‘Lost’ Duo Josh Holloway, JJ Abrams are reuniting on ‘Duster’

When the “Lost” star Josh Holloway walks into the room of the impressive Hotel Majestic in Cannes, his face has risen in a big grin. This is because he has seen Latoya Morgan (‘The Walking Dead’, ‘Shameless’), one of the creative spirits behind his new Max show ‘Duster’. The other creative behind the series is of course JJ Abrams, who marks a long -awaited reunion between the two colleague “lost” veterans.

‘Duster’ is a world premiere at Canneseries and is a refund of classical crime shows from the 70s. In the southwest in 1972 it follows the first black female agent of the FBI (“This is US’s” Rachel Hilson) while trying to stop a powerful crime syndicate (led by experienced actor Keith David) with the help of a charming escape driver (Holloway).

The show is coming for a long time, originally a straight-to-series green light given at HBO in 2020 as part of Abrams Deal in Warnermedia. A pilot was shot in 2021 and then re -delivered in 2023, with the series going into production later that year and then stopped because of the WGA strikes.

Creeks with Variety Prior to the premiere, Holloway says that he is “super enthusiastic” that the series is finally off. “It was quite a journey, life does you sometimes. JJ called me, then Covid happened. We were finally able to shoot it, and then there were a few regime changes within HBO, a few strikes, different pilots … [JJ] Was: ‘Do you know what? We are still going to do this. ” ‘

“Our perseverance comes through in the show,” he adds. “Usually with regime changes, they clean the slate a lot. I was proud every time we survived, because it meant they knew they had something good.”

Asked for reunification with Abrams two decades after they first collaborated for ‘Lost’, Holloway shouts: ‘Are you a joke!? He called me and asked if I had a minute, and the answer is ‘yes,’ always ‘yes’. Whatever he asks. “

“It was just so exciting to talk to him,” he adds. “Then he told me about Latoya, and suddenly I look” in the Badlands “and I go:” This girl knows what’s going on. ‘She brings this coolness to the table and a different perspective than JJ. Their combination is fantastic.

Morgan remembers the first meeting with Abrams after the praised producer read one of her scripts and said he came to the table with a simple image that would be the opening scene of “Duster”: a phone rises in the middle of the desert, a muscle car pulls out and Josh Holloway comes out to answer the call.

“That was intriguing because I loved Josh since I first saw him in ‘Lost’, says Morgan.” We brainstormed an hour and a half before JJ said we should work together. I always compare it to Jazz, where he would play a note, I would play a note and we just had the same taste. “

“Duster” feels as if it goes against the grain of recent television trends in how it doubles on his sincere tribute to the crime thriller from the 1970s, with Zingy One-Liners in abundance, reving rides and cowboy boot-bearing bad guys. Morgan comments on getting such a show Greenlit and says that it is a “will of how much original television is needed and also how much throwback shows are now coming back in style.”

“Everything is cyclical,” she continues. “You have something like ‘The Pitt’ that throws back to ‘er’ and our show is very much a return to the big ones like ‘Starsky and Hutch’. I think it is a good example of how everything is in a cycle.”

“If I watch TV nowadays, and often these are written brilliantly and incredibly interesting shows, I usually stay behind with an emotional hangover,” Holloway adds. “They are so heavy and dark. What I like about our show is that it catches the nostalgia of the 70s. It’s groovy. Bad things happen, but you don’t feel so bad about it.”

The actor says that one of his favorite things about “Duster” is how “every character brings in a kind of pleasure and lightness”, his young Co-star prices. “Rachel’s character feels all this prejudice to her coming and just keeps going. I think it’s great that she pulls me one way, and I pull her the other. We are both lines and take risks. Their relationship is a double confidence. It was so great to work with her.”

Another great thing for Holloway was the chance to do his own stunts as an outing Jim Jim. When he agreed to take on the role, the actor immediately registered for Stuntschool and became a certified stunt driver. “Troy Brown, our stunt coordinator, had much more faith in me than me. He took me to the track, let me practice and then do these stunts. It is such an incredible feeling to do it because the car is a character in itself. He is an escape driver, if he can’t drive, that’s not cool.”

Is the duo hopeful with such a positive experience with making the first season of the show for a second twist on board the titular ride? “Absolutely,” says Morgan. “We have some plans and have spoken about them with the studio and the network, so hopefully people will coordinate and watch the series, so we can do something more. We want a second season.”

“And I want to return to the stunt school and sharpen a couple of stunts,” Holloway picks up amusing.