Will Trent keeps Atlanta in the spotlight

Will Trent

Photo courtesy of Disney

When screenwriter Liz Heldens first read Atlantan Karin Slaughter’s Will Trent books, she immediately saw the potential for a television series. “I just fell in love with the character,” she says. “I felt there was a show in the books, and that it could go on for a while, too.”

Heldens was clearly right about the adaptation, which she developed with her co-showrunner Daniel Thomsen. Now in its third season, the police procedural has impressed viewers and critics alike with its gritty-yet-sensitive portrayal of Will Trent, a special agent in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Highly observant and intelligent, he suffers from memories of being abandoned as a child, growing up in the Atlanta foster-care system, and struggling with dyslexia.

After seeing the potential for Will Trent, Heldens organized a meeting with Slaughter. “I took her out to dinner in Atlanta and we just talked and talked,” she says. “We hit it off! I really connected with her and the material.”

From the get-go, there was never any doubt that, like the books, Will Trent would be set and shot in Atlanta. “Slaughter really is a great spokesperson for Atlanta. She thinks everybody should move to Atlanta,” Heldens says. “I loved the idea of shooting Atlanta for Atlanta. The books are set in Atlanta. Karin is from there. It was just natural.”

 

Erika Christensen and Ramin Rodriguez on the Atlanta set of Will Trent

Photo courtesy of Disney

Despite the fact that many shows and films are shot in Atlanta—from Marvel blockbusters to The Hunger Games and Stranger Things—very few are set here. “I’ve worked as a location manager for 17 years, and you’re usually told to make sure it doesn’t look like Atlanta,” says Kai Thorup, who worked on the first season of Will Trent.

When picking locations for the show, Heldens, Thomsen, and Thorup leaned into the geography, architecture, and homes of the city as much as they could. At the same time, they didn’t want to just present “stereotypical locations and visuals” of Atlanta, Thorup says. “We steered away from that. We wanted to show Atlanta as it is now. There’s a lot of new buildings and affluence in the city. It’s very bustling. That’s what we wanted to showcase.”

While Will Trent’s writers’ room is in Los Angeles, writers travel to Atlanta when the episode they wrote is being shot. Heldens always tells these scribes “to go out and do a little exploring,” so they can discover what makes Atlanta such a unique city.

One result of this exploration? They ended up shooting at Johnny’s Hideaway. “An Uber driver told me, ‘That’s where young women go to meet rich men, and where rich men go to meet young women.’ I knew I had to write about it,” Heldens recalls. For season three’s eighteen-episode run, Heldens also shot at Camp Twin Lakes, incorporated Underground Atlanta, and—since they were shooting in the summer for the first time—showcased how green and full of art the city is.

“The city is so vibrant and colorful,” Heldens says. “We wanted to take advantage of that … We just really wanted audiences to feel the heat, and we wanted to bring a Southern and gothic noir feel to the show. We wanted to be as ambitious as possible with the locations.”

Meanwhile, if they’re ever in need of a murder or crime plot, Slaughter is always on hand to provide very detailed information. “We always go to dinner when I’m in town,” Heldens says. “She always shows off Atlanta, then points out where people were murdered and attacked. She gives me a detailed crime map of this beautiful city.”

The post Will Trent keeps Atlanta in the spotlight appeared first on Atlanta Magazine.

From the get-go, there was never any doubt that, like the books, Will Trent would be set and shot in Atlanta.
The post Will Trent keeps Atlanta in the spotlight appeared first on Atlanta Magazine. Read MoreAtlanta Magazine

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