Some actors who are lucky enough to land major roles are also unlucky enough to be defined by them for the rest of their careers. Luckily, Anna Paquin of True Blood fame has moved onward and upward after her stint as Sookie Stackhouse on the phenomenally popular HBO vampire drama. Her latest project will be a pilot for ABC, entitled Broken.
Broken will follow the personal and professional life of a ruthless divorce attorney named Gemma, according to Deadline. Her life will begin to unravel when her emotionally-damaged and love-addicted sister reappears in her life. The reunion will trigger self-destructive tendencies and expose secrets long-hidden in the family. All things considered, Gemma looks to be a meaty role for Paquin.
Gemma’s sister will be played by Charity Wakefield, fresh off of the cancelled NBC drama The Player. Wakefield was one of the brighter spots of the short-lived series, so hopefully she’ll be a good fit for the role opposite Anna Paquin.
The project has thus far only been ordered to pilot, so it may not move forward to series; still Paquin has been keeping busy. She has a major role in A&E’s upcoming miniseries remake of Roots that is set to run for four installments starting in May of 2016. Paquin clearly hasn’t been typecast as a result of True Blood, and we should count ourselves lucky that the limited run of Roots will mean she’s free to take on what could be a starring role in a longer-running series.
The pilot for Broken is written by Meaghan Oppenheimer, who also created and will executive produce the project. Reese Witherspoon is attached to the project as an executive producer as well, so there’s plenty of name recognition already in play.
Considering that Broken will air on ABC if ordered to series, we can definitely count on distinctly less skin being shown by Paquin than on True Blood. There will presumably also be less blood-drinking, vampirism, and supernatural love triangles, although only time will tell on those fronts. Paquin has been well-liked on both the big and small screen, so we can be sure that she can tackle whatever Oppenheimer and Witherspoon throw her way for the show.
There aren’t too many details so far about Broken, so there’s no saying just when the pilot will go into production. With Anna Paquin starring and Reese Witherspoon attached, however, we can only hope that the brass at ABC are happy enough with the first episode to give the series a chance with audiences. In the meantime, we can always get our Anna Paquin fix by re-watching episodes of True Blood, some of the X-Men movies, and/or Fly Away Home for a touching story about a young girl and her geese. Gemma on Broken could go in any direction, so it can't hurt to have a lot of Paquin gigs to prepare us.
