A&E’s two-part movie miniseries Coma (Sept. 3-4 at 9pm ET) is based on the Robin Cook novel and comes from executive producers Ridley and Tony Scott (Tony died in an apparent suicide on Aug. 19) boasting an all-star cast: Lauren Ambrose, Steven Pasquale, Geena Davis, James Woods, Ellen Burstyn and Richard Dreyfuss. The medical thriller follows a young doctor (Ambrose) who discovers that something sinister is going on at her hospital after routine procedures send more than a few seemingly healthy patients into comas on the operating table.
A&E medical thriller Coma reunites Geena Davis and Ridley Scott
By John Crook
With an Oscar (for The Accidental Tourist) and a Golden Globe (for the ABC drama Commander in Chief) on her mantle, Geena Davis says she doesn’t care whether her work winds up on the big or little screen. Still, it may seem odd to find Davis in a supporting role in Coma, a two-part A&E retelling of the Robin Cook hospital thriller premiering Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 3-4 – until you learn that this TV movie is executive produced by Ridley Scott, who directed Davis two decades ago in Thelma & Louise.
“Actually, there were several reasons I wanted to do this, but the first thing I heard about it was that Ridley’s company was doing it, and this year is the 20th anniversary of Thelma & Louise, and I hadn’t gotten to do anything with him
since then,” Davis explains, “so I decided to check it out and, after I read the screenplay, I decided it was pretty cool. It’s actually kind of a small part but a lot of fun.”
Davis says the thriller, directed as a film in 1978, still proves unsettling today.
“I think the movie definitely plays to the fear that we’re not being looked out for, that there are things that are going on that are not in the public’s best interest but that other people have decided they’d rather we didn’t know about. I think that’s kind of a lurking fear in society and it seems that it is heightened in these times.”
Coma Movie Photo: Credit: Andrew Eccles/A&E
