Now streaming: 'The Flight Attendant' by Vermont author gets star turn with Kaley Cuoco

Vermont author Chris Bohjalian’s best-selling book “The Flight Attendant” has undergone some major changes for its limited-series premiere this week on HBO Max.

The story of his troubled flight attendant, Cassie Bowden, kicks off with a murder not in Dubai, where it happened in the book, but in Bangkok. (Bohjalian said the United Arab Emirates balked at having a series about a woman who drinks heavily and sleeps around filmed there.)

Rather than leave Cassie to try through internal dialogue to solve the riddle of that murder — one she may or may not have committed — the series creators have her engaging in conversation with Alex, the dead man, as Cassie’s life unravels. Writers and producers brought more levity to the series than is in the book, taking advantage of the inherent humor of its star and executive producer, Kaley Cuoco of “The Big Bang Theory.”

Steve Yockey, executive producer and writer for “The Flight Attendant,” told the Burlington Free Press he enjoyed Bohjalian’s novel, but that to be a series, the story needed “an injection of dark humor” and “for lack of a better word, spectacle,” in the form of exaggerated storytelling exploring in a visual medium what’s in Cassie’s mind.

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Though parts of his novel have been altered significantly for the adaptation that starts streaming on Thanksgiving on HBO Max, Bohjalian doesn’t mind one bit. The changes, he said, do nothing to affect who Cassie Bowden is.

“’The Flight Attendant’ novel is a thriller, but to me it was always more about a character study. It’s all about Cassie Bowden,” Bohjalian, who lives in Addison County, told the Free Press. “The TV series in ways that are just so beautiful gives you a sense of how you grow into a hot mess like Cassie Bowden and asks the question, ‘Can you find redemption? Can you get out of this mess alive?’”

Kaley Cuoco secures rights to novel

Bohjalian has had his novels turned into TV movies before. Richard Dean Anderson of “MacGyver” fame starred in the 1995 Hallmark movie “Past the Bleachers.” Sissy Spacek and Peter Coyote appeared on Lifetime in 2001 in “Midwives,” perhaps Bohjalian’s best-known novel. Lifetime also aired “Secrets of Eden” in 2012 starring John Stamos.

None, however, has received attention quite like “The Flight Attendant.” That has a lot to do with the project being the first high-profile work for Cuoco since the end of the long run of “The Big Bang Theory,” the hugely popular sitcom she appeared on for a dozen years.

According to an August article from USA Today, Cuoco — who had just started a new production company called Yes, Norman — found a mention of Bohjalian’s book online.

"I read one little snippet, a line (about) the book on Amazon. It just was one sentence and I got this weird chill," Cuoco said in the USA Today article. "I called my team and said, 'Hey, I'd love to look at the rights to this book.' And their first question was, 'OK, so you read the book? You loved the book? And I was like, 'Oh, yeah. I totally read the book.' I had not read the book, but something said to me, 'Jump on this.'"

‘Supernatural’ writer hired for the project

Yockey, at the time working as a writer on the TV show “Supernatural,” was hired to oversee adapting “The Flight Attendant” to the screen.

“What Chris did so beautifully is create this kind of pressure cooker for Cassie,” Yockey said. But to adapt the story for a series, Yockey wanted to amplify some of the novel’s scenes.

“This event, this traumatizing event of waking up next to Alex’s body, kind of sends her on this ultimate journey that kind of makes her face the truth,” said Yockey, adding that the central theme of “The Flight Attendant” is “What happens when you have to stop lying to yourself?” He wanted to take a thriller and make it darkly comedic, in the vein of directors Alfred Hitchcock or Brian De Palma.

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Yockey realized early that Cuoco was the right person for the job. “You kind of know 10 minutes after talking to her the first time, she has this incredible professional drive and this incredible specificity, but it’s there, this effervescence, this charm, this sense of ease that wants to pull you in,” Yockey said.

Bohjalian had almost no role in adapting the book for the screen. He had phone conversations and text exchanges with Cuoco early in the process and met her at a shoot in New York City last December.

“One of the great things about Kaley that was clear to me early on was how much respect she had for the material and how well she understood Cassie Bowden,” Bohjalian said, “so I knew it was in the best hands imaginable.”

He met Yockey at that December shoot as well. Bohjalian said he was struck by “how brilliantly he had plotted out what he wanted to do to turn this novel into eight hours of really fun, surprising, interesting television.”

‘The Flight Attendant’ on HBO Max

HBO Max made the first four episodes of “The Flight Attendant” available in advance to the press. (Three episodes of the limited series will be shown Nov. 26, with two each Dec. 3 and Dec. 10 and the finale Dec. 17.)

The series quickly becomes intense as Cassie wakes up to find her one-night stand, Alex (played by Michiel Huisman), dead in her bed at a Bangkok hotel. The humor takes hold right away, as when a phone alarm in the room goes off to the sprightly song “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” by Wham!

“The Flight Attendant” unfolds with about as much lightness of tone as possible in a production with such a heavy theme. Supporting cast members contribute to that feel, especially Griffin Matthews as a flippant fellow flight attendant and Zosia Mamet as Cassie’s best friend/lawyer, who shows plenty of snark as she tries against the odds to help Cassie out of her predicament. (Mamet adds to the production’s Vermont ties; her father, playwright David Mamet, attended Goddard College in Plainfield and bought a home in Woodbury. Zosia was born in Randolph.)

The series, however, revolves around Cuoco. She brings that approachability to Cassie Bowden that she displayed for so many years as Penny on “The Big Bang Theory,” but surprises with her dramatic side. Cassie is alternately distraught, distressed and devious, if clumsily so. Cuoco displays a Goldie Hawn-like ability to juggle ditzy and deep as she maneuvers a plot that twists from dark to light and dark again.

‘The Red Lotus’ in development for TV

Bohjalian has seen the first three episodes and loves what Cuoco has done with the part of the woman he describes as among his favorite heroines.

“There are moments where she is heartbreaking and moments when she is hilarious. She so brilliantly captures Cassie Bowden’s inner pain,” Bohjalian said. “It is such a beautiful, deep performance.”

Yockey is pleased with Bohjalian’s flexibility with what he and the creative team on the series have done with “The Flight Attendant.”

“Chris has been a really good sport about this because he’s so enthusiastic and excited about it,” Yockey said.

Bohjalian said Yockey and his crew set the right tone for the production. “They walked that tightrope between a story about heartbreak and murder and a human being coming to terms with who the heck she is with just enough comedic asides,” he said. “It’s not brooding; it moves like a 787. That’s what I love about it.”

Though “The Flight Attendant” has its premiere Thursday, Bohjalian already has several other projects in the works. His novel that was published in March, “The Red Lotus,” is in development for a possible TV series a la “The Flight Attendant.” His next novel, “Hour of the Witch,” set in the puritanical 1600s, comes out April 20.

Bohjalian has already written his next book after that, “The Lions of Hollywood,” scheduled for a 2022 release date. That novel is about a star who gets married and leaves with her entourage for a safari in Africa, where things go awry.

Contact Brent Hallenbeck at bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com. Follow Brent on Twitter at www.twitter.com/BrentHallenbeck.