http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050605/1052684.asp

TV cover
TNT miniseries takes viewers 'Into the West'

By JAY BOBBIN
Zap2it
6/5/2005

Keri Russell, pictured with Jay Tavare, stars as a young woman who must
face the numerous challenges of a different era in the Steven
Spielberg-produced six-part miniseries "Into the West," beginning Friday on
TNT.

The project reteams Russell with Skeet Ulrich, who portrayed her husband in
the Hallmark Hall of Fame drama "The Magic of Ordinary Days."
Keri Russell (left)
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New six-part TNT miniseries takes viewers "Into the West'
By Jay Bobbin, Zap2it

The American West usually is too big a subject for an entertainment project
to cover completely.

In the case of a new miniseries executive-produced by Steven Spielberg, it
takes six two-hour films by separate directors to span the region's history
from 1825 to 1890. TNT's miniseries "Into the West" begins a weekly run at
8 p.m. Friday, mirroring pivotal 19th-century events - from the Gold Rush
and the establishment of the Transcontinental Railroad to the massacre at
Wounded Knee - through the experiences of two families, one from Virginia
and the other from the Lakota tribe.

The clans are linked by the marriage of Jacob Wheeler (Matthew Settle) to
Thunder Heart Woman (Tonantzin Carmelo). Many subsequent challenges put
their respective families and nations to environmental and human tests.
Directors including Simon Wincer ("Lonesome Dove") and Timothy Van Patten
("The Sopranos") filmed the scripts, three of which were written by
playwright William Mastrosimone ("Bang Bang You're Dead").

Other prominent members of the huge "Into the West" cast include Keri
Russell, Skeet Ulrich, Beau Bridges, Gary Busey, Josh Brolin, Graham
Greene, Irene Bedard, Tom Berenger, Keith Carradine, Rachael Leigh Cook,
Jessica Capshaw, Balthazar Getty, Wes Studi, Lance Henriksen, Judge
Reinhold, Craig Sheffer ("One Tree Hill") and Tyler Christopher ("General
Hospital").

Russell is a star of the second episode, which details the travails of a
wagon train headed west. Her character is kidnapped by Cheyenne warriors
and wed to one of them, and Russell says she "did a lot of reading" to
prepare for the role.

"The coolest things were these women's journals written along the trail,
really well-documented, very personal stories," she says. "The sheer
physicality of what they went through seemed so impossible to me. It was
hard just shooting out there. Wind, snow, rain . . . we had everything."

A big bonus "Into the West" gave Russell was a crash course in horse
riding. "It's by far the most fun thing I've ever done," she says. "I went
(to Calgary, Canada) about two weeks prior to shooting, and I just rode all
day. Being in that part of that country is, to me, heaven. It's a beautiful
area, still kind of undeveloped. That's one of the best things about making
a Western; you're not shooting on a soundstage, you're really out there."

"Into the West" not only returned Russell to the location of her recent
Hallmark Hall of Fame film, "The Magic of Ordinary Days," but also to
Ulrich, her co-star in that project as well. In the first three "West"
stories, he plays Jacob's brother, Jethro.

"I was less intrigued by the genre and more intrigued by the history,"
Ulrich says, "and the telling of a tale that hasn't been told, to my
knowledge, which is the American Holocaust. I was fascinated, and lucky, to
be a part of it."

Ulrich also is curious to see the final installments of "Into the West,"
being familiar only with the trio he's in. "It really does hit a lot of
points," he says of the miniseries. "You bump into a lot of characters, and
some relate to the American work ethic to some extent. The heart of these
people was unbelievable, to accomplish all they did, just in the migration
west alone."

On the Cover: Skeet Ulrich, from left, Keri Russell and Matthew Settle star
in "Into the West."