We know that after you listened to Empire on Blood: The Director's Cut, you immediately thought: Why isn't this a TV show?  Remember, Malcolm Gladwell said the podcast was “The Wire” meets Shakespeare. Well, a prestigious production company thought the same thing, optioned the podcast and hired a writer to pen a pilot. In this episode we talk to the writer and his partner about the joys and heartbreak of turning a podcast into a TV pilot.
Empire on Blood is a production of Orbit Media in association with Signal Co. No1 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christine Harron, a book-loving teenager from Hanover, Ontario, leaves for school in the spring of 1993 and is never seen again. A suspect emerges, confessing to her murder, but the case falls apart and Christine's family are left without answers.

In Season 9 of the award winning podcast Someone Knows Something, David Ridgen, along with Christine's mother, reopen the investigation and come face to face with the man who said he killed Chrissy.

Someone Knows Something is the investigative true crime series by award-winning documentarian David Ridgen. Each season tackles an unsolved case, uncovering details and bringing closure to families.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For Avenger, which takes place in Argentina, we recorded all interviews in Spanish, translated them into English and had them voiced by actors. Miriam, the "disappeared" who becomes a journalist and tracks down the pilots of the death flights, is voiced by Alexis Bledel, the Emmy-winning actor known for her role in Gilmore Girls and Handmaid's Tale. Her father is Argentine. Alexis is directed by Oscar-winner Fisher Stevens. Fisher has directed Al Pacino and Justin Timberlake, among others. In this bonus episode, we learn how a skilled director gets a great performance out of a talented actor. If you've ever wanted to see how a great performance comes together, this is a master class. An intimate peek into the process of acting and directing. 

To ask Miriam Lewis and Fisher Stevens questions about Avenger, send an email to:
[email protected]

Avenger is a production of Orbit Media in association with Sonoro Media and Signal Co. No1.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After thirty years of government impunity, the amnesty laws that helped bury Argentina’s horrific past are overturned. The trials against the junta commanders are reopened, and slowly, one after another, they are brought to justice. The trial against the pilots begins with Miriam and Enrique Piñeyro as key witnesses. It is the moment Miriam had been waiting for. The culmination of the investigation to avenge the deaths of her friends. And to answer the question that has plagued her: Why did I survive? Maybe to bring justice to the fallen.

To ask Miriam Lewis and Fisher Stevens questions about Avenger, send an email to:
[email protected]

Avenger is a production of Orbit Media in association with Sonoro Media and Signal Co. No1.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s 1979, Miriam is free, but living in exile in New York City where she is surveilled by the junta. She’s among the few to survive imprisonment. In the years that follow, unidentified bodies start to wash up on the shores of Argentina. The bodies are swollen and bloated, but the perpetrators are unknown. Years later, democracy returns to Argentina, but still no one is held to account for the crimes against the disappeared. In 1985, the new president promises a historic trial against the junta commanders. Miriam bravely returns to Argentina to testify, but the judicial process drags on. Eventually, the forensic team examining the flight logs Miriam and Giancarlo found, link them to the bloated bodies that washed ashore during the dictatorship. The pilots of the death flights could finally face justice. 

To ask Miriam Lewis and Fisher Stevens questions about Avenger, send an email to:
[email protected]

Avenger is a production of Orbit Media in association with Sonoro Media and Signal Co. No1.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The lack of media attention on the TV story is disheartening, but Miriam has a bigger plan up her sleeve and redirects all her energy to the courts. With the help of Nobel Laureate Adolfo Pérez Equivel, who himself survived a death flight, they file a formal accusation against the pilots at the federal prosecutor’s office. The evidence is mounting, the Argentine Navy hands over thousands of pages from the original flight logs to the prosecutor’s office. The prosecutor assigns a special unit to investigate crimes against humanity, and it includes an elite forensic team that links Miriam and Giancarlo’s investigation to a long unsolved crime.

To ask Miriam Lewis and Fisher Stevens questions about Avenger, send an email to:
[email protected]

Avenger is a production of Orbit Media in association with Sonoro Media and Signal Co. No1.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One day, Miriam sits in her office when she gets a call from the stringer she hired to go look at one of the Skyvan planes which had been sold to a Florida businessman. The owner reveals that he has the flight logs dating back to the dictatorship. Those logs are a break. They could lead to the pilots of the death flights. With Enrique Pineyro’s help, who now joins the investigation, they decode the log’s cryptic notes. Flights that should have only taken 45 minutes were logged in at four hours. With the green light from the TV station, Miriam and her crew put the final touches on her report. She’s ready to expose everyone and maybe, finally see some justice. What follows comes as a complete surprise.

To ask Miriam Lewis and Fisher Stevens questions about Avenger, send an email to:
[email protected]

Avenger is a production of Orbit Media in association with Sonoro Media and Signal Co. No1.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Miriam and Giancarlo team up to search for the planes. She shows up at his tiny apartment every day after work at a TV station. They share pasta, cigarettes and scour the Internet for clues. One day, they stumble upon an obscure group of hobbyists who lead them to more details about the planes. Confident that they’re onto something, they try to enlist the help of a well-known Argentine pilot, actor, producer and controversial figure in Argentina. Their meeting doesn’t go well. Meanwhile, they locate one of the planes used for the death flights. When Miriam makes a discovery about the plane, she faces a decision that could make or break this investigation.

To ask Miriam Lewis and Fisher Stevens questions about Avenger, send an email to:
[email protected]

Avenger is a production of Orbit Media in association with Sonoro Media and Signal Co. No1.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

 It’s 1978. The World Cup, the most popular sporting event in the world, is hosted for the first time in Argentina. The Argentines are losing their minds with excitement. From a small cell in the middle of the city, Miriam can hear the cheers from the stadium a mile away. Her captors recruit her to work on the junta’s media propaganda machine; she must celebrate the very regime that imprisons her. Survival is a tricky business. She may have to compromise to avoid the death flights that will kill most of her fellow prisoners.

To ask Miriam Lewis and Fisher Stevens questions about Avenger, send an email to:
[email protected]

Avenger is a production of Orbit Media in association with Sonoro Media and Signal Co. No1.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An Italian photographer with a specialty in the horror humans do named Giancarlo Ceraudo shows up in Argentina to learn about the death flights during Argentina’s military dictatorship. He’s obsessed. Who are the pilots who flew these homicidal missions? He knows the planes will hold clues. To find them, he needs Miriam’s help. If she accepts, she will have to confront  painful memories of her own torture and kidnapping. But she may also have the chance to bring the pilots of the death flights to justice.

To ask Miriam Lewis and Fisher Stevens questions about Avenger, send an email to:
[email protected]

Avenger is a production of Orbit Media in association with Sonoro Media and Signal Co. No1.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.