Landmark’s Drama Series ‘Safehaven’ Sets Louisiana Shoot With Safety Protocols; Brad Turner To Direct

Nellie Andreeva
·3 min read

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EXCLUSIVE: Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment’s Landmark Studio Group has partnered with Louisiana-based production studio ORWO (Twilight, The Magnificent Seven) to greenlight Safehaven, a 10-episode hourlong supernatural thriller series based on James Seale’s graphic novel, from Seale (30 Below, Throttle) and Michael Bay’s 451 Media Group. Brad Turner (24, Homeland) is attached to direct and executive produce.

Casting is underway on the series, which is targeting a late August/early September production start date and is believed to be one of the first projects heading into production in Louisiana since the coronavirus pandemic halted filming in mid-March.

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The production will be filming on virtual sets, implementing a slew of safety measures. They include temperature checks and using full body scans, weekly COVID testing for everyone and more frequent testing, three times a week, for those who jobs require close contact, like hair and makeup. There also will be campus-style accommodations for cast and crew on-site after they have been tested in advance, as well as a pod system with departments operating autonomous.

Created by Seale, Safehaven tells the story of high school comic artist Jenna Frost, who must uncover the truth after horrifying visions come to life from her creations, threatening to destroy everything around her.

Seale and Turner executive produce with Jessica Petelle (Wayward Pines, Bitten), Kevin V. Duncan (Juncture), Tom Vitale (Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown), Orwo Productions’ Terry Bird and Jake Seal, Landmark’s David Ozer and Tim Rouhana and Bay’s 451 Media Group.

“Safehaven takes the high school drama into new territory wrapping it in a 70’s style conspiracy thriller of suspense, paranoia, dark humor and otherworldly horror. It’s Euphoria meets H.P. Lovecraft and has all of the elements to deliver an empowering, edge-of-your-seat experience, with James’ dynamic script and Brad’s proven talent leading the charge, along with a top-notch production team,” said Landmark’s Ozer. “ORWO Studios, with its large studio lot and accommodation, is the perfect place to shoot in these challenging times – where we can isolate the cast and crew in a secure, quarantined environment.”

Landmark will market the series, which will be distributed by Screen Media.

“There are so many interesting facets to shooting in Louisiana and no better location for a supernatural thriller. Like everyone else, we are ready to get back into production and to collaborate with Landmark and the stellar production team to bring Safehaven to life this fall,” said ORWO Studio’s Seal. “Excitingly this production is going to embrace the best of old world production techniques, including analoge film stocks, from the ORWO/Agfa collection and also cutting edge Virtual Set technologies to create the exciting parallel world in the Safehaven story. We also intend to utilize holograms from Groove Media And Entertainment in both the production and the promotion of Safehaven.”

Turner’s directing credits include 24, Designated Survivor, Homeland and most recently MacGyver. He also served as co-executive producer on Hawaii Five-O and executive producer on V-Wars.

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