PASADENA, Calif. — On television, angels have generally been portrayed as kind, benevolent characters who want nothing but to help people.
The TV movie "Fallen" is all about angels, but not your typical TV angels. Paul Wesley ("Everwood") stars as a troubled 18-year-old who discovers he's an earthbound angel — and, furthermore, that he's caught in the middle of a literal battle between good and evil angels.
"I don't know if we've ever seen this interpretation of them before," said Thomas Sniegoski, who wrote the series of books on which "Fallen" is based. "I mean, it's a much scarier interpretation of angels. But at the same time, you look at the biblical stuff, and it's — what did God send when he was ticked off?
"We're talking about wrath-of-God stuff here. I think we're used to Michael Landon (in 'Highway to Heaven') and 'Touched By an Angel' and things like that or cherubs or things. They're much nicer interpretations. But (angels) were very scary characters."
"Fallen," which premieres Sunday, July 23, at 9 p.m. on ABC Family, may look like something out of an action movie, but Sniegoski said it all comes out of the scriptures.
"Actually, most of it is biblical stuff," he said. "I did all kinds of research. I've always had tons of reference books and things. I'd always wanted to do something with angels at some point in my career and accumulated a ton of stuff about the Old Testament writings and even older stuff than that and found some really wild stuff that I used to build the mythology of the four books."
Sniegoski said "Fallen" came from his own religious upbringing.
"I was raised a very strict Catholic (at) a Polish church in the neighborhood," he said. "And it had the most amazing statues of angels that were absolutely terrifying. There was one in particular of Saint Michael . . . and he was perched on top of what I learned later on was Satan. He was, like, standing on Satan's head with this enormous sword and this wingspread."
ABC Family has ordered two additional "Fallen" movies, and there's also the possibility of it turning into a regular series. A series that no one would confuse with other TV series about angels.
"My mother (says), 'Why can't you write something nice? What's wrong with you, with the crazy angels?' " Sniegoski said. "It's like, 'No, but, Ma, it's here. It's in the book.' And I would show her the research.
"She didn't want to see it. She wanted 'Touched By an Angel.' She didn't want angels with swords and wings killing people. 'No, no, that's not right. Where's Michael Landon?' "
You're not going to find him in "Fallen."
TWO OF THE STARS of "Fallen" feel like they may have had their own experiences with angels. Just not angels wielding swords.
Rick Worthy, who stars as the angel Camael, said that when he was 10 or 11 growing up in Detroit, he witnessed a robbery/murder at a neighborhood store his father owned.
"I watched the whole thing happen," Worthy said. "The robbers actually saw me. They could easily identify me. They could easily have shot me. And one of the guys who worked for our store, he was murdered right in front of me.
"This particular day, I just felt that everything was going to be OK. I didn't feel that I was going to die, whereas they could have easily killed me. I felt protected. I don't know if you want to call that an angelic presence or just felt a sense of calm and peace. I don't know how to explain it."
Paul Wesley's experience came on the night of his senior prom when he was asleep riding in a car driven by his date — and he wasn't wearing a seat belt.
"I woke up for no apparent reason and something told me to just buckle up," he said. "Closed my eyes, fell asleep for five seconds. My date fell asleep at the wheel. We went off the road and flipped over nine times, landed upside down in this canyon."
And he came out of it with nothing more than a few cuts and bruises. As did his date.
"I would have died, 110 percent, if I hadn't buckled up. True story. And it freaked me out for a while. I just thought about it. I had no other explanation. It was too coincidental. It was just like there has to be some sort of — if you want to call it an angel."
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com