Still shot from WGN’s America’s ‘Manhattan.’ Trailer PrintScreen/LADP

Still shot from WGN’s America’s ‘Manhattan.’ Trailer PrintScreen/LADP

Staff Report

New Mexico media was invited Saturday to be among the first to see the New Mexico set and meet the cast of WGN’s America’s “Manhattan” – an original drama series scheduled to premiere Sunday, July 27. 

Created and written by Sam Shaw (“Masters of Sex”) and directed by Emmy Award-winning director Thomas Schlamme (“The West Wing”), “Manhattan” enters the world of deception, danger and sacrifices that characterized one of the best-kept secrets of all time: the mission to build the world’s first atomic bomb. 

Fueled by mystery and suspense, “Manhattan” is set in the 1940s in a town whose very existence is classified. Frank Winter and his team of brilliant but flawed scientists have been recruited to work on a project even they could know nothing about until their arrival. Once inside “The Hill,” a middle-class bubble on a dusty foothill in the New Mexico desert, they begin to sense that this is no ordinary assignment.

In fact, they are living in a town with the world’s highest concentration of geniuses, yet it can’t be found on any map—a place where men and women are torn between duty and their moral values, husbands and wives conceal the truth from each other and their families, the military keeps secrets from the scientists they chaperone, and the scientists keep secrets from each other. “Manhattan” depicts the wonder, danger and deceit that shadowed the first “nuclear” families.

“Manhattan” stars John Benjamin Hickey (“The Big C,” “The Good Wife”) as Frank Winter; Olivia Williams (“Rushmore,” “The Ghost Writer”) as Liza Winter; Daniel Stern (“Home Alone,” “Home Alone 2”) as Glen Babbit; Ashley Zukerman (“Rush”) as Charlie Isaacs; Rachel Brosnahan (“House of Cards”) as Abby Isaacs; Katja Herbers (“De Storm”) as Helen Prins; Alexia Fast (“Jack Reacher”) as Callie Winter; Christopher Denham (“Argo,” “Shutter Island”) as Jim Meeks; Harry Lloyd (“Game of Thrones”) as Paul Crosley; Michael Chernus (“The Big C,” “Orange Is The New Black”) as Louis “Fritz” Fedowitz; and Eddie Shin (“Men of a Certain Age”) as Sid Liao.

Glen Babbit (Stern) mentors the younger scientists and helps them navigate the political minefield of Los Alamos. Charlie Isaacs (Zukerman), a wunderkind, becomes as expert in deception as he is in equations and his wife, Abby Isaacs (Brosnahan), emerges as an unlikely leader among the other wives. Frank’s wife, Liza (Williams) is a scientist in her own right—a botanist who has put her own career on hold to move to the desert with her husband and their rebellious 16-year-old daughter Callie (Fast), and in the process begins to uncover unsettling changes in their environment.

Ambitious British scientist Paul Crosley (Lloyd) takes advantage of every opportunity for upward mobility, even at the expense of the man who recruited him for the Manhattan Project. Helen Prins (Herbers) is one of the few female scientists assigned to the project and remains a complete mystery to her male colleagues, including Jim Meeks (Denham), Louis “Fritz” Fedowitz (Chernus) and Sid Liao (Shin).

“Manhattan” is executive produced by Sam Shaw, Thomas Schlamme, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Marcy Ross and Dustin Thomason. The series is produced by Lionsgate Television, Skydance Television and Tribune Studios.

From left, Olivia Williams as Liza Winter, John Benjamin Hickey as Frank Winter, Daniel Stern as Glen Babbit, Ashley Zukerman as Charlie Isaacs and Rachel Brosnahan as Abby Isaacs in WGN America’s ‘Manhattan.’ Courtesy photo

From left, Harry Lloyd as Paul Crosley, Eddie Shin as Sid Liao, Christopher Denham as Jim Meeks, Katja Herbers as Helen Prins, Daniel Stern as Glen Babbit and Michael Chernus as Louis ‘Fritz’ Fedowitz in WGN America’s ‘Manhattan.’ Courtesy photo

From left, Olivia Williams as Liza Winter, John Benjamin Hickey as Frank Winter and Alexia Fast as Callie Winter in WGN America’s ‘Manhattan.’ Courtesy photo

From left, Rachel Brosnahan as Abby Isaacs and Ashley Zukerman as Charlie Isaacs in WGN America’s ‘Manhattan.’ Courtesy photo

Still shot from WGN’s America’s ‘Manhattan.’ Trailer PrintScreen/LADP