SPINOFF CITY
Chicago lands yet another drama in Dick Wolf franchise
DICK Wolf shows multiply like rabbits. New York-based “Law & Order” launched four spinoffs. “Chicago Fire” debuted in 2012; his Windy City franchise now includes “Chicago PD” and “Chicago Med.”
Now Wolf’s fourth Midwestern incarnation — the courtroom procedural “Chicago Justice” — will launch with a three-show crossover Wednesday night.
The action starts on “Chicago Fire” at 8 p.m. when a massive blaze in a converted factory leaves dozens injured or killed — including a relative of “Chicago PD” investigator Alvin Olinsky (Elias Koteas), whose colleagues search for the arsonist responsible on that show at 9 p.m.
On “Chicago Justice” at 10 p.m., prosecutor Peter Stone (Philip Winchester) — the son of Manhattan DA Ben Stone (Michael Moriarty) of Wolf’s “Law & Order” — sets out to convince judge and jury that the alleged perpetrator belongs behind bars. Jon Seda co-stars as investigator Antonio Dawson, a character created for “Chicago Fire” and later spun off to “Chicago PD.” (“Chicago Med” will not have its own crossover episode, though characters will appear on the other shows.)
The Post recently spoke with franchise executive producer Peter Jankowski from his LA office.
When “Chicago Justice” was OK’d to go to series, did you think a crossover was crucial to introduce the show?
I wouldn’t say crucial, but it certainly was one of the first things we came up with. It’s opportunistic; it makes sense. I’m sure you probably heard Dick’s metaphor for what the different shows represent on the human body: “Chicago PD” is the fist. “Med” is the heart. “Justice” is the brain. And “Fire” is the crotch. [laughs] So each show sort of exists in its own space and they complement each other. Most network procedural episodes are about 43 minutes
long, which you’ve basically tripled for this story. How is it actually put together?
All the writers sit in a room and beat out the story, and then each show does what is unique to each show. “Fire” is probably more action and spectacle. “PD” is more investigatory and a little more brutal. “Justice” has the intellectual dexterity needed to bring the bad guy to justice and the issues around that. The team works well together, so without that we would have chaos.
What logistical hoops did you have to jump through?
The beauty is we are in the same space, so, all four shows, you could throw a baseball between them. Some of the heavy lifting is eliminated just by proximity. But it’s a tough thing to do because you have an actor, in this case Elias Koteas, who has a strong storyline … It’s a little bit of a dance trying to get him back and forth between the shows. But it juices everybody up.
Is there potential for a quadruple crossover using “Med”?
With Dick there is always potential for doing pretty much anything. Dick loves to use the term “Dickens’ London” — where the novels cross over. That’s what he’s doing in Chicago.
What was Jon Seda’s reaction when he was told his character, Antonio Dawson, would spin off from “Chicago PD” for a second time?
I could see him jumping from show to show to show for 10 years. What’s great is when he moved, right off the bat, he brought a real maturity to “Justice.” He kind of became a bedrock of that show.