Jason Priestley & Cindy Sampson Talk New eOne Procedural Private Eyes

CANNES: Jason Priestley (Beverly Hills 90210, Call Me Fitz) and Cindy Sampson (Rookie Blue, Rogue) are in Cannes to promote the new Entertainment One (eOne) procedural Private Eyes and the co-stars met with World Screen Newsflash to talk about the series.

“I’ve been attached to this project since we optioned the series of books that were written by G.B. Joyce [that inspired the show],” explained Priestley. “That’s what hooked me to the project, when I read the books.”

The series sees Priestley starring as Matt “Shadow” Shade, a former pro athlete who uses his ability to read people and anticipate their moves in his new role as a crime-solving P.I. Priestley also serves as an executive producer on the show.

“There was a very lengthy development process,” he shared about getting the project off the ground. “It took us about two and a half years to finally get the network to greenlight the show. Once we got the greenlight, we quickly hired a group of writers, got in the writers’ room, did the scripts and boom, we were in production. We banged out ten episodes, and right now it’s almost three years to the day we started this process.”

He said that adding in the character of Angie Everett, played by Sampson, as Matt’s feisty partner was a departure from the books, but an “amazing addition. We had to find the yin to his yang and we were successful in that.”

Private Eyes promises a modern take on the classic noir hero story, as Matt and Angie investigate a wide range of cases and experience relationship drama along the way. The series is done in a story-of-the-week, procedural format, which Sampson said made shooting the show “exciting and fun.” She added, “As an actor, it’s great because every episode was different from the one before.”

Sampson described having the role of Angie Everett as a “dream job.” Playing a private investigator allowed her to explore “different sub-characters. That to me was amazing; you get to play a gazillion different characters, with a new caper every week. That was really exciting.”