Sugar on Apple TV + tells the story of a detective named John Sugar who specializes in finding people who have been kidnapped or are missing. In this season, the series’ focal point is his finding a woman called Olivia Siegel, the granddaughter of a legendary Hollywood producer, Jonathan Siegel. The character of John Sugar has been portrayed by the brilliant actor Colin Farrel who delves deep into the character of a private investigator. A large part of this series is John Sugar discovering an inner battle and fighting it while looking for Olivia in the series timeline. As the audiences rave about Colin’s performance and tick their minds to the beats of this series, they also wonder whether the character of Jonathan Siegel is based on a real-life person. Well, we did some digging and this is what we found.
Is Jonathan Siegel a Real Person?
No, Jonathan Siegel is not a real Hollywood producer and the character is a figment of imagination. The name does ring a bell though. Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a famous novel authored by Richard Bach. The character Jonathan Livingston Seagull is full of self-determination and feels limitless. The name of Jonathan Siegel certainly sounds similar to that of the character from Richard Bach’s book. Why would the writers keep the name similar though?
While writing a crime thriller or a mystery screenplay, the writers play a cat-and-mouse game with the viewer, they often name certain characters in a certain way to make the viewer deliberately go off-track and be distracted from the plot of the series. At times, writers also offer easter eggs in their characters’ names. Which one do you think this is?
There is a filmmaker by the name of Jonathan Segal who has a different spelling to that of this character. Jonathan Segal has directed films like The Last Run, Ripple, and Norman. He is relatively young so we are pretty sure the character has nothing to do with this person. Checkout the trailer of Sugar here.
Is Sugar on Apple TV+ a True Story?
No, Sugar is not a true story. It is a fictional story of a private investigator John Sugar who investigates the disappearance of Olivia Siegel, granddaughter of Hollywood producer Jonathan Siegel. Hollywood has had its share of disappearances though. Actor Jessica Alba was found blindfolded and gagged at the age of 14 when she was shooting Flipper. Benedict Cumberbatch also talked about an incident where he was abducted at gunpoint when he was in South Africa in 2004. Nothing in life is original, or so they say, so the makers might have found their inspiration from such incidents.
Also Read: Filming Locations of Sugar