‘Outsiders’ TV series prepares to film here
Western Pennsylvania’s first locally filmed primetime TV series of 2015, the fourth season of Cinemax’s “Banshee,” began production earlier this month with much of the filming taking place in and around Vandergrift.
The second series, the first season of the new WGN America cable drama “Outsiders,” begins production May 5 using locations in Monroeville, Millvale and soundstages at 31st Street Studios in the Strip District.
Bloomfield native Ed Lammi, executive vice president of production for “Outsiders” producer Sony Pictures Television, previously brought the pilot of FX’s “Justified” to Western Pennsylvania. While the rest of “Justified” was shot in Los Angeles, that series was set in Kentucky, as is “Outsiders,” which tells the story of an Appalachian family that lives on a mountaintop homestead.
“Having been born and raised there — and knowing the creative setting of this show is rural Kentucky and knowing Pittsburgh and its crews and the tax credits, that’s all part of the formula — I knew it would be a very good place to base it,” Mr. Lammi said in a phone interview Tuesday. “And there are portions of the region that are mountainous, plus we had a very good experience with the ‘Justified’ pilot as well.”
Mr. Lammi said some “other areas in the Southeast” United States also were considered for “Outsiders,” but production executives settled on Pittsburgh early in the show’s gestation once it received a green light from WGN America last year.
“Outsiders” is created and written by playwright Peter Mattei, who executive produces the drama alongside Peter Tolan (“Rescue Me”) and actor Paul Giamatti (“John Adams”). Swissvale native William Schmidt, co-executive producer on HBO’s “Carnivale,” is a co-executive producer on “Outsiders.”
Thomas M. Wright (“The Bridge”), David Morse (“Treme”), Joe Anderson (“Hannibal”), Gillian Alexy (“The Americans”), Ryan Hurst (“Sons of Anarchy”), Christina Jackson (“Boardwalk Empire”) and Kyle Gallner (“Veronica Mars”) have been cast in “Outsiders.” The series is expected to debut in early 2016.
A clearing in Monroeville’s Henry Kaufmann Family Park, owned by the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, will be used for scenes involving the family’s mountaintop compound. (Mr. Lammi said production will work around summer camps held at the park.)
“It looked like it was up in the hills of Kentucky and it has ravines, and clearings and we’re building some sets there as we speak,” he said.
Buildings constructed at the park will be facades; interiors of those buildings will be built on two stages at 31st Street Studios, which also is home to the show’s production office. Producers will be able to zip across the Allegheny River to their third primary location, Millvale, which will play the town at the base of the mountain where the family compound is located.
Mr. Lammi, an English major and 1970 graduate of Penn State, couldn’t offer a firm number of locally hired crew members, but he said the goal is to find as many crew members as possible locally. Casting directors have held auditions for extras to work on the show, and Mr. Lammi said producers hope to cast some speaking guest roles using local actors.
Most scripted cable dramas have a budget that’s around $2.5-$4 million per episode and “Outsiders” is expected to be in that range for its 13-episode first season.
Mr. Lammi said the series will devote about 7½ days to each episode but will structure the schedule to film two episodes over 15 days. The exception to that plan is for the first two episodes — essentially the pilot, which typically has a higher budget, plus one additional episode because “Outsiders” was ordered straight to series — which will be shot over 21 days under the direction of Adam Bernstein, who directed the pilot for last year’s acclaimed FX drama “Fargo.”