Lea Thompson is known to many film lovers as Lorraine Baines McFly in the Back to the Future trilogy. Fans of her work can check out her new series, Anna Pigeon, based on the books by Nevada Barr. You won’t be seeing her on-camera, since she is behind the scenes as an executive producer and director. The USA Network series follows Tracy Spiridakos as the title character, a former city slicker-turned park ranger who solves crimes in a national park.
Thompson has been behind the scenes as a director on many TV shows, including The Goldbergs, The CW’s Stargirl, Star Trek: Picard, Resident Alien, and Will Trent. However, Anna Pigeon was a different beast for her.
“I’ve been behind the scenes a lot as a director, and I’ve directed my own feature, but this is the first time I’ve done my own TV show that I’ve been working on for almost 15 years” Thompson tells Nerd Reactor. “It feels weird. I mean, it does kind of feel weird that I’m not acting in it, you know what I mean? It kind of feels weird.”
Even with many movies and shows under her belt, there is still much to learn.
“But it was so much work and it gave me so much respect for people who produce TV shows because it is just an immense amount of work. It’s an immense amount of give and take. I learned so much from Morwyn and Sonia, my producers, and Morwyn’s the showrunner, about how to respect everybody’s job. I mean, I feel like I’ve always done that, but it was a really great learning curve, and everybody has to reinvent themselves all the time in our new culture. So this was a big reinvention for me, and it’s very exciting to be doing something completely new and different.”
About Anna Pigeon
Anna Pigeon, played by Tracy Spiridakos, is a former city slicker who became a park ranger after a devastating loss changed the trajectory of her life forever. While Anna tries to outrun her demons, her focus turns to solving crimes that have taken place within national park grounds, no matter who or what gets in her way.
The upcoming crime drama is based on the best-selling mystery novels by Nevada Barr and also stars Paulina Alexis, Ronnie Rowe Jr., Tricia Helfer, Kim Coates, Crystle Lightning and Nikki Hallow.
Lea Thompson directs and executive produces the 10-episode season.
