Late last year, Andrea Riseborough signed on to star in the supernatural thriller GEECHEE, which was meant to start filming in March. Due to the global pandemic, GEECHEE wasn't able to go into production until last month – cameras started rolling in the Dominican Republic on August 19th. Unfortunately, production has now been suspended after a crew member was injured in an encounter with local authorities.
Deadline explains,
A serious incident took place this week on the set of AGC Studios’ pic Geechee in the Dominican Republic when police opened fire on a convoy of cars containing crew. One unidentified international crew member was shot several times, but only suffered minor injuries and has now left hospital and been flown home. No one else was seriously injured.
Our sources tell us that the incident took place on Wednesday evening (September 2). In what appears to have been a case of mistaken identity, undercover local drug enforcement agents pursued and then opened fire on a group of cars containing film crew who were on a location recce.
The initial incident took place in the vicinity of Lantica Pinewood Dominican Republic Studios, where the production is housed. The pursuit continued to the studios where a number of crew were prepping for the day’s filming; they were then held at gunpoint until the situation was diffused and the crews’ status as innocent bystanders was established.
Production company AGC Studios and completion guarantor Film Finances are now investigating the incident to figure out exactly what happened so they can decide whether to continue filming in the Dominican Republic or move the production to a different location. Deadline notes that the majority of the crew members have left the country and returned home.
Lantica Media, which operates the Pinewood location, provided the following statement:
Lantica Media has requested a thorough investigation from the national authorities. The authorities have been cooperative and are working to ensure that a similar incident does not happen again in the future. For Lantica Media, the top priority is to guarantee the safety and well-being of its productions, this being the first time that an event of this nature has occurred in any of the 50 plus productions serviced by Lantica since its inception."
Whenever (and wherever) the production is able to resume, GEECHEE has four weeks of filming left to get through.
The feature debut of writer/director Dubois Ashong, GEECHEE stars Riseborough as Wren,
a successful New York scientist who decides to leave the city with her son to start life over in the remote Sea Islands off the Atlantic coast. She quickly falls in love with the secluded island and its people, who are descendants of a centuries-old group of African slaves, but her world starts to unravel as the souls of the subjugated begin to haunt her dreams and her waking life.
Amin Joseph, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Antoinette Crowe-Legacy, Gavin Warren, Victoria Hill, Starletta DuPois, and Judith Scott are also in the cast.
AGC Studios are financing the film, in association with Ingenious Media. AGC's Linda McDonough and Glendon Palmer are producing with Jamie Foxx and Datari Turner Productions. AGC's Stuart Ford and Miguel Palos, Andrea Scarso and Jamie Jessop of Ingenious Media, and Ricardo del Rio serve as executive producers.