A True Crime Podcast Comes to the Small Screen
MGM+ has released the first official trailer for American Hostage, its upcoming eight-episode psychological thriller series — and if the footage is anything to go by, Jon Hamm is about to have an extremely bad week at work.
Set in the 1970s, the series is based on the acclaimed first season of the scripted podcast of the same name and tells the true story of Fred Heckman, a beloved Indianapolis radio reporter who is thrust into a life-or-death crisis when a desperate man takes him hostage and demands to be interviewed on air. Hamm plays Heckman, with Giovanni Ribisi stepping into the role of unstable hostage-taker Tony Kiritsis — a man who, crucially, happens to be a big fan of Fred's show.
It's a premise that raises an uncomfortable question: what do you do when your biggest listener has a gun to your head and just wants you to hear his side of the story?
From Film to Series — With a Different Focus
The story may ring a bell for true crime devotees. Director Gus Van Sant previously explored the same events in Dead Man's Wire, where the Kiritsis role was played by Bill Skarsgård and Colman Domingo took on Fred Heckman. This new series version, however, appears to shift the lens considerably — placing Heckman's experience much more squarely at the centre of the drama.
It's a smart move. The hostage-taker's psychology has been well-trodden territory in crime storytelling; the perspective of the man on the other end of the wire — a journalist, a public figure, someone whose entire job is to be calm and credible on air — offers something fresher and arguably more unsettling.
American Hostage is a psychological thriller set in the 1970s that tells the harrowing true story of Fred Heckman, a beloved Indianapolis radio reporter thrust into the middle of a life-or-death crisis.
A Strong Supporting Cast
Hamm and Ribisi are backed by a notable ensemble. Emmy Award nominees William Jackson Harper and Mireille Enos join the cast alongside Kristoffer Polaha as Dick Hall, Jonathan Tucker as FBI Special Agent Cormac McNally, and Kat Cunning as Ibby Hall. Enos plays Barbara Heckman, presumably keeping the home fires burning while her husband negotiates for his life on live radio.
The 1970s setting gives the whole thing a suitably grimy, analogue tension — no mobile phones, no social media, just a microphone, a madman, and a city listening in. For fans of prestige television with a true crime backbone, this one looks well worth marking in the diary.
Based on the acclaimed first season of the scripted podcast of the same name, the series debuts Sunday, 20th September with a two-episode premiere on MGM+.
American Hostage launches on Sunday, 20th September on MGM+, with two episodes dropping on premiere night.
