St. Charles Parish – and Des Allemands, specifically – will soon see its star shine on the small screen.
The parish was a hotbed for filming activity prior to 2020, but things appear to be ramping up again. Des Allemands played host to filming for the pilot episode of the new television series Blood Relative on Tuesday, with the old Des Allemands bridge and the Des Allemands boat launch closed for part of the day to accommodate the show’s cast and crew.
While the targeted air date has not yet been announced, the pilot will air on FOX when it is ready to roll. The show’s cast is headlined by Tate Donovan, Melissa Leo, Dawnn Lewis and Jude Elizabeth Mayer. Chris Levinson and Lisa Chasin are show producers, with Levinson also serving as writer along with James Renner. Paramount Television Studios and Anonymous Content are co-producing the show with FOX Entertainment. Phillip Noyce will direct.
The crime drama’s plot is based on Renner’s “Beyond the Jungle of Bad: the True Story of Two Women from California Who Are Solving All the Mysteries,” a feature story detailing the work of Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick and Dr. Margaret Press, genealogy experts who teamed up to leverage forensic science to help track down serial killers and to identify their victims.
The central theme of the series will be genetic genealogy, a cutting edge crime forensics tool that Leo’s character, Louise Kelly, specializes in. Kelly’s people skills may be lacking, though, adding a layer of conflict to her interactions with her fellow investigators. Lewis plays Lt. Hannah Dixon, Donovan will portray detective John Kelly, and Mayer will serve the role of Kelly’s teen daughter Ashley.
A number of characters in the show were recast after initial plans were altered by COVID-19. Donovan and Leo, however, have been on board from the start, when the project was announced early last year.
It’s the latest film fare to choose St. Charles Parish as a backdrop for its story. Last year, the Amazon Studios movie production Troop Zero shot part of its film in Luling. In 2018, scenes for the show NCIS: New Orleans were shot in Hahnville and Ama. Norco set the scene for part of the tale in the TNT series Tell Me Your Secrets and Luling played host to Oprah Winfrey’s series Queen Sugar, both in 2018. Those were a few of several productions that took place in the area over recent years.
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