NEW YORK, March 2 (UPI) -- Will & Grace alum Eric McCormack says he wanted to star in the contemporary drama, Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue, because it was a fresh spin on the beloved Agatha Christie-style murder mysteries of the mid-20th century.
Premiering Sunday on MGM+, the six-episode series was created by best-selling British author Anthony Horowitz and follows the survivors of a small plane crash in a Mexican jungle, who subsequently turn up dead one by one after the opening crisis.
McCormack's character is Kevin, an American doctor suspiciously reluctant to help the plane's dying pilot.
Playing his fellow passengers -- who may or may not be who they say they are -- are Lydia Wilson, David Ajala, Peter Gadiot, Siobhan McSweeney, Olafur Olafsson, Adam Long and Jan Le.
"The initial phone call from the agents said, 'It shoots in the Canary Islands,'" McCormack, 61, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.
"I went, 'I'm in!'" he said, noting this isn't the type of job he is usually offered.
"I've done one [project] before -- that was a murder mystery -- but not one that had its roots in that sort of Agatha Christie, old-school storytelling [where the killer] could be anyone. That's fun and it involves all of us making clear choices to lead or mislead the audience."
Career-wise, Mexican Morgue came soon after McCormack played an Englishman in the Broadway comedy, The Cottage.
"I had just done a character on Broadway that turned out I was, basically, doing [an impression of] Anthony Horowitz and I didn't know until I met with him for dinner," McCormack recalled.
"I walked into the restaurant and [Horowitz] stood up and the first thing he said to me was: 'That is exactly how I always imagined Kevin Anderson would walk. How did you do that?' And, I said, 'That's how I walk,' and he said, 'Well, we've truly cast this perfectly!'" McCormack laughed.
Ripper Street and The Swarm actress Lydia Wilson plays Sonja, a natural leader who immediately assesses how much food and water the survivors have and will need while they await rescue.
According to Wilson, Mexican Morgue was an easy "yes" because she was dying to work with McCormack in a project penned by Horowitz.
"Eric was already attached when I got the offer, so, that was hugely exciting to me," she said.
"Every time I'm on the tube, there is someone reading an Anthony Horowitz [novel]," the Londoner added. "There was a woman just yesterday opposite me, reading her Anthony Horowitz and I looked and she had like five pages left and I was like, 'She is living right now!'"
She said she also enjoyed how Kevin and Sonja "get off on this strange foot" when they meet for the first time on the plane.
"Kevin's nervous on the flight and Sonja is characteristically unreassuring towards him," Wilson added.
"She's doing a little scan of, I think, gender politics a little bit, so she's determined not to be kind of reassuring or nurturing in that moment. And then it's so interesting the way that kind of has to get broken down because, suddenly, they're thrown in this situation, and I think, particularly with Kevin, she kind of ends up with a real affection and respect as she thaws."
Kevin doesn't volunteer to take charge or offer any advice after the plane hits the ground and the dust settles.
"There's reasons that he isn't as open as he should be or as trusting and I think, really, that Sonja is the first character he starts to trust and put faith into," McCormack said. "He's like, 'She's going to keep us alive probably sooner than anybody else.'"
Another fascinating aspect of the series is how it explores the moment people decide if they are a group or operating under an "every man for himself" mentality, the actor said.
"You'd think that someone like Kevin, with Kevin's background, would be the first to sort of say, 'I'll help, but he doesn't and I just loved the mystery of that," he added.
"Whereas Sonja, as much as she plays her cards so close [to her vest], she's really the first to start thinking like a group."
