The true story:
"A Bolt from the Blue" by Jennifer Woodlief is a true account of one of many daring rescue missions by the Jenny Lake Rangers at 13,000 feet. The JLR are the most elite and experienced climbing search-and-rescue team in the world. A group of climbers have been struck by lightning just short of the summit. Now with night closing in, and the Rangers coming from below, a trail that took the climbers all day to navigate the rangers must complete in only an hour. Simultaneously they attempt the a rescue from the air via a treacherous helicopter ride - the pilot navigating a fierce lightning storm, with rangers suspended from a 100-foot rope, executing precise maneuvers in the face of relentless adversity.
This is the inspiration for the stories we want to tell, while also including the human drama and conflict that inevitably comes from the high stakes lives lived by the people who have chosen this profession.
The Show
The rangers are real-life rescue heroes, men and women whose office supplies are stashes of ropes, ice axes, and helmets. The show is a contemporary, scripted, muscular series inspired by the world’s most elite search and rescue team, the Jenny Lake Rangers and the incredible, life saving operations they conduct in the most extreme circumstances.
Season 1 and subsequent seasons will feature fast moving ‘melodrama on the move’ as the rangers’ personal lives intersect with their rescue missions. The stakes of putting their own lives at risk elevated by drama off the mountain. Each season the story can bounce around from the rescue at hand to the rangers home life and the drama off the mountain— The problems and wins at home around the rescues that they are forced to leave to save lives, and the wives, husbands and children they are leaving… possibly never to return.
A NOTE ON TONE:
These men and women live in an adrenalized world on and off the mountain. Their rescues often mean life or death. They excel at their craft and hold a deep respect for their responsibilities to one another. When they’re off duty or in trainings, the adrenaline is just as real, but more fun. They often engage in banter and rib each other, adding a layer of gallows humor to the intense situations they find themselves in. This series requires the perfect blend of dark humor, high stakes adventure and human drama that this tight-knit community contains.
Think the daring action and rescues found in EVEREST and TWISTER, combined with the character-driven drama, and gallows humor of JUSTIFIED and THE HURT LOCKER.
About the author:
Jennifer Woodlief is a former reporter for Sports Illustrated. Her book, A Wall of White is currently being adapted by Pete Berg and Martin Scorsese and her first book Ski to Die: The Bill Johnson Story is optioned by Warner Brothers with Matthew McConaughey attached to star. A graduate of Stanford University and UCLA School of Law, her past jobs included prosecuting first-degree murder cases as a district attorney and working as a case officer with top secret clearance for the CIA.