Emmy® and Golden Globe® Nominee Julia Stiles Stars as a Mother With a Scandalous Secret Life In "Blue," a New WIGS Series

LOS ANGELES, June 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Julia Stiles stars in a new series, "Blue," which is premiering now on the YouTube Channel, WIGS (www.youtube.com/wigs). In the series, Stiles stars as the title character, a single mom trying to protect her son from the consequences of her secret career. "Blue," the second WIGS series, is written and directed by Rodrigo Garcia.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120611/LA22057)

Blue is a single mother who works as an accountant, striving to save enough money to send her bright son, Josh (Uriah Shelton), to a better school. Her salary isn't enough, so to make ends meet she secretly works nights as an escort. But Josh's precocious wits make him evermore suspicious about her evening whereabouts. One night, Blue's client, Cooper (David Harbour), turns out to be a friend from her youth. As her carefully separated worlds begin to collide, Blue must fight to protect her son from the ramifications of her complicated past and tenuous present. "Blue" also stars Sarah Paulson, Kathleen Quinlan, and Jeanne Tripplehorn.

Garcia remarked, "What I love about the Blue character is that, like so many women, she's a magician at surviving despite all the odds against her."

"I wanted Blue to be a specific character; I wanted to be inside this one person," said Stiles about her role as a single mother who is also a part-time escort. "I wanted to take these specific moments that Rodrigo had scripted and Blue's way of handling it as one individual. So in a sense that freed me up."

The first 12 episodes of the series will become available over the next three weeks, with new episodes premiering on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Episodes one and two are currently available worldwide in English and Spanish on youtube.com/wigs, youtube.com/wigsespanol and watchwigs.com.

"Blue" is the third piece of original, scripted content on WIGS. The first series "Jan," written and directed by Jon Avnet, starring Caitlin Gerard, Virginia Madsen, and Stephen Moyer, and the first short film "Serena," written and directed by Rodrigo Garcia, starring Jennifer Garner and Alfred Molina, both premiered in May. The complete first season of "Jan" (15 episodes) and the one-off "Serena" are both available to watch now.  

Over the coming weeks and months, WIGS will be releasing content produced with a renowned group of writers and filmmakers, all starring female leads. Upcoming programming showcases actors including: Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Beals, Maura Tierney, Michael C. Hall, America Ferrera, Jason Isaacs, Allison Janney, Jane Kaczmarek, Jena Malone, Rosanna Arquette, Walton Goggins, Jimmy Wolk, Gary Cole, Tim DeKay, Jason O'Mara, and Catherine O'Hara.

News Corp. Digital Media Group (NDM), a division of News Corporation, is the marketing partner for WIGS.

ABOUT RODRIGO GARCIA

Rodrigo Garcia's first film as writer and director, "Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her," opened "Un Certain Regard" at the Cannes Film Festival 2000 and won the award for best film in that category.

Mr. Garcia's other credits as writer/director include: "Ten Tiny Love Stories," "Nine Lives" (Winner Best Film Locarno Film Festival 2005), and "Mother and Child" (Annette Bening, Naomi Watts, Samuel Jackson).

Mr. Garcia's credits also include the pilots for HBO series "Carnivale" and "Big Love." Additionally, he shot the pilot for, and was the executive producer and showrunner of, the first season of "In Treatment."

Most recently, he directed "Albert Nobbs" (Glenn Close, Mia Wasikowska, Janet McTeer, Brendan Gleeson), which was nominated for three Academy Awards.

ABOUT JON AVNET

Jon Avnet has directed, written, and produced almost seventy films, television movies, and Broadway plays over the last 30 years, winning most of the major awards: Oscar's, Emmy's, Tony's, Peabody's, and the Humanitas. In 2010, Mr. Avnet executive produced "Black Swan," starring Natalie Portman (Academy Award Winner) and directed by Darren Aronofsky.

Mr. Avnet co-wrote, directed, and/or produced: "Fried Green Tomatoes" (Jessica Tandy, Kathy Bates, Mary-Louise Parker), "Up Close and Personal" (Robert Redford, Michelle Pfeiffer), and most recently, "Righteous Kill" (Robert De Niro and Al Pacino). He produced Paul Brickman's "Risky Business" as well.

For television, Mr. Avnet executive produced "The Burning Bed" (Farrah Fawcett); co-wrote with Paul Brickman, directed, and executive produced "Uprising"; directed and executive produced "Boomtown" (with Graham Yost), and "The Starter Wife" six-hour mini-series. Currently, Mr. Avnet directs "Justified" with Timothy Olyphant, adapted by Graham Yost from Elmore Leonard's, "Fire in the Hole."

On Broadway, he has produced "History Boys," "Spamalot," "Pillowman," "The Seafarer," and "Inherit the Wind," winning 12 Tony Awards.

ABOUT WIGS

WIGS is a new digital channel, launched in May 2012 by Jon Avnet, Rodrigo Garcia, and Jake Avnet, featuring world-class talent in original series, short films, documentaries and other content exploring female characters. Dozens of scripted episodes will be premiering in the coming months. The channel can be found at www.youtube.com/wigs, www.youtube.com/wigsespanol, and www.watchwigs.com.

ABOUT YOUTUBE

Founded in February 2005, YouTube allows billions of people to discover, watch and share originally-created videos. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform, and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers large and small.

PRESS CONTACT
Gillian Smith
(323) 822-4800
[email protected]

SOURCE WIGS