The new Fox miniseries “Wayward Pines” points the way ahead for TV by working from an increasingly popular script: produce limited-run series with big-name stars.

The 10-part “event series,” scheduled to air May 14, is the first TV project for both series star Matt Dillon and director M. Night Shyamalan. They are among a growing number of A-listers increasingly drawn to the longer, episodic tales missing from big-budget feature films but without the long-term contracts traditionally found in TV.

“Wayward Pines” follows a template that met with great success in HBO’s “True Detective,” an eight-episode series co-starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson that aired last year. The next season of that series, featuring Vince Vaughn, Colin Farrell and Rachel McAdams, is set for broadcast this summer.

The big-name, short-series approach makes good business and creative sense for all parties, said Stewart Till, now a director of Century City TV production and distribution company Sonar Entertainment, previously known as Hallmark Entertainment.

“With feature films polarizing towards big-budget, comic book-based blockbusters and very small, independent award-oriented fare, a lot of producers and directors have to turn to television to execute well-written, reasonably budgeted drama,” said Till, past chairman of United International Pictures. “A hit television drama with substantial fees paid for every episode can generate significant income, and creatively there is also the satisfaction of being involved in a show which is seen by a much bigger audience than even a hit film.”

The star-studded event-series concept makes economic sense for Fox as TV tentpoles like “Wayward Pines” hold huge appeal for big-spending advertisers, said Kyle Acquistapace partner and director of media and data strategy at ad agency Deutsch LA in Playa Vista.

“While advertising has made leaps and bounds in targeting and technology, there is still an undeniable appeal in big TV events and the moments in time that drive a large audience and capture attention,” he said. “Big brands still need to accumulate reach, not just microtarget, so these shows make sense.”

Big audience

Fox is capitalizing on the show by launching it simultaneously on more than 125 channels around the world, which it claims will be a global saturation record for a scripted series. The premiere is expected to get 350 million viewers under the global launch strategy.

Shyamalan, who scored huge box-office hits directing “The Sixth Sense” and “Signs” but has seen diminishing returns for his more recent movies, is relishing the switch to TV.

“It’s an opportunity to tell resonant stories about characters, which is getting more and more difficult in the movie industry,” Shyamalan, who directed the opening episode of “Wayward Pines” and is an executive producer on the series, said in a statement.

The series, based on a trilogy of books by Blake Crouch, sees Dillon starring as an FBI agent who travels to the titular Idaho town searching for two missing colleagues only to find a whole lot of mystery and danger.

Donald DeLine, a former president of Paramount Pictures and Touchstone Pictures who has overseen such hits as “Pretty Woman,” “Father of the Bride” and “Armageddon,” is also taking his first steps into TV with the series, which he is executive producing.

“Originally it was going to be a movie property,” he said. “But with the movie business shrinking and audiences used to a different kind of storytelling, we realized it worked better as a limited series and set it up at Fox. I’d never produced TV before, Night had never directed it, but we saw the opportunity to create something special, like a limited run of a great play. It was designed only to exist for 10 hours.”

Different stories

DeLine said that while he had no expectation of a second season for the series, there are opportunities to tell different stories in the same world.

The limited run also has appeal to cast members, said Reed Diamond, who plays toymaker Howard Ballinger in the series.

“Instead of a show that’s all about keeping the money train rolling for years, everyone knows they are part of a quality limited series with a clear beginning, middle and end,” said Diamond. “Plus, by only making the actors sign for one season, that’s how we’ve got movie stars like Matt Dillon and Carla Gugino, who wouldn’t want to limit their options by signing a more traditional multiyear TV contract.”

Co-star Tim Griffin, recently in hit movies like “American Sniper” and “Star Trek,” added that the improved quality of scripts on the small screen is what draws film actors to TV.

“This is the golden age of television, and in this period you can tell stories you can’t get to tell in even the greatest of films,” he said.

One big adjustment for the film actors was the faster shooting schedule on television. Each hourlong episode, shot in Canada, took two weeks to film, meaning a much faster pace than actors typically experience in film work.