The Crave/USA Network procedural is based on Nevada Barr’s books and set in Montana’s Glacier National Park
Back to the Future‘s Lea Thompson has been waiting 12 years to get National Park ranger series, Anna Pigeon, on TV screens, and in a moment of kismet the cast and crew had an awe-inspiring encounter with nature.
The cast and crew, including Chicago PD’s Tracy Spiridakos, used Alberta, Canada as their playground, with no studio used for any scenes – and on their first day of filming, a grizzly bear and her cubs showed up.
“The park rangers were like, ‘You’re in her world so just tread lightly.’ That was our very first day, and it was really cool to see how the park rangers navigate that world,” Tracy tells HELLO!
The Bell Media/USA Network procedural is based on Nevada Barr’s series of books, first published in 1993, and set in the stunning but terrifying world of Glacier National Park in northwest Montana.
The 10-part series introduces viewers to the titular Anna, a theater stage manager turned Park Ranger in her late 30s who moved from New York City after the murder of her husband in a home invasion.
As each episode focuses on a new crime taking place inside the park, Anna’s backstory, and the mystery around her husband’s death, is slowly unveiled across season one, thanks to phone conversations with her therapist sister (Battlestar Galactica’s Tricia Helfer), Anna’s flashbacks via nightmares,, and the help of FBI friend-turned-potential love interest Agent Stanton (Star Trek: Discovery’s Ronnie Rowe Jr.)
Why now was the right time
Lea received the book rights 12 years ago. “I just thought they were great and that they’d make great TV, but I’ve been trying to get them made for this long of a time!” the 65-year-old actress-turned-director tells HELLO!
She partnered with showrunner Morwyn Brebner for the series, who says that this was the right time for the show as “national parks are in the zeitgeist.”
President Donald Trump has rolled back federal land and monument protections on more than 86 million acres, less than two years into his second term, including decreased funding and increased commercial and development use.
“When we’re in an AI artificial world, and on our screens a lot, to go to a place where nature is important and focuses on protecting nature, [that’s] something people really want,” adds Morwyn.
Tracy as number one
“I was really grateful to be a part of the project,” says Tracy, whom Lea shares was her “number one choice” for the role.
“I hadn’t read the books, but I read the pilot and completely fell in love with the character. She’s funny, she’s edgy, she’s impulsive, and there’s so much to her that I couldn’t wait to get in there and start.”
As number one on the call sheet, Tracy set the tone and Ryan Northcott, who stars as Anna’s boss Geoff Miller, shares that it was “one of the best filming experiences I’ve ever had, and that is because of Tracy.”
“She just brings joy and hard work and a skill and openness.”
“It was incredible to work with her, and like Ryan said, it starts at the top. The number one is really the conduit of what the energy will be like on set, and Tracy did such a great job of just setting the tone of hard work with fun,” adds Ronnie.
“That trickles into the relationships off camera as well and we spent as much time as we could off camera to really build rapport and chemistry.”
Series’ inspiration
Lea directed the first season, but acknowledges that they had to “take some liberties” to adapt the books successfully for the small screen.
Season one uses the first two books in the series, Track of the Cat and A Superior Death, restricting the setting to Glacier National Park instead of moving Anna to a different National Park for each new story, which Nevada’s books famously do.
“On the first day of shooting, Nevada, was there and she was really excited to see it, and that’s what you want; I want her to be happy because I kept having to ask her for the rights,” laughs Lea.
Nevada tells HELLO! that to see her character still alive after all these years is a “wonderful feeling.”
Women’s freedoms
“Anna matters, and women’s independence and freedom matter more now than ever,” adds Nevada, acknowledging that when she first began writing the series in the 1990s, she did not realize that three decades on, there would still be a fight for rights.
“In many areas [at the time], we had come a long way, baby, but women action heroes were absolutely rare on the ground,” she shares.
“I always admired Stephanie Powers, because at the end of Hart to Hart, he always had a big brawl and she had to think of 1000 ways not to help him because women didn’t take action – and now they do.”
Anna Pigeon airs on USA Network in the US on August 7 at 10/9c, and streams on Crave in Canada.
