The ‘Big Dogs’ of Fairfield County
LOCAL WRITER, LAWYER TEAM UP AND TURN BOOK INTO AN AMAZON PRIME SERIES
Looters are silhouetted against a New York cityscape in flame. Overwhelmed police can only watch. A ruthless European criminal syndicate flourishes like a virus.
It’s an early scene in a prescient fiction that grew in the mind of New Canaan writer Adam Dunn and emerged into print in the books “Rivers of Gold” (2010); “Big Dogs” and “Saint Underground.” (2015).
It is now set to come to life on July 1 in an eight-part Amazon Prime Direct television series, “Big Dogs,” pitting an elite team of New York City detectives against the syndicate.
The route from book to the screen has been a circuitous one, as interviews with some of the key players show.
It’s an uphill slog, mostly, with a finish line that is imagined rather than visible. It takes a team – in this case, a Fairfield County-connected one – to navigate the maze of negotiating, writing, casting, selling, obtaining permits, finding directors, convincing, assembling the pieces, and on and on and on.
Among those joining Dunn on this trip were Westport entertainment lawyer Alan Neigher; Fairfield native Judy Bowman, a Manhattan-based casting director, and a husband-wife New Jersey-based production company.
Among the leading players in “Big Dogs” is Micheál Richardson, the son of actor Liam Neeson and the late actress Natasha Richardson.
Though “Big Dogs” is now a done deal, the 49-year-old Dunn was still holding his breath the other day when we spoke. To the offer of “congratulations,” he responded, half seriously, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
And how was he feeling about this success? “Exhausted,” he said.
Neigher is a well-known media and entertainment lawyer. For several years, in fact, he was counsel to the Connecticut Post.
When Dunn encountered trouble in 2014 in the form of pirated copies of his first book showing up in the marketplace, he was referred to Neigher by Paul Berg, an intellectual property attorney in Westport.
By Dunn’s account, within a week, Neigher had “moved heaven and earth” and resolved the issue.
Dunn got control of his books and in 2015 created Dunn Books, his own imprint.
With the second and third installments of his trilogy published, Dunn began talking with Neigher about the possibility of a television series based on the three Dunn books. The two of them created Aurelian Productions to advance Dunn’s work.
At the outset, Neigher and Dunn received some creative help from Susan Heller, a Fairfield writer. They then turned to Judy Bowman, a Fairfield native and Fairfield High School graduate, who was a New York City-based casting agent. Judy is the daughter of local attorney Andrew Bowman, who shares space with Neigher in a Westport office.
“He’s known me all my life. Forty-nine years,” Judy Bowman said the other day from her home in New Jersey.
Bowman has been involved in theater for most of her life, dating back to high school productions and work as a youngster with Bridgeport’s Downtown Cabaret and Polka Dot theaters.
She’s been a casting director, spotting the perfect performer for the role, for 25 years.
Among other things, Neigher said, Bowman “helped prepare us for the rigors of sitting for hours watching actors read the same lines, repeatedly.”
More importantly, Bowman steered Neigher and Dunn in the direction of Tony Glazer and Summer Crockett Moore, the husband-wife team behind Choice Films, the full-service production company that also operates Umbra Stages, in Newburgh, N.Y., where principal photography for “Big Dogs” was shot.
“Alan and I are connectors,” Judy Bowman said. “We like putting people together. He has always been supportive of me. I am from Connecticut,” Bowman added. “It makes me feel nostalgic and good to work on something real together.”
By Neigher’s assessment, Glazer and Moore “are probably the most multi-talented show business couple since Hepburn and Tracy.”
Choice Films has produced numerous independent films.
With a team assembled, they moved forward, with the path now a little clearer.
Dunn and Glazer, an experienced screenwriter, started writing teleplays of 55 to 60 minutes. Glazer had read the first book, “Rivers of Gold.”
“Right out of the gate, Adam and I hit it off. The challenge is you have this universe of characters and players and you have to set up that universe. Grab material from the other books, decide which characters are leads and which get a cursory look,” Glazer said.
Dunn and Glazer completed their work in early 2017. Then began the grinding process of casting and auditions. The cast includes, as mentioned above, Richardson, and Brett Cullen (Joker); Michael Rabe (Homeland), and Manny Perez (The Night Of) in leading roles.
The hope at one point, Neigher said, was to do principal photography in Fairfield County. “The Connecticut Film Commission was helpful and welcoming,” Neigher said. “But the New York state tax credit, plus the immediate availability of an affordable indoor sound stage (Umbra Stages), tipped the scale to New York State,” he said.
Shooting began in mid-July 2017 in Newburgh and in locations in the upper Hudson Valley and New York City through the summer and fall.
Much of 2018 was spent in film- and sound-editing studios, Neigher said. Neigher, incidentally, is also a jazz piano player and wrote two piano instrumentals, one of which is heard in episode 1 and the other in episode 7.
When you finally get a team together and have successfully navigated that uphill path, it makes sense to keep it together. The “Big Dogs” team intends to produce three more seasons of the series and has several other projects in development.
Like every other aspect of life in the time of corona, much of this work is on hold.
When the reopening blooms, though, Neigher said, work will resume.
“I hope we can do some of these things in Connecticut,” he said.
“THE CHALLENGE IS YOU HAVE THIS UNIVERSE OF CHARACTERS AND PLAYERS AND YOU HAVE TO SET UP THAT UNIVERSE. GRAB MATERIAL FROM THE OTHER BOOKS, DECIDE WHICH CHARACTERS ARE LEADS AND WHICH GET A CURSORY LOOK.”