‘The Terminal List’: Antoine Fuqua & Showrunner David DiGilio Talk About Working With Chris Pratt & ‘Emancipation’ With Will Smith [Bingeworthy Podcast]

In today’s episode of Bingeworthy, our TV and streaming podcast, co-host Mike DeAngelo sets his sights on Prime Video’s “The Terminal List,” which stars Chris Pratt, Constance Wu, Taylor Kitsch, Jai Courtney, and more. The series follows a Navy Seal officer who is sucked into investigating why his entire platoon was ambushed during a covert mission overseas. The entire eight-episode series drops on Prime Video on July 1.

The show is a dark, psychological rumination on the treatment of U.S. military veterans through the lens of an action-revenge thriller. Also, on today’s Bingeworthy episode, director Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day,” “The Equalizer”) and “The Terminal List” showrunner David DiGilio sat down with co-host Mike DeAngelo to discuss how they came to the show.

READ MORE: Antoine Fuqua Says ‘Emancipation’ Starring Will Smith Is The “Best” Film He’s Ever Made

“A friend who’s a Navy SEAL – his name is Matt – he told me about the book before it came out.” Fuqua shared. “I started to obviously go down the road of trying to secure the rights and, you know, some other guy was going after it, and he was a big star. And I was like, ‘Who the hell is that? Who could that be?’ And my phone rang, and it was Chris [Pratt]. And he’s like, ‘Hey! The Terminal List – I hear you’re trying to get it. I was going to come to you after I got it, so let me get it, and then we’ll do it together.”

Pratt, being a man of his word, secured the rights and went straight to Fuqua to adapt the book into the series it then became, which showrunner David DiGilio describes as “tradecraft meets paranoia” and, even more intriguingly, “Antoine Fuqua meets Alfred Hitchcock.”

READ MORE: ‘The Terminal List’ Review: Chris Pratt Stars In A Lethally Dull Thriller From Prime Video

Director, Antoine Fuqua is also prepping to start the third entry in his “Equalizer” series with Denzel Washington. Never one to return to sequels before, Fuqua shared a few details on a start date and why he comes back for more, in this case.

“I start filming in September – as long as the world is still here,” Fuqua said. “For me, [I come back for] Denzel. I love working with Denzel. I’m honored. I’m blessed to work with him. Again, I love working with the same actors – I’ve worked with Chris [Pratt] before, I’ve worked with Jake Gyllenhaal, Ethan Hawke. When you get blessed to work with great actors, again and again, you know, it’s one of the best compliments any filmmaker can get.”

The filmmaker also has “Emancipation,” starring Will Smith in the can and awaiting release; however, the film has been shelved due to Smith’s Oscar slap controversy, which didn’t stop the director from hyping the unreleased movie.

“Don’t have a release date for it yet, but, as a feature film goes, it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. As a director, I mean, you hope to grow…I see some growth in my soul…it is epic,” teased Fuqua.

“The Terminal List” is streaming in its entirety on Prime Video as of July 1. You can listen to the entire podcast below:

Bingeworthy is part of The Playlist Podcast Network, which includes The Playlist Podcast, Be Reel, Deep Focus, The Fourth Wall, The Discourse & more. We can be heard on iTunes, AnchorFM, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, and most places where podcasts are found. You can stream the podcast via the Spotify embed within the article or click on the lead image at the top page. Follow us on iTunes, and you’ll get this podcast as well as our other shows regularly. Be sure to subscribe and drop us a comment or a rating, as we greatly appreciate it. Thank you for listening.