Despite casting the same lead actor, those behind 'Gracepoint' - a remake of the acclaimed BBC crime drama 'Broadchurch' - insist the show will have differing plotlines to the original, as well as new characters.

GracepointDavid Tennant, Anna Gunn and the cast of 'Gracepoint'

Scottish actor David Tennant, who played troubled DI Alex Hardy so masterfully in Broadchurch returns for the U.S remake, alongside Breaking Bad's Anna Gunn. However, Fox executive producers Dan Futterman and Anya Epstein say they are keen to veer from the original narrative despite wanting to keep the overall aesthetics of Broadchurch intact.

"We all talked about how to transplant this show into America. The first order of business was, don't screw up what works, because it was fantastic. ... It was great TV," Futterman said at the summer TV press tour. "So we didn't want to break what was working. But we also wanted to raise this show in a different country. We have 10 episodes as opposed to eight, so we start to veer from the ['Broadchurch'] story line."

The first two episodes of Gracepoint remain reasonably faithful to the original - a young boy is found dead at the bottom of the a cliff in a quiet coastal town, leading to the beginnings of a murder investigation that turns the community upside down.

David Tennant Anna Gunn Gracepoint

"...the way that story was told was so well-done, that why would we contort ourselves to figure out a different way to tell the story when that was the smartest, most compelling way to launch this particular story?" said Epstein.

By episode three, Gracepoint begins to make its own way and appears largely detached from its BBC source material. 

"We got a little more real estate, we were able to go down a couple different roads, and the cumulative effect ends us in a different place," said Futterman. 

"I think by the third and fourth episodes, you see very, very great detours.And it also reverts to form as well, because the genetics of the show are powerful. ... But we deviated as much as we wanted to and as much as we could while still trying to tell this beautiful story."

Gracepoint, so-starring Jackie Weaver, Nick Nolte and Michael Pena, begins its 10 episode run on October 2, 2014 on Fox Television.