Rossif Sutherland’s next project will honor his late father Donald Sutherland’s memory.
Murder in a Small Town, Fox’s upcoming detective drama based on LR Wright’s Karl Alberg book series, will be dedicated to the late actor — but not for the reason that fans may think.
When Rossif, 45, was cast as the lead role in the series, he was unaware that his father Donald had been working for decades to bring the story to life with a movie adaptation.
While speaking to Deadline, Rossif recalled how he told Donald the happy news and discovered that he had worked tirelessly to “get a movie version off the ground” for 30 years.
“I described his character to him, this detective who wasn’t going about doing his job with the tropes of intimidating people with his badge, his gun, his uniform, but instead got to get the truth out of people with his humanity, he’s somebody who wears his heart on his sleeve, and he’s not possessed by demons,” he told the outlet. “When I said that to my dad, he asked me what the project was, with some excitement. I said it was this thing called the Alberg series.”
“He befriended [producer] Nick Orchard and Ian Weir, the writer, and they tried to get it produced,” he continued. “Unfortunately, it never happened.”
Weir also told Deadline that Donald had fallen in love with the book series after reading his original script for the film. Over the course of 30 years, the Hunger Games alum campaigned to play George, the prime suspect in series’ first book, The Suspect.
Though Donald never got to play George on screen, the series producer Jeff Wachtel revealed that the late actor helped develop the character. Before his health declined, Donald was slated to appear as George.
“Now, Donald got older, and even though [George] was a guest role, it’s a significant guest role,” Wachtel explained. “His health was failing, and so he had to withdraw from the project, but we loved it anyway.”
Eventually the role went to James Cromwell, but Donald was slated to make a cameo as a man who gets murdered in the series premiere.
Despite their plans, Donald was unable to “make the trip” due to his declining condition. Sadly, on June 20, PEOPLE confirmed that Donald died at age 88 after a long illness.
Now, Murder in a Small Town will be dedicated to the Hollywood legend for his lengthy contributions with bringing the story to the screen.
“People were asking what they could do to honor dad and, since dad had such an intimate relationship with the birth of this project, I proposed that they dedicate it to him,” Rossif said. “He was so happy to know that I was going to be playing this man. And I’m sorry that he’s gone, because he would have loved to have seen it.”
Murder in a Small Town premieres Tuesday, Sept. 24 on Fox.
