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A&E's 'Coma' remake is sure to keep you awake By John Crook © Zap2it last January, lights are blazing inside Glenridge Hall, a stunning but se- cluded mansion in the suburbs of Atlanta. The location frequently is in demand for weddings and parties, but tonight it's standing in as the home of Dr. Theodore Stark (James Woods), chief of staff at fic- tional Peachtree Memorial Hospital, in a TV remake of the 1978 medical thriller "Coma." The new two-part movie premieres Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 3 and 4, on A&E Network. In the glittering party On a chilly Friday night scene being filmed, Os- car winner Geena Davis is playing Dr. Agnetta Lindquist, the chilly head of psychiatry at the hos- pital, as she meets new medical student Susan Wheeler (Lauren Ambrose, "Six Feet Under"), the heroine of the piece, who sets the drama into motion when she notices that an improbable number of the hospital's patients are laps- ing into comas. When her scene wraps, Davis gapes at her sur- roundings before joining her interviewer in a small kitchen area down a war- ren of corridors from the grand room where filming continues. She cheerfully anticipates the first ques- tion about why she's play- ing a supporting role in a TV movie and explains it's partly because Ridley Scott, who directed her to an Oscar nomination in "Thelma & Louise," is among the "Coma" execu- tive producers. "This year is the 20th anniversary of 'Thelma & Louise,' and I hadn't gotten to do anything with Ridley since then, so I decided to check it out, and after I read the screenplay, I decided it was pretty cool," she says. "Actually, I've never played a character quite like this one. She especially thinks that ethics and morals actually are on her side, that the end justi- fies the means. She's pret- ty sure she's on the right side of this issue, which is more interesting than a character who knows she is doing something she shouldn't be." Later that same night, another Oscar winner, Richard Dreyfuss, adjourns to an unoccupied room upstairs to talk about his character, an avuncular professor at Atlanta Uni- versity and a close friend of Susan's late grandfather, and why this remake is be- ing done in the first place. "You don't want to re- make a really good film. Why bother?" the actor says with a shrug. " 'Coma' had a really good idea, but this script is actually better. "My character, Professor for mankind to perfect itself, so he's pushing it along. As a doctor, he has to work out the morality of what he does, as most doctors do, and as he says, 'It took us thousands of years to get here, and it would have tak- en us thousands of years more if we hadn't come to this decision.' " As Susan starts obses- sively trying to understand why otherwise seemingly healthy patients are laps- ing into comas, she finds a ready ally in Dr. Mark Bellows (Steven Pasquale), a hotshot young doctor who is being fast-tracked for a seat on the hospital's board of ethics. Soon he also becomes Susan's love interest, even though he also is warming another highly placed bed nearby. Pasquale's role as this whip-smart and articulate surgeon is light years from the role with which most fans identify him, comically dimwitted Sean Garrity on "Rescue Me." "It's OK. You can say it. stuck doing the same thing forever and ever." A few weeks after the party scene was filmed, Ambrose, whose character appears in nearly every scene of this remake, ex- plains why she decided to sign on for this production. "I'm drawn to things I've never done before, and in this case, it was that I had never done a thriller, and I knew there'd be all sorts of things that went along with that, like stunts and cool sets and creepy imagery," the actress says. "The (scenes with) the bodies were just incredible. They took this old Sears building and turned it into this re- ally scary, futuristic horror medical landscape. It was just incredible, how they photographed it. I knew this would be a new realm and it really was a lot of fun." While this new "Coma" is Hillside, is an Ubermensch, someone who doesn't have the patience to wait around He was a really dumb guy," Pasquale says, laughing. "And you have to be re- ally smart to play a guy that dumb. That's why I am making a concentrated effort not to play a dumb guy or do a comedy right now, because I did that for seven seasons. It was great fun, but I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't do a comedy after 'Rescue Me,' because it's easy in this business to get premiering at a time when health care is a hot-but- ton topic in the news, this TV movie generally skirts around making any social or political statement in that regard. "It's a medical thriller, and in those terms it inevi- tably explores and exploits our fears of being abused by powers bigger than us in the medical system. That's definitely a theme," Ambrose says. Davis, however, thinks Catch the Craze & Save! Save on Rentals • Breakfast Get Free Glass Cleaner Save on a Quilt Find these great savings plus more on Coupon Craze! In The Goshen News every Monday, Online everyday! Nobody covers your hometown better 114 S. Main St., Goshen 574-533-2151 www.goshennews.com this production resonates strongly with a general- ized nervousness in the air these days. Employment Ad Today! 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