Wilderness writer explains how Taylor Swift collaboration came about
Marnie Dickens explained the choice to have the re-recorded version of Look What You Made Me Do as the show's title credits theme.
When the first teaser trailer for Wilderness was released in August, it was also the first opportunity for Taylor Swift fans got to hear her re-recorded version of Look What You Made Me Do, which is also the series' title track.
The use of the song throughout the series, which stars Jenna Coleman and Oliver Jackson-Cohen, was part of a collaboration with Swift, which the show's creator Marnie Dickens explained while speaking exclusively with RadioTimes.com.
Dickens said: "I always write my commercial songs into the script myself because it feels like a really important way to access a character. In this case, it's basically Liv’s playlist that we're listening to through the series. And I had already written Look What You Made Me Do into episode 2, which obviously has now the juicy fun of Ashley singing along to it, which I just love.
"Then Prime Video, who've been so supportive of the whole endeavour, said, 'Look, we will back you guys to get a major female artists to do the title track, think about who you'd like that to be'. And I was like, 'Well, Taylor Swift obviously, let's dream big'."
Dickens continued: "Then we had our amazing music supervisors, Pete [Saville] and Zoë [Ellen Bryant], who did the kind of official pursuit, and then I wrote, essentially, a love letter explaining why it had to be her. Because it's just so rich, that song, and it's so perfect for us - the fun of it, but also the emotion behind it."
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Wilderness follows Liv, a woman who goes on a road trip with her husband Will, designed for the pair to revive their marriage after Will has had an affair. However, little does Will know that Liv's main purpose on the trip is very different to his - she's looking for revenge.
The show is based on the 2019 novel of the same name by BE Jones, but Dickens explained while speaking with RadioTimes.com that fans of the book will find that the story on screen takes a "big detour" from the original plot.
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Dickens explained: "Bev’s been very supportive of us doing what you need to do with an adaptation, which is working out what works and then building out from that.
"The central premise of the 'young British couple going on this road trip to try and patch up their relationship but she's got ulterior motives' is very much there. The big twist, which I obviously won't go into, is from the book, and then the rest is just built out with a lot of elbow grease."
Wilderness launches globally on Prime Video on 15th September 2023. If you have yet to subscribe to Amazon Prime, you can Sign up now for £8.99 a month.
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