'Got that look in Wilmington': Multiple TV series to premiere, production on record pace

With the record-setting amount of film production that's been going on in the Wilmington area this year, it was only a matter of time before we began to see the fruits of all those labors.

"It's been an amazing spring and summer" for the local film industry, said Bill Vassar, executive vice president of EUE/Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington.

"We've got a big backlog of stuff," said Johnny Griffin of the Wilmington Regional Film Commission. "When more eyeballs see it and talk about where was it shot, they say, 'Wow, they got that look in Wilmington?'"

Things will stay busy in the short to medium term.

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"We're getting bombarded with requests all the time," Vassar said, while Griffin added that "we're still having conversations with projects interested in coming here, asking what the schedule is looking like all the way into next year."

As for finished products that you can see, first up is the Fox TV series "Our Kind of People," which premieres 9 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 21, and features numerous Wilmington-area locations.

Based on Lawrence Otis Graham's book "Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class," it stars Yaya DaCosta ("Chicago Fire," the Wilmington-shot feature "Bolden") as Angela Vaughn, a single mother who tries to get in with the upper-crust Black community in her town as a way of launching a hair care line marketed to Black women. Dark secrets and class conflicts ensue.

"Our Kind of People" also stars stars Morris Chestnut ("Nurse Jackie," "Rosewood") and newcomer Kyle Bary.

Even though the show is set in Massachusetts, it's an intriguing project for Wilmington given the Port City's fraught history when it comes to race.

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The executive producer for "Our Kind of People" is Lee Daniels, known for directing such movies as "Precious" and "The Butler," and for writing and directing the TV series "Empire," among other projects.

Writer and executive producer is Karin Gist, who worked with Daniels on the TV series "Star." Gist has served as a writer and producer for numerous TV series, including "One Tree Hill," which was made in Wilmington.

'Hightown'

After horror feature "Halloween Kills" hits theaters and the Peacock streaming service on Oct. 15, the second season of critically praised TV series "Hightown" debuts 9 p.m. Oct. 17 on the STARZ network.

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"Hightown" shot locally in late 2020 and early this year. Interestingly, like "Our Kind of People," it's set in Massachusetts (where the show's first season shot), but that's where the similarities end.

It stars Monica Raymund as a drug-addicted National Marine Fisheries Service agent, who starts on a personal road to recovery after finding a dead body on the beach in Cape Cod, which shakes her into sobriety as she helps a cop with a murder investigation that leads to the town's darkest corners.

The first season was a New York Times critic's pick -- a review said the show "has some of the idiosyncratic, lived-in appeal of (an Elmore) Leonard story, at least early on" -- and the show got 80% positive reviews on RottenTomatoes.com.

Raymund returns for season two, which promises tons more intrigue as well as some familiar faces, like the actor Luis Guzman (Wilmington-shot films "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island" and "We're the Millers").

In production

In addition to Fox's "Our Kind of People," which is still currently shooting locally, two TV series are in the process of shooting for Netflix.

"Echoes" is a psychological thriller from Brian Yorkey, creator of the popular and controversial Netflix series "13 Reasons Why," a mystery series sparked by a young woman's suicide.

"Echoes" sounds fascinating. It stars Michelle Monaghan ("Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," TV's "True Detective") as identical twins who've been pretending to be each other their whole lives, a ruse that's severely challenged when one of them goes missing.

Also in Wilmington for Netflix is the wonderfully titled “Florida Man," which also sounds promising. It was created by Donald Todd, who was an executive producer on "This Is Us" and on the Wilmington-shot "Sleepy Hollow." It's about a former cop who goes down the rabbit hole when he returns to his home state of Florida to search for his gangster boss' girlfriend, who's gone missing.

Now filming in Wilmington: Amazon TV series based on best-selling YA novels by Jenny Han

Continuing to shoot locally is another TV series, “The Summer I Turned Pretty," this one for Amazon. Given its pedigree as a best-selling young-adult book by Jenny Han, who's known for the "To All the Boys I've Loved Before" books and movies, no doubt it gets some national attention in the coming months.

Last but not least is the indie film “Breakwater" from writer and director James Rowe.

According to a report from film industry publication Variety, it stars veteran actor Dermot Mulroney "as prison inmate Ray Childress, who charges a just-released fellow prisoner with finding his daughter."

Mulroney, best known for the film "My Best Friend's Wedding," has been spending a lot of time in the Wilmington area this year. He also had a prominent role in "Along for the Ride," which shot in and around Carolina Beach earlier this year.

Contact John Staton at 910-343-2343 or John.Staton@StarNewsOnline.com.