Timothy Hutton, second from right, with his Leverage co-stars, from left: Beth Riesgraf, Gina Bellman, Christian Kane and Aldis Hodge" border="0"> Timothy Hutton, second from right, with his Leverage co-stars, from left: Beth Riesgraf, Gina Bellman, Christian Kane and Aldis Hodge
The "Spanish Lottery" also exists, as do other cons that will show up in TNT's newest original drama, premiering tonight.
The crisp caper series recalls, in the best way, Ocean's Eleven and The A-Team as its characters take on wealthy criminals and high-tech crooks to help ordinary people.
The con-of-the-week format appealed to star Timothy Hutton, who has been living in Paris and will have seven movies coming out in the next two years in addition to his work in Leverage.
"Some of the most interesting material of late is being done on television, real character-driven material," Hutton said during the summer's TV media tour.
Hutton stars as Nate Ford, a former insurance investigator who lost his faith in the system after it failed his family and who is teetering on the brink of alcoholism.
Tonight's lively premiere introduces the team, with Hutton's character mostly working behind the scenes. In future episodes, he'll be called on to portray an oil tycoon, a minister, a Kentucky horse owner and chief of staff to a congressman, among others.
"When you have an actor like him, you want to let him run with that," Rogers said of the Oscar-winner.
Ford is aided by a group that includes a hacker (Aldis Hodge), a grifter (Gina Bellman), a thief (Beth Riesgraf) and a martial-arts expert (Christian Kane).
All, Rogers said, will be proficient in "Thief 101": "They can all pick a pocket; they all know their way around a lock."
Real-life security expert Apollo Robbins (known for once picking the pockets of the Secret Service agents guarding President Carter) taught the actors how to pull off a convincing lift. He also enlightened the series' writers about cons, including the proper names and the fact that a short con has five steps and a long con 10.
"Using the stages and those types of cons helps us build our scripts," Rogers said.
Hutton's character, having hunted each member of his team when he was an insurance investigator, is the only one who knows their individual skills. Viewers can expect characters to develop a knack when it's called for.
Bellman, for instance, a British actress best-known from the series Coupling, shows off an impressive array of convincing accents.
She and her co-stars also have off-screen talents: Bellman is a published travel writer; Hodge, who won the role of tech nerd Alec Hardison on his 21st birthday, is a watch designer; Riesgraf is a professional photographer; Kane has a burgeoning country-music career as well as a lingerie business.
Dean Devlin, another of the series' executive producers, also has a full resume. He co-wrote and produced the movies Godzilla, Independence Day and Stargate and also produced The Librarian series of movies on TNT that star Noah Wyle as a brainy adventurer.
(The third installment, The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice, will run at 8 tonight before the premiere of Leverage.)
Devlin makes his directorial debut with tonight's premiere, filmed on location in Chicago. He sets a breezy, confident tone for the drama that doesn't take itself too seriously.
Said Devlin: "We always say to everybody, 'We're not 3 feet off the ground, but we're not grounded, either.' "
