Originally posted Monday, July 1, 2019 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
The executive producer of "Orange is the New Black" and "Glow" is creating another Netflix comedy "Slutty Teenager Bounty Hunters" and is planning to shoot it in Atlanta starting later this month, according to Deadline.com.
Jenji Kohan has created a provocatively titled drama involving two fraternal teen twin sisters Sterlin (Maddie Phillips) and Blair (Anglica Bette Fellini) who team up with a veteran bounty hunter (Kadeem Hardison). They chase "bail skipping baddies while still navigating the high stakes of teenage love and sex," the show description said.
Fellini was on Fox’s “The Gifted,” a superhero drama shot in Atlanta and cancelled this past spring after two seasons.
The Deadline story said the producers of the TV series will be making an unspecified donation amount to The Autonomy Fund, a collection of non-profit organizations that support women's right to choose.
While some TV and movie producers have boycotted the state over the newly passed “heartbeat” abortion bill, others have chosen to stay and make donations to different organizations that are fighting the bill. The ACLU filed a lawsuit Friday to try to stop it from being enacted January 1, 2020. That has worked so far in other states.
Georgia’s generous tax credits remain a draw for many studios and the state has about 100 ready-to-use sound stages available. With so many streaming services popping up, demand for scripted content remains at an all-time high even as pressure has been placed on traditional cable and broadcast networks.
Netflix has made a big commitment to Georgia, shooting films, reality shows and TV series in the state. It just wrapped season two of Alyssa Milano's "Insatiable" and the upcoming season three of "Stranger Things" (out July 4) and is in the midst of producing season three of Jason Bateman's "Ozark."
The streaming service also has another new TV series shooting in Georgia starring Jamie Lynn Spears called "Sweet Magnolias" based on the novels.
Netflix also has three films in production in Georgia. Ron Howard's "Hillbilly Elegy" film stars Glenn Close. Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer are creating a superhero film of their own called "Thunder Force" for Netflix. And there's a Dolly Parton holiday film called "Christmas on the Square."
But of all the major studios, Netflix provided the most aggressive statement about the restrictive abortion law, supporting the ACLU and other groups to battle its constitutionality. CEO Ted Sarandos, Netflix's chief content officer, told Variety in late May: "Should it ever come into effect, we'd rethink our entire investment in Georgia."
Currently, Georgia is super busy as a production hub, with 40 active productions, up from 37 two weeks ago, according to the Georgia film office.
This despite the fact a couple of productions ( Amazon's "The Power" and a Kristin Wiig film) have actively pulled out and for the first time in several years, not a single new broadcast network show appears to be shooting here.
Among TV and film productions that have started up in the past two weeks alone include the third season of "Black Lightning" on the CW, an indie film called "Anti-Life," an HBO series about the Atlanta Child Murders (already the focus of an ID miniseries and a podcast the past year), "Disappearance of the Millbrook Twins" on Oxygen, an indie film called "The Time Capsule" and Clint Eastwood's "Richard Jewell Story" film.
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