In a major boost for local television production, Prison Break, 20th Century and Hulu’s reboot of the 2000s crime drama, will shoot in Los Angeles, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Production is due to begin in June and will partially shoot on stages at Radford Studio Center, the historic facility in LA’s Studio City neighborhood. Filming will start as Netflix nears a deal to buy the production campus, which has been the home for such series as Gilligan’s Island and Seinfeld.
Prison Break shot its pilot in West Virginia last year but thanks to the California tax credit, showrunner Elgin James, who previously co-created Mayans AC, was able to base the production in the state. It’s not outside norms for a pilot to shoot in one location then shift to another for the remainder of a season.
The title will nab $18.9 million to shoot in California. It’s projected to spend $53.2 million across 63 shooting days, employing 175 cast members and 225 crew members.
The project was initially waitlisted for the state’s film and TV tax credit program but was tapped to receive subsidies to shoot seven of its eight episodes in California in December, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The California Film Commission announced that Prison Break was awarded tax credits alongside several other untitled productions from 20th Television, which will collectively get roughly $189 million for spending more than $520 million in the state. Other titles from the studio that will shoot in California: the latest season of High Potential and Family Guy spinoff Stewie, which got a two-season order and takes advantage of recent changes to the tax credit program expanding the eligible categories of productions to include animation.
The original series, which starred Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell, told of a brother who joins his wrongly-convicted brother in prison for the express purpose of breaking him out. It premiered in 2005 on Fox and ran for four seasons. A nine-episode revival ran in 2017.
The reboot is said to be set in the same world as the prior show, but will follow a new cast of characters. Emily Browning, Drake Rodger, Lukas Gage, Clayton Cardenas, JR Bourne, Georgie Flores and Myles Bullock will be on the call sheet when cameras roll.
After filming levels in L.A. hit a new nadir last year, production in the region appears to be trending upwards. L.A. saw a roughly 10 percent increase in shoot days to start the year compared to the three month period from October to December, though TV — long an anchor of production in the region — recorded a 28 percent decrease, according to the latest report from permitting office FilmLA.
Other Fox shows filming in L.A. include Baywatch and Universal Basic Guys as well as animated titles like The Simpsons, Family Guy, Krapopolis and American Dad.
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