Last month, we heard the interesting news that genre icon Lin Shaye has signed on to star in an action thriller series called Ellen, and now Deadline has revealed the names of five of her co-stars. They are Hart Bochner (Die Hard), Liz Caribel Sierra (God’s Time), Karan Gill (I May Destroy You), Craig Tate (Reprisal), and Ty Olsson (Supernatural).
Now filming, Ellen is scripted by Tim Walker and based on an original idea from Jalmari Helander. The story follows
a nefarious land developer who gets more than he bargained for when he tries to intimidate an 80-year-old widow into abandoning her Montana ranch.
Shaye is clearly playing the 80-year-old widow, and I’m really hoping that Hart Bochner is playing the villainous land developer. Bring that smarminess he displayed as Ellis in Die Hard to this role, then crank it up even further.
Ellen will run for six episodes and is being financed by New Regency, the company that was behind The Revenant and The Beast Must Die. New Regency is working with QCode, Automatik, and Oddfellows on Ellen, and the companies are also planning to develop and produce a podcast that will accompany the show. 42 is producing Ellen with Automatik. Executive producing with Shaye are 42’s Ben Pugh and Charlie Morrison, Josh Horsfield, Automatik, Oddfellows, New Regency, and Walker. Helander and Petri Jokirantaa are co-executive producers. The filmmaking duo of Clif Prowse and Derek Lee (Afflicted) are executive producing and directing.
I was already sold on Ellen as soon as I heard it was going to be an action series starring Shaye, and now that I know she’ll be sharing the screen with Bochner on this show I’m looking forward to it even more.
We’ll keep you updated on Ellen as it continues to make its way through production.