From the mind behind The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty comes the Apple TV+ series Echo 3. Based on the Israeli drama series and novel When Heroes Fly, the thriller revolves around two Special Forces operatives who race against time to save Amber, Prince's wife and Bambi's sister, from a group of rebels along the Columbia-Venezuela border.
Luke Evans, Michiel Huisman and Jessica Anne Collins lead the ensemble cast of Echo 3 alongside Elizabeth Anweis, James Udom, Maria Del Rosario, Bradley Whitford, and Martina Gusmán. Much like Mark Boal's Oscar-winning work before it, the Apple TV+ series balances complicated and flawed characters with nail-biting action set pieces.
Ahead of the show's arrival, Screen Rant spoke exclusively with creator and executive producer Mark Boal to discuss Echo 3, the inspiration behind the Apple TV+ series, finding the perfect cast for his complex characters, and more.
Mark Boal on Echo 3
Screen Rant: I know that this is inspired by another property. But what about that material really made you want to develop it through your own vision?
Mark Boal: Well, the real inspiration here was wanting to set something in Latin America, and tell a story that takes place on two continents. That's really how it all got started, and then we filmed mostly in Colombia. I don't know how far into the series you got, but once you get past the first episode, it's all basically taking place in Colombia, and we shot down there for a year. That was an incredible experience, but I think it also brings a lot of cinematic chops and value to the show that you might not otherwise get if you're shooting in a backlot behind the studio in LA.
On top of that, I love that the show really explores a sense of toxic masculinity and how they have to humble themselves as the show develops. What that was like for you to find that theme and developing that for these characters in the writing process?
Mark Boal: Well, I think we tried to make characters that were complicated, and also truthful, in the sense that nobody is really a superhero. Nobody has a kind of comic book way of going through life, and when it comes to the men, if you think of somebody like Bambi, who's the main lead played by Luke Evans, that's a guy who, on the one hand, meets a lot of the surface level descriptions of a bada--, for lack of a better word.
He's all jacked, and very powerful in the world that obviously is lethal. But at the same time, he has this emotional interior life, and he's not afraid to shed a tear. I can say the same for all the other characters, they have this kind of, or at least that was the hope, multifaceted quality to them. I think that that's what makes for interesting viewing, right? So that you feel like you're constantly learning about somebody, and you're constantly seeing new sides of them.
What was it like finding the perfect people to bring these multifaceted characters to life? I mean, Luke's shown his range in everything, but what was it like finding the whole roster that you have around him?
Mark Boal: That was a whole treasure hunt of looking at a lot of different cast options, and talking to a lot of different people. That decision of who you cast is hugely important, it's probably the most important decision you can make as a filmmaker, so I took that hunt pretty seriously, and spent a lot of time on it. But then, when you know, you know, and I had a conversation kind of like this with Luke, and the more we talked, the more I realized he was the perfect person.
The same thing happened with the other two, Jessica Collins has so much [talent], she's so gifted as an actor, and so much rage, that kind of became a no-brainer as well, and Michiel is also just an incredibly gifted actor. So, it wasn't easy, it took a long time to do, we didn't cast this in a week or anything. I really was focused on the people who would be not necessarily going for the, although Luke is quite prominent, not necessarily going purely for the household name, but really trying to think in terms of ability and synchronicity with the part.
About Echo 3
“Echo 3” is based on the award-winning series “When Heroes Fly,” created by Omri Givon and inspired by the eponymous novel by Amir Gutfreund. Set in South America, the action-packed thriller follows Amber Chesborough, a brilliant young scientist who is the emotional heart of a small American family. When Amber goes missing along the Colombia-Venezuela border her brother, Bambi, and her husband, Prince — two men with deep military experience and complicated pasts — struggle to find her in a layered personal drama, set against the explosive backdrop of a secret war.
Check out our other Echo 3 interview with stars Luke Evans, Michiel Huisman & Jessica Ann Collins.
Echo 3 begins streaming on Apple TV+ on November 23.