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COVER STORY "Rosemary's Baby" airs Sunday and Thursday on NBC. NBC's 'Rosemary's Baby': One hell of a good miniseries 2 – MAY 11 - 17, 2014 – BRAINERD, MN/DISPATCH By Jacqueline Cutler © Zap2it A mist falls over Paris as Zoe Saldana settles into the hair and makeup trailer on a narrow, cob- blestone street. Two women fuss over her for very little reason. Saldana, star of NBC's "Rose- mary's Baby," considers the obvious question: Why?Why remake a movie haunting enough that people remain dis-turbed 45 years later? Saldana so believed in this concept, she also signed on as a producer of the four- hour miniseries that premieres Sunday, May 11, and concludes Thursday, May 15. "The Rosemary of Roman Polanski's film was a woman of a different time," Saldana says. "She was very respectful and obedient of her husband. It does not exist in my nature to try to want to do that. "The actors, director and producers tell the only reporter granted an extended visit to the Paris sets that though the miniseries is different from the film, it's true to Ira Levin's 1967 best-seller. "I would forget the other film was ever made," says Jason Isaacs, who plays Roman Casa- vet. "There's a book. There's no reason someone couldn't tell it every year. "In this, Rosemary left her career as a dancer because she was pregnant. She was plunged into despair when the fetus died at four months. Rosemary and husband Guy Woodhouse (Patrick J. Adams), a struggling writer, have the chance to start over. When someone offers a fresh take on life in Paris, it doesn't take long to say yes. "Paris is such a Gothic city and very ancient," Adams says. "That fish out of water takes on a whole new element here." "In the original and the novel, it is about the walls closing in, in the apartment," says David A. Stern, an executive producer. "We needed to put her as a stranger in a strange land. Paris can be so beautiful and welcom- ing, but it can also be Gothic, and those dark alleys, and suck you in. "Rosemary does not speak French, so she is alienated. Guy teaches English literature at the Sorbonne, and they live in a gar- ret for faculty housing. On her first day exploring Paris, Rosemary's purse is snatched. She takes off after the thief, who's hit by a car. Another wallet is recovered, which Rose- mary returns to its owner, Mar- gaux Castevet (Carole Bouquet), Roman's elegant wife. In the first of many coinci- dences, Roman is on the board of the Sorbonne. "She feels the people are very generous, too generous, and my husband thinks I am getting a little paranoid," Saldana says. "As the story keeps going, things happen that are too important for her to ignore. "Rosemary has every reason to be suspicious of this urbane couple. A rough cut of the film shows Roman and Margaux giv- ing Guy and Rosemary a black cat, which soon saves their lives from a mysterious fire.

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