ABC series 'The Deep End' expected to begin filming in North Texas

12:00 AM CDT on Tuesday, July 21, 2009

By JOE O'CONNELL / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

Anew ABC television series, The Deep End, is poised to film in North Texas.

Texas Film Commission head Bob Hudgins confirmed that the show is a 20th
Century Fox Television production for ABC, not a show for the Fox
network as was previously reported.

Thirteen episodes are set to shoot; The Deep End is being scheduled as a
midseason replacement series. Hudgins estimates that money spent in
North Texas will be in the ballpark of $20 million.

Plans for the shoot have been hush-hush while a deal has been negotiated
to shoot at the Studios at Las Colinas, an agreement that's still not
complete. Much of the show's filming is expected to be on a soundstage.

"I'm feeling pretty good that, regardless, they will stay in Texas,"
Hudgins said.

Show producer Garry Brown, who also was instrumental in two seasons of
Prison Break shooting here and who has a local industry history that
dates back to Walker, Texas Ranger, is the North Texas link. Brown has
long raved about the talent of the North Texas film crew base.

Brown also lobbied the Legislature in 2007 and this year for a financial
incentives program for the film, television and video-game industries.
The Legislature earlier this year increased incentives offered and added
flexibility and additional funding to the program, which has $60 million
to dole out over the next two years to attract Hollywood back to Texas.
In recent years, many projects have veered to states that offer heftier
payouts, such as Louisiana and New Mexico.

The lack of local buzz about the impending shoot could be attributed to
the show's setting in a Los Angeles law firm. ABC described the dramatic
comedy as L.A. Law meets Grey's Anatomy. The cast includes a number of
fresh faces, along with some seasoned hands. Well-known names include
Billy Zane (Titanic), who stars as the firm's prince of darkness; Clancy
Brown (The Shawshank Redemption); and Broadway actor Norbert Leo Butz.
David Hemingson, co-executive producer of How I Met Your Mother, is the
new show's co-executive producer and writer.

The show description on ABC.go.com gives a good example of the tone of
the series: "Sterling Law is one of L.A.'s most prestigious law firms.
Each year it recruits four new young lawyers from the finest law schools
worldwide. It will nurture, guide and shape these recruits into the best
damned lawyers they can possibly be or else."

The four young lawyers include Matt Long as the blue-collar kid; Tina
Majorino (Napoleon Dynamite) as a sweet Midwesterner; Leah Pipes as a
brilliant Brentwood babe; and Ben Lawson as an Australian with serious
drive.