• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Hard-boiled Stone is a natural fit for Selleck

Posted on: Monday, 8 May 2006, 14:25 CDT

By Cynthia Littleton

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Nearly 20 years after he parked the Ferrari for the last time on "Magnum, P.I.," Tom Selleck has finally found a small-screen persona that he'd like to live with for a while in Jesse Stone.

Selleck scored for CBS last week with "Jesse Stone: Death in Paradise," the third installment of his hard-boiled police drama franchise based on the novels by best-selling mystery scribe Robert B. Parker. His character is a tortured soul, a former Los Angeles cop who flees the big city to become the police chief of the fictional hamlet of Paradise, Mass., after battling a drinking problem and the pain of a broken marriage.

Selleck earned a co-writer credit on the movie and has been a hands-on executive producer of all three alongside his frequent producing partner, Michael Brandman. "Death in Paradise" earned the best reviews of the three movies so far, and it ranked as CBS' second-most-watched movie of the season with nearly 15 million viewers.

"What I love about Parker is that he has infused this guy with so many flaws, but you still want to root for him," Selleck says. "He's a decent guy with a lot of problems. He cares about every case that comes into this town. He doesn't care about doing it by the book. He invents his own rules and is rather ruthless about it. He doesn't care so much about proof, so long as he's convinced he knows who did it. That's a lot of stuff to work with, especially when the audience is able to get to know Jesse over more than one movie."

At a time when the made-for-television movie seems all but extinct on broadcast television, Selleck is hoping to be the exception to the rule by continuing with the Jesse Stone films as a recurring franchise for CBS, which is understood to be strongly considering dropping its regular Sunday 9-11 p.m. movie slot after years of declining ratings.

As of last week, Selleck said he had a script order but no firm commitment from CBS for additional Stone pictures; a CBS spokeswoman said the franchise was "important" to the network and that it intends to produce more.

Selleck hasn't stopped working in television since he served his apprenticeship at the Universal Television factory in the 1970s. He earned his own detective's license in the 1980s with CBS' underappreciated "Magnum." For the past 18 years, he has been taking care to not be overshadowed by the iconic Vietnam vet-turned-Hawaiian gumshoe Thomas Magnum character by seeking roles that show off his versatility.

Selleck romanced Courteney Cox on "Friends" in its early seasons, and now he's romancing Candice Bergen on "Boston Legal." He made three top-flight Western telefilms at TNT a few years ago, including the 2003 remake of "Monte Walsh" that ranks among the best work of Selleck's long career.

Indeed, like all good actors, Selleck gets better with age. And like all good leading men, Selleck, 61, is wearing his autumn years well.

Although he's always been known for being strong-willed with writers and directors, Selleck is quick to give CBS credit for allowing him to make the kind of movies he wants to make with the Stone franchise at a time when disaster flicks and campy shark-attack vehicles seem to be the only things working in longform.

"I don't think you need an explosion in the first 10 minutes," Selleck says. "You don't need to do ripped-from-the-headlines stuff. If the audience likes the character enough, they'll go with you when he goes into a dark room at home alone, pours a scotch and sits down to think a while."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category