• Interviews

John Turturro on “The Night Of “

There’s no dearth of top-quality series, which have been adapted from previous British versions, House of Cards and Broadchurch just to name a couple. HBO’s The Night Of is the latest “import” to cross the pond to critical acclaim. Based on the 2008 BBC miniseries Criminal Justice, it has been adapted and expanded into a limited series by Richard Price and Golden Globe-winning screenwriter Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List, 2004). Zaillian also directed several of the episodes. The dark and gripping narrative follows the misadventures of Nasir Khan (Riz Ahmed), a good Pakistani-American boy and model student from Queens, who during a one-off night out on Manhattan becomes entangled in a harrowing episode which leaves him in custody and facing charges of murder one. His case is picked up by Jack Stone (John Turturro), an opportunistic, ambulance-chasing, small-time lawyer of unsuspected legal skill. We spoke to the actor-director who told us why in his opinion the legal crime drama harkens to the cinema of Sidney Lumet and the writing of Russian novelists…