for Torturro after James Gandolfini died, as Zaillian already pictured him in the role. The A.V Club also gets the two to open up about John’s eczema and about portraying a Muslim family. All in all it’s a fascinating look at what makes The Night Of tick, and for fans of the show it should be considered must-read stuff.
To end on, Price and Zaillian were asked about continuing. Price gave the meaty answer here, and makes it clear that season one will be the end. At least for now:
"“I’d say what I already said at some point, which is that the bar for quality has been set so high, and the texture and the tone has been so beautifully sustained, that if you can’t make something at least just as good, what’s the point? But if you can…”"
So there you have it. The Night Of could continue at some point, but it would have to be the right material. Never say never.