Kevin & Bean Talk “Person Of Interest” With JJ Abrams And Jonathan Nolan

James Caviezel and Michael Emerson in Person of Interest

Every fall a plethora of new shows are thrown at us, and every fall the list gets longer and tougher to sift through. This season seems easier than most when a show like Person Of Interest is on TV.

With the names JJ Abrams (LOST, Fringe) and Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight, The Prestige) behind it, anticipations run high for CBS’s new drama.

L-R: JJ Abrams, Kevin Ryder, Jonathan Nolan, Lisa May

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Interview Part 1

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Both Abrams and Nolan are know for secretive projects, which only feeds viewer excitement when the project finally hits TV screens. Person of Interest, starring Jim Caviezel (Passion of the Christ) and Michael Emerson (LOST), debuted last Thursday with 13.2 million viewers. The project came together when Abrams and Nolan were talking about a possible film collaboration, and the discussion turned to TV and a show that Nolan was developing. Abrams loved the idea of the show and “asked, begged, pleaded if maybe we could work on that together… and I’m riding Mr. Nolan’s coattails right now.”

Nolan said that the idea of the show came about after growing up in England where cameras were everywhere. When he moved to the States, he noticed less camera in New York, and that there was a count of cameras in Manhattan five years ago totaling around 5000. Last year, the number of camera was listed as “uncountable.” Person of Interest deals with being watched and being able to track and catch people before they commit crimes.

The pitch for the show was “I want Jesus with a grenade launcher” in referring to the casting of Jim Caviezel (who’s formerly played Jesus), who now plays a character that’s gone off the grid for reasons that the show will slowly uncover. Michael Emerson plays the mastermind behind the technology, and is also thought to be dead as far as official documents are concerned.

Kevin cleverly and pointedly asked that since both characters are thought to be dead, do we find out down the road that they’re actually dead? For those that have seen LOST, this is a perfectly valid question, don’t you think?

Interview Part 2

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JJ Abrams also commented on Fringe and Jonathan Nolan on the Batman films, which his brother, Christopher, has been directing.

Person of Interest airs Thursday at 10pm on CBS.
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